A Plastic Vial Filling Machine is an automated or semi-automated piece of equipment primarily used in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, cosmetic, and chemical industries to precisely fill, stopper, and seal plastic vials with liquids, semi-solids, powders, or suspensions. These machines ensure high accuracy, sterility, and efficiency, making them essential for producing injectable drugs, vaccines, oncology preparations, and other sensitive formulations. Unlike glass vial fillers, plastic vial machines are designed to handle the flexibility and chemical resistance of plastic containers, reducing breakage risks and interactions between the product and container while supporting ready-to-use (RTU) formats.
Vial Filling Machine Video
Key Features and Components
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Filling Mechanism: Employs peristaltic, piston, or time-pressure pumps for volumetric dosing, adjustable for vial sizes from 2 ml to 500 ml. It supports diverse viscosities and minimizes waste through sensors that detect under- or over-fills.
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Stoppering and Closing: Automatically inserts rubber stoppers or plugs, followed by capping with plastic press-fit closures, aluminum seals, or crimps. This occurs in a sterile Grade A environment with laminar airflow to prevent contamination.
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Modular Design: Often compact and configurable for cleanrooms or isolators, with quick changeovers for different vial formats without manual adjustments.
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Sterilization Integration: Includes pre-washing with Water for Injection (WFI), depyrogenation via dry heat tunnels, and post-filling external cleaning to remove particles.
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Compliance and Safety: cGMP-compliant, with features like no-vial/no-fill sensors, rejection of defective vials, and compatibility with clean-in-place (CIP) systems for hygiene.
How It Works
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Vial Loading and Washing: Sterile plastic vials are fed via conveyor or rotary star wheel into a washing station for rinsing and drying.
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Filling: Vials are positioned under nozzles; precise volumes are dispensed.
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Stoppering: Rubber stoppers are placed and seated automatically.
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Capping/Sealing: Caps are applied and secured, often with vision systems for quality checks.
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Inspection and Ejection: Filled vials are scanned for defects and transferred to downstream lines for labeling or packaging.
Vial Filling Machine handle both sterile (aseptic) and non-sterile applications, with speeds ranging from small-batch (clinical trials) to high-volume production. They are valued for their cost-effectiveness, reduced particle generation compared to glass, and adaptability to formats like nested RTU vials.
Salient Features of Vial Filler
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Suitable for the filling Volume of 2ml to 250ml.
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Piston pump/Peristaltic pump aseptic filling.
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Filling accuracy of ±0.5% to ±1%.
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No cross contamination.
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Easy to validate filling system for small/large batch production.
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All Contact Parts Made from Stainless Steel 316L & framework by Stainless Steel 304.
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Variable A.C. frequency drive for speed adjustment.
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Digital Vial Counter for counting production output.
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In-feed Turn Table/ Unscrambler for automatic feeding of objects.
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On-line Mechanism.
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“No Vial – No Filling” System.
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“No Vial – Machine Stop” System.
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IQ/OQ documentation can be provided.
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PLC system with Graphical User Interface. (Optional)
Process Operation of Vial Filling Machine
The incoming dry vials (sterilized and siliconized) are fed through the unscrambler and suitably guided on the moving Delrin slat conveyor belt at the required speed of the correct placement below filling unit.
The filling unit consists of Filling Head, Syringes & Nozzles; Syringes & Nozzles are made of AISI SS 316L materials. A Star Wheel is provided which holds the vial during filling operation. A sensor is provided for ”No Vial-No Filling” operation. Syringes are mounted on eccentric block and driving through bottom main gear box. Volume can be increase & decrease by increasing or decreasing stroke length of piston as per filling size. Syringes is having non return valve for sucking and delivering situation to avoid volume variation. Liquid reaches to filling nozzles through silicon transparent pipe. Nozzles having up & down movement with help of cam mechanism, and it come down when vial hold by starwheel for filling operation and starts filling when it starts to move up and after completion of filling operation, starwheel delivers two vials together on conveyor for rubber stoppering operation.
Stoppering unit consist of Star wheel, Vibrator unit and Bowl. The sterilized and siliconized rubber stoppers stored in the vibrator bowl moves vertically to the rubber stopper chute. The vial is hold firmly by starwheel, which will be in continuous rotary motion and vial which is coming from filling unit get in to starwheel and move in rotary direction along with starwheel, during movement it picks up the rubber stopper from the exit end of the chute and rubber stopper pressed by fix single pressing roller, which is spring loaded. Then vial further move on conveyor and collected on out feed starwheel for next sealing operation.
Technical Specification of Automatic Vial Filling Machine
| Model | ALVF-40 | ALVF-80 | ALVF-120 | ALVF – 250 |
| Filling Heads | Two | Four | Eight | Twelve |
| Production Rate | Up to 40 Vials/Minute | Up to 80 Vials/Minute | Up to 150 Vials/Minute | Up to 250 Vials/Minute |
| Vial Diameter | 15mm to 70mm | 15mm to 70mm | 15mm to 70mm | 15mm to 70mm |
| Vial Height | 25mm to 140mm | 25mm to 140mm | 25mm to 140mm | 25mm to 140mm |
| Filling Precision | ±1% | ±1% | ±1% | ±1% |
| Power Required | 1 H.P. | 1.5 H.P. | 2 H.P. | 2 H.P. |
| Electrical Characteristics | 440 Volts, 3 Phase, 50 Hertz | 440 Volts, 3 Phase, 50 Hertz | 440 Volts, 3 Phase, 50 Hertz | 440 Volts, 3 Phase, 50 Hertz |
| Overall Dimension | 2050mm (L) x 850mm (W) x 1700mm (H) | 2200mm (L) x 850mm (W) x 1700mm (H) | 3000mm (L) x 945mm (W) x 1700mm (H) | 3500mm (L) x 945mm (W) x 1700mm (H) |
* Power voltage can be adjusted as per customer’s domestic power voltage requirements.
* Rights of technical improvements & modification reserved.
* Illustrations & dimensions are shown for information purpose only.
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