A Six Head Vial Filler is an advanced, automated pharmaceutical packaging machine designed for high-precision filling of sterile glass vials with injectable liquids (such as pharmaceuticals, vaccines, or biotech solutions). It features six simultaneous filling stations to boost production efficiency, typically handling vial sizes from 2 ml to 100 ml with the aid of interchangeable change parts. This machine is commonly integrated into sterile isolator filling lines to maintain aseptic conditions, minimizing contamination risks in cleanroom environments.
Six Head Vial Filler Video
Key Features and Specifications
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Production Capacity: Up to 150 vials per minute, making it suitable for medium- to high-volume manufacturing.
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Filling Mechanism: Equipped with six stainless steel (SS 316L) syringes and nozzles for accurate liquid dispensing. Nozzles feature a cam-driven up-and-down movement: they descend to enter the vial held by a starwheel, fill during ascent, and retract to prevent drips. Filling accuracy is typically ±0.5–1%, achieved via peristaltic, rotary piston, or ceramic pumps.
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Stoppering Integration: Often includes an inline rubber stoppering unit, where filled vials are transferred via conveyor for automated insertion of stoppers. Options for vacuum-assisted insertion or gas flushing reduce oxygen exposure in the vial headspace.
- Safety and Efficiency Systems:
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“No Vial, No Fill” sensor: Prevents liquid wastage by halting operation if a vial is absent.
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Sterile Design: All product-contact parts are autoclavable SS 316L, with laminar airflow compatibility for GMP compliance.
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Rejection Mechanism: Vacuum starwheel rejects under- or over-filled vials without slowing production.
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Flexibility: Supports bottom-up, mid-level, or top-down filling to suit various viscosities. Tool-free changeovers for different vial formats take about 15 minutes. Electrical specs often include 480V, 3-phase power.
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Applications: Primarily used in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries for injectables, eye drops, or oral liquids. Not ideal for non-pharma uses like cosmetics due to its sterile focus.
Operational Workflow
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Vial Feeding: Sterilized, siliconized vials enter via an unscrambler and are aligned on a Delrin slat conveyor.
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Filling Station: Six vials are positioned under the heads; nozzles fill precisely while moving upward.
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Transfer and Stoppering: Filled vials move to the stoppering area for plug insertion.
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Output: Completed vials exit on the conveyor for capping, labeling, or further processing.
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.
* 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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