A Vial Liquid Filling Machine is a specialized piece of automated equipment primarily used in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and healthcare industries to precisely fill small glass or plastic vials with liquid substances, such as injectable drugs, vaccines, or sterile solutions. Vial Liquid Filling Machine ensure high accuracy, sterility, and efficiency, minimizing contamination risks and product waste while complying with strict regulatory standards like cGMP, FDA, and ISO guidelines. They are essential for high-volume production, handling viscosities from low to high, and accommodating vial sizes typically ranging from 2 ml to 100 ml.
Vial Liquid Filling Machine Video
Key Components
Vial liquid filling machines are modular and often integrated into complete production lines. Common components include:
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Unscrambler and Conveyor: Orient and transport vials to the filling station via a belt or rotary system.
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Washing and Sterilizing Stations: Clean vials internally and externally using deionized water, air drying, and depyrogenation with hot air or steam to remove endotoxins.
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Filling Heads/Nozzles: Servo-controlled peristaltic, piston, or time-pressure pumps deliver precise volumes without contact to avoid contamination.
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Stoppering and Capping Unit: Inserts rubber stoppers and applies aluminum seals or crimps for secure closure.
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Inspection Systems: Inline sensors for weight checking, leak detection, particle inspection, and container integrity.
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Control Systems: PLC-based with touchscreens for real-time monitoring, recipe storage, and integration with lyophilizers or labeling machines.
How It Works
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Vial Feeding: Empty vials are loaded and aligned on a conveyor.
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Preparation: Vials pass through washing/sterilization under laminar airflow in a Class 100 cleanroom environment.
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Filling: Needles or nozzles dispense the liquid at controlled speeds; nitrogen flushing may be added to displace oxygen and extend shelf life.
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Closing: Stoppers are inserted, and caps are applied, often with 100% in-process verification.
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Output: Filled vials are ejected for further processing at rates from 100–600 vials per minute, depending on the model.
Benefits
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Precision and Compliance: Ensures exact dosing (±0.05–0.5%) and sterility, reducing rejects via features like re-stoppering.
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Efficiency: Boosts throughput while integrating with downstream processes like freeze-drying for extended shelf life.
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Versatility: Handles various liquids (e.g., oncology drugs, vaccines) and formats in cleanrooms.
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Safety: Includes safeguards like no-bottle sensors and HEPA filtration to protect operators and products.
Salient Features of Vial Liquid Filler Machine
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Compact footprint cGMP complied models.
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2ml to 250ml fill dosage compatibility.
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Filling accuracy of ±1% depends upon fluid & vial types.
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“No Vial – No Filling” system feature.
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In-feed Turn Table/ Unscrambler attached with the machine for automatic feeding of vials.
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All Contact Parts Made from AISI SS 316L & framework by AISI SS 304.
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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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Variable A.C. frequency drive for speed adjustment.
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Digital Vial Counter for counting production output.
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On-line Mechanism.
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IQ/OQ validation documents can be offered.
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PLC system with Graphical User Interface. (Optional)
Process Operation of Automatic 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 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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