HPC Filling Line
Quickly and reliably fill and package process cheese with HART Design & Manufacturing’s roll-fed, variable speed HPC Filling Line with the capacity of filling multiple volumes. Experience for your company why HART is a global leader in the latest servo-controlled, polished stainless steel process cheese filling equipment.
Improve Your Process Cheese Filling & Packaging
The HART HPC filling and packaging line is designed to make, insert, fill, seal, and discharge process cheese packages with the capacity of filling multiple volumes.
Filler
The filler conveyor function starts with the carton infeed station. The two lanes of cartons are pushed into the conveyor section by means of line pressure on the continuous conveyor. This is controlled by backlog sensors. Gates open upon a signal from the filler. Cartons are released into the filler conveyor section.
Filler Conveyor
The filler conveyor is a single lane, double index conveyor with attached carrier pockets, which indexes the pouched cartons through the various stations of the filler unit. A servo motor drives the filler conveyor.
Insertion Station
In the insert section, forming rams insert the pouches (made by the auto pouch system) into the cartons. To make sure the pouches are inserted properly the forming ram expands with use of air cylinders as they are inserted. The forming rams retract and release the pouches formed in the cartons. The pouched cartons then pass through reject stations. If a pouch is not detected, or is improperly inserted, the carton is ejected.
Flaring Station
Once in position, the pouched cartons are indexed to the pouch flaring stations. The flaring units are vertically reciprocating units with flaring fingers that extend downward toward the pouch interior.
After flaring, the flared, pouched cartons are indexed through to the fill stations. A servo motor will lower the fill nozzle head into the pouch for filling. The dual head filler is servo operated and dispenses product by volume.
Four Basic HPC Filler Components
- The fill piston, which is servo controlled. The servo increases or decreases the amount of fill piston travel, thus changing the product volume as required. The adjustment is done via the HMI.
- A servo operated rotary spool valve located in the hopper base. It permits product flow from the hopper into the piston cylinder on the suction stroke, then upon actuation, allows the product to be pumped down through the nozzle. Photo eyes mounted upstream of the filling stations look for cartons. A no-fill lockout feature will engage by lane if a photo eye fails to see a carton.
- A double acting air cylinder to activate the rotary valve on the nozzle. Once the valve opens the cheese is filled into the pouch.
- An optional product agitator inside the hopper.The standard hopper is single walled and comes with a one-piece cover. The customer can purchase a double wall hopper where warm water can be run between the walls to prevent the cheese from cooling or setting. A two-piece hopper cover can be added for simplicity in setting the level of cheese in the hopper, especially during start-up.
Fin Sealing & Tamping
Once filled, the cartons move to the fin-sealing stations. At the fin sealing stations, spreader fingers rotate downward and pull the ends of the pouches outward. This motion is caused by a lever and control rod system actuated by an air cylinder. Two servo-operated heated seal bars pivot down and induce a heated fin seal on the pouch.
The packages are then indexed to tamp assemblies. The function of these units is to plow down the fin seals and expel trapped air from the headspace of the package. The tamp assemblies are actuated by means of air cylinders.
Ear Sealing
The packages then move to the ear sealing sections. This section flattens the pouch ears and guides them through upper and lower anvils. Once the ears are between the anvils, air cylinders bring the heated upper anvils down to seal the ears.
Discharging Filled Packages
The packages are then indexed to the discharge section. The filled packages are cross transferred and discharged onto conveyors feeding into the lidder.