Report: Innovative New Filling Machinery at PACK EXPO Las Vegas

Well known for its in-line filling systems, Shemesh Automation showed at PACK EXPO Las Vegas a new rotary filler (1) for high- or low-Image #1 in the article text.viscosity products. The robust Asterra machine is a positive-displacement piston filling machine with a filling tolerance of +/- 2mL and speeds to 300 containers/min (higher throughputs available depending on the number of filling stations). The machine shown at Las Vegas had 16 filling heads and is suitable for a range of products in food, beverage, cosmetics, chemicals, household products, and others.

The Asterra features a proprietary mechanical cam with built-in bottom-up Shemesh nozzles and portioning technology developed across three decades of expertise in manufacturing high-quality and reliable filling and packaging machines. Asterra also offers a programmable portioning speed graph for anti-foaming and drip prevention. Mechanical-cam based, Asterra’s technology is said to deliver higher accuracy as the filling process itself does not depend on auxiliary air pressure, which may be unstable or sometimes liquid-contaminated. Additionally, with this filling method the portioning process is faster and more consistent while producing less waste and spillage. Thanks to its proprietary nozzles and mechanical cam technology, unlike other more common pneumatic based rotary piston fillers, Asterra can also easily fill highly viscous liquids, including sauces with fruit pieces inside, peanut butter, pastes, etc.