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Need Assistance Finding Hot Fill Equipment for QA Testing

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ChristinaK

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Posted 20 February 2018 - 04:34 PM

Hi everyone.

 

I need assistance in finding a hot fill machine/sink to purchase. The sinks we currently use are older than I am, take too long to heat the water, don't always fill at the temperature the machine reads, and are so loud when running that it's maddening.

 

Here are some details:

  • We do several hot fill checks on our plastic packaging throughout the day, from each line running (3 hot fill machines out on floor). Each hot fill test can be about 4-10 bottles, up to a gallon of water each, depending on the product and mold running.
  • Quality also does their own hot fill checks at the hot fill machine in the lab
  • During a hot fill, an operator turns on the machine (temperatures are already set for those lines by Quality personnel), lines up their bottles, and keeps the water flowing as they fill each bottle. After all the bottles are filled, they turn off the sink (but the water tank will still refill and heat by the time of their next check).
  • The bottles are hot filled (with water) at a specific temperature, capped, observed and inspected, then placed into a cooling sink that sprays them constantly. Then they are observed and inspected for quality once more.
  • The purpose of the hot fill is to check how the customer's product (pasteurized juice) would affect our bottles and vice versa.

Ideally, I'd like to find a machine that can quickly have at least 20 gallons of hot water available at a steady temperature that can be set (our current machines take over 30 minutes to come to temperature). Our current hot fill sinks are 4x2x5ft (lxwxh), so something similary-sized would be great. If it had a start and stop button operators could press while filling bottles, that would be great. Most importantly, it wouldn't be so loud when heating water, and wouldn't take such a long time to do so.

 

This isn't for filling and shipping product, it's just for filling product for quality checks and testing. We only ship out empty PET bottles.

 

Please tell me there is a perfect (or close) machine out there! My first (joking) proposal to my poss was electric tea kettles. :tongue:

 

Thank you in advance.

-Christina


-Christina

Spite can be a huge motivator for me to learn almost anything.


FurFarmandFork

    Food Safety Consultant, Production Supervisor

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Posted 27 February 2018 - 01:05 AM

I would just get a small water heater plumbed in right where you need it? Or just get a couple of these and you don't need to do any plumbing:

 

https://www.webstaur...7hoCoqsQAvD_BwE


Austin Bouck
Owner/Consultant at Fur, Farm, and Fork.
Consulting for companies needing effective, lean food safety systems and solutions.

Subscribe to the blog at furfarmandfork.com for food safety research, insights, and analysis.



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