Thousand-litre aseptic filler
The Alfa Laval Astepo thousand-litre aseptic filler (TAF) is an extremely versatile and robust filling system designed for aseptic filling of a wide range of food and beverage products into appropriate containers under aseptic conditions.
The TAF filler is specially designed to fill 1000 litre (300 gallons) bags in palletizable containers. Using the appropriate optional equipment and accessories, these units can also be used to fill:
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220 litre (55 gallons) bags in drums.
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5–20 litre (1–6 gallons) bags.
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4 bags 220 litre (55 gallons) in drums on pallets.
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240/400 litre (65/105 gallons) bags in carton boxes, double containers or in special designs.
How it works
Prior to filling, there is a fully automatic phase that features the cyclic action of the valves in contact with the product, CIP circuit valves and jets of steam. The time counter is automatically set to zero if any alarm is set off during this procedure, and does not restart until the condition that triggered off the alarm has been reset.
This is followed by a fully automatic phase in which overheated water (from a sterilizer) or steam (optional) is used for sterilization, with the cyclic action of the valves in contact with the product, sterilization circuit, and jets of steam. The time counter is automatically set to zero if any alarm is set off during this procedure, and does not restart until the condition that triggered off the alarm has been reset.
Once the bag neck (for bags with capacities of 5–1000 litre (1–300 gallons) is manually inserted into the filling head, the automatic cycle of opening, filling and closing begins. During this cycle the temperatures of the jets of steam and of the filling valve are carefully monitored and controlled. For 1000 litre (300 gallons) bags, the product begins entering this bag with the filling head in the down position.
This solution guarantees – especially in the case of viscous products – that the bag is filled evenly, which helps prevent any folding of the corners. If an automatic bag feeder (ABF) is used to load 3–20 litre (1–6 gallons) bags, the automatic loading, opening, filling and closing of the full bag and loading of the next bag begin after the “START CYCLE” button is pressed (only with 1-inch filling head).
