Pneumatic Soap Bottle Filler
Pneumatic Soap Bottle Filler
Project Status:
100% Complete
Project Start Date:
July 2020
Key Features:
Automated bottle filling solution for pumping soap from 25 gal barrel to precisely fill 12 oz bottle.
Pneumatic pumping and valves
Controlled by two Arduino controllers
Fill level actuation based on laser and photo resistors
Majority of parts 3d printed.
Key Fabrication Methods:
3d printing
Electronics rapid prototyping
Next Steps:
This was an interim solution that helped us scale production of sample bottles to send for beta testing. No more development needed or desired
Things I like about this build:
This was a great weekend build that enabled rapid filling of our bigger scale test batches and sample batches. The value of this solution was that it enabled us to use an inexpensive, manual Food grade barrel pump and helped us avoid spending thousands on an electric food grade barrel pump. This device reduced fill time from 2 min per bottle to <30sec and significantly reduced manual labor associated with filling. Also was a very sensory satisfying process to watch.
Things I don't like:
The light based fill sensor wasn't perfect, it relied on the soap in the bottle to trigger the shut off and unfortunately the extra viscous nature of the soap didn't always trip the sensor consistently, which would result in over flows approximately 1-3% of the time. Additionally the pneumatic piston pump wasn't the most efficient method and required significant volumes of compressed air.
Closing thoughts:
This was extremely helpful in the early days of Color Clean Soap.