Eliminate Foaming with Sub-Surface Filling

Oden has twenty years of experience in designing and managing high flow rate sub-surface filling. Our exclusive sub-surface filling method produces high speed fills that are completely free of foam, splash out, splatter or drip.

What is Oden's sub-surface filling method and when is it used?

The method is useful with free flowing and semi-viscous liquids which are inherently foamy or which readily entrain air, or both. Sub-surface filling allows a very fast filling rate (liquid flow rate) into the container while producing accurate fills which are absolutely free of foam over, splash out, splatter or drip.

Oden's method for achieving this consists of using positive shut-off filling nozzles where the shank of the nozzle is sufficiently long to be lowered to near the bottom of the container. When positioned near the bottom, the shut-off plug, located at the very tip of the nozzle, is opened outward. Initial flow of liquid product then occurs radially in a cone-like manner. This allows very high flow rates with substantially reduced velocity induced turbulence. After flow has been initiated by opening the nozzle, the liquid level almost immediately rises up over the tip of the nozzle. Once the nozzle tip is buried, the high flow rate can continue sub-surface without causing any foaming or aeration problems. This sub-surface flow continues until the correct filling dose has been delivered to the container.

At the completion of the sub-surface fill dose, the nozzle tip is closed while still submerged in the liquid product, and the nozzle is rapidly raised out of the container. The outer surface of the tip of the nozzle is conical in shape. As liquid product flows down the outer surface of the nozzle shank or shaft, it is forced to flow to the conical tip of the nozzle. At the point of the nozzle cone tip, a hole connects to a hollow rod shaft running up through the center of the nozzle. This arrangement allows an aspirating vacuum to be applied to the nozzle tip. This vacuum, in turn, removes the flow-down of liquid product as it reaches the nozzle tip. The removal is robust and so effective that not even a single drop of product escapes the vacuum transport. Thus, the nozzle is completely free of drip.

Because Oden's sub-surface filling method allows high flow rate filling inside of the container, and removes any nozzle product run-off before it can drip, the method produces high speed fills which are completely free of foam, splash out, splatter or drip.

The vacuum required for this method of sub-surface filling is uniquely generated by an Oden designed 316 stainless steel vacuum transducer, one mounted at the top of each positive shut-off filling nozzle. The use of an individual vacuum source for each nozzle insures that adequate aspiration capacity is engineered into each filling position, free of the manifold interaction effects of less sophisticated designs.