Published Paper Details:

Over the past years automation has impacted a wide range of industries beyond manufacturing through the reduction of production time, improved system performance and process control. Recently Zimbabwe has seen a rise of small scale producers of liquid products which include detergents, liquid soaps, fruit juices, milk products and bottled water. Manual filling methods being used are resulting in low production outputs and losses through spillages. The procurement of state of art bottling systems is cost prohibitive as most systems are designed for large scale industries. This paper describes the design of a low cost flexible automated bottle filling machine capable of filling two different volumes. The machine was designed according to the VDI 2206 guidelines for mechatronic systems design. Modelling and simulation was used to determine the most suitable material, transfer system and filling mechanisms for the machine. A conveyor based transfer system was developed coupled to a filling unit which fills four bottles at a time. Developed control algorithms were implemented on an Arduino Due microcontroller platform. System integration resulted in a physical prototype being produced. Tests were carried out on the designed machine validating the functionality of the machine. The designed machine could fill 600 bottles in an hour.