IN Brief:
- The VF 850 S offers selectable filling capacities of up to 12,000kg per hour and filling pressure of up to 15 bar.
- A revised product path supports doughs, meat alternatives, ham products, cooked sausage, and recipes containing visible inclusions.
- Digital production functions and extended maintenance intervals support closer control of utilisation, servicing, and line performance.
Handtmann has introduced the VF 850 S vacuum filler, extending its filling and portioning range with a system designed for sensitive products as well as demanding output requirements. The machine can process meat, meat alternatives, pet food, bakery doughs, ham products, cooked sausage, and recipes containing visible pieces or inclusions.
Three selectable output levels allow the filler to deliver up to 6,000kg, 9,000kg, or 12,000kg per hour, while filling pressure can reach 15 bar. Manufacturers can therefore specify the system around current production volumes and retain scope for later increases without immediately replacing the core machine.
Product quality has shaped the mechanical design, particularly the route followed by material through the filling system. A revised product path reduces unnecessary stress on recipes whose texture or appearance can be altered by compression, shear, or excessive mechanical handling. Pieces, fibres, and inclusions can remain more clearly defined, while doughs and alternative protein mixtures can retain the structure required for downstream forming or portioning.
Although filling capacity remains a central measure of performance, repeatability across different recipes often determines whether a machine can sustain its advertised output. Changes in temperature, viscosity, particle size, fat content, and air distribution can affect product flow, portion accuracy, and pressure. The VF 850 S has been configured to accommodate those variations while feeding connected forming, clipping, depositing, or handling equipment.
Control functions can be selected through Handtmann Functionality Management, enabling individual machine features to be matched with particular production tasks. Optional connection to Handtmann Digital Solutions adds production planning, production control, and data exchange through WiFi or Ethernet, allowing the filler to contribute information to wider factory management systems.
Those capabilities extend the company’s established UK processing operation, which recently marked 40 years of machinery, application, and service activity. Its UK facilities include a Product Innovation Centre where manufacturers can test recipes and equipment configurations before committing them to live production.
Modern filling rooms frequently handle a growing number of products through the same equipment, which places greater pressure on recipe control, allergen separation, batch traceability, and changeover procedures. Production data taken directly from the machine can reduce manual recording, show whether settings have drifted, and help distinguish product variation from mechanical faults. Accurate records also support investigations when a finished batch moves outside its declared weight or quality specification.
The same flexibility can shorten the route from product development to commercial production. Higher protein recipes, hybrid meat products, plant based formulations, and premium products containing visible ingredients behave differently from uniform meat emulsions. Trials can establish the correct feed, vacuum, pressure, and portioning settings before launch, reducing the risk of solving process problems during a scheduled production run.
Energy and media use have been assessed by TÜV, while longer maintenance intervals are intended to reduce servicing interruptions and component demand. Actual consumption will vary with recipe, pressure, output, connected machinery, and cleaning practice, but a machine operating closer to capacity can reduce the energy used for each kilogram produced. The calculation becomes particularly significant on lines that operate across several shifts.
Maintenance performance also extends beyond the filler itself. An unplanned stop can leave forming, clipping, cooking, cooling, conveying, and packing equipment waiting for product even when each downstream machine remains available. Longer component life and clearer operating data can help engineering teams schedule intervention before wear develops into a line failure.
Handtmann has combined mechanical portioning with production information rather than treating the two as separate functions. Output remains important, although yield, product structure, changeover time, hygiene, maintenance, and data quality now carry comparable weight in machinery selection. The VF 850 S has been developed to manage that wider group of production variables across a broad and increasingly varied product range.
