Pumpkin Pies Made Perfect: How We Engineered a Smarter Filler
When Apple Valley Foods came to Volumetric Technologies (VT), they thought they needed a multi-piston filler to deposit pumpkin pie filling into crust pans. But as with most things in food production, the real story turned out to be more complex — and that’s where VT’s engineering expertise shines.
More than just thick filling.
Pumpkin pie filling isn’t just thick and viscous. This project was further complicated by the fact that customer needed to know exactly when to deposit filling — only if a tin was actually in place. A traditional carriage-style piston filler would have forced them to fill all lanes at once or not at all, risking waste and mess if any tins were missing.
Filing Pie Tins - and not depositing filling if tin isn’t there!
Tailored for pumpkin.
This system was designed specifically for smoother, lower particulate pumpkin pie fillings, however it still needed flexibility to be able to run either the American or Canadian recipes. (We won’t tell the differences!) The result, both flowed beautifully into each crust, every time.
This is our internal test to show customer how we can fill and yet not fill (when a pie tin is not in place).
A nozzle that sees.
“We realized the best solution wasn’t a piston filler at all. Instead, we designed a custom Positive Displacement (PD) pump system paired with specialized nozzles, each equipped with its own photo eye sensor. This took time but that is what is needed to solve customer problems,” said Bennett Loersch, Volumetric’s lead Mechanical Enginner working with Apple Valley Foods.
That meant every single nozzle could independently detect whether a pie tin was underneath. If there was a tin, it would fill; if not, it wouldn’t. This level of lane-by-lane control virtually eliminated waste and maximized production efficiency.
Interestingly, this wasn’t our first project with Apple Valley Foods. We’d previously designed a piston filler system for their apple pies — where the large apple chunks made a piston approach ideal. But pumpkin pies demanded a whole new way of thinking.
At Volumetric Technologies, an Excelis Packaging Automation Company, we don’t just sell machines — we solve problems. Our team is driven by a commitment to customer-centric engineering, delivering high-quality, food-grade stainless steel systems that work: tough, fast, and accurate. Because when your pie line needs to perform perfectly, it has to be a sweet finish.
More pies on the horizon…
Of course, our collaboration didn’t stop there. Up next? Pecan pies — an even trickier problem that needed an innovative nozzle to protect the delicate pecan layer. Stay tuned for Part Two to see how we cracked that nut.
