Antwerp (Belgium)-based De Vree has built, delivered and installed more than 4,000 machines worldwide for the paint and coatings industry and related industrial fields for nearly 70 years.
Founded in 1941, the company designs and manufactures semi-automatic and fully automatic filling equipment for the paint and coatings industry. But while filling of paint and coatings has always been its core business, De Vree also offers equipment to fill a number of “related” industrial fluids such as solvents, thinners, hardeners, adhesives, wood stains, wood preservers etc and even products that are so highly viscous that they can no longer be pumped but must be fed to the filling machine with the help of a discharge press, like, for example, putties.
Every machine is designed and built in Antwerp and export figures amount for over 90 per cent, a company spokesman said.
“There are representatives/agents in over 60 countries. Some of these representatives are machine manufacturers themselves, offering complementary equipment such as product production equipment (including mixers and dissolvers), product feed systems (such as pumps and discharge presses) or end-of-line equipment (including packaging machines and palletisers). Others are not manufacturers themselves but may, for example, be distributors of raw materials,” he said.
“What they have in common however is a thorough knowledge of the local market and its specific requirements, as well as the countries’ culture etc, allowing De Vree to penetrate markets that would otherwise remain closed.”
Over the years De Vree has proven to be a very reliable partner for a number of big international players in the paint and coatings industry such as Akzo-Nobel, ICI, DuPont, BASF, Jotun, Hempel, PPG, Sherwin Williams and RPM. The company is proud to be the preferred supplier to some of these companies.
De Vree uses its gigantic resources of customer feedback to constantly improve and modernise its range of equipment, which comprises both volumetric and weight filling machines.
The company provided some details of the volumetric and gravimetric filling machines it supplies in both semi-automatic and fully-automatic modes.

Semi-automatic volumetric filling machines
For De Vree, semi-automatic means that the machine has no conveyor which moves the can under the filling station. In other words, the operator has to manually place the can under the fill nozzle and the machine will only automatically fill the can with product. Everything else must either be done by hand, such as lid-placing, or requires the operator to push a button or step on a footswitch for lid closing for example.

Fully-automatic volumetric filling machines
Here De Vree distinguishes between machines for “small containers,” meaning cans between 100 ml and 5 l and “big containers,” meaning cans/pails between 500 ml and 20 l. These will be filled in one shot. A fully automatic volumetric filling machine can have the following functions: automatic infeed of the empty cans, a leak detector to check the cans for leaks prior to filling, a can positioner-labeler to apply a small self-adhesive label such as a bar or colour code, one or two automatic filling stations, an automatic lid placer, a lid closer,  a cap sorter/feeder/closer, a top labeler for the lids, an integrated checkweigher and a security device “no lid – stop machine”. 
Whatever the degree of automation, De Vree fillers have the following common characteristics:

Very flexible. Some machines handle over 25   different tainer shapes and sizes, both plastic and  metal, round, oval, rectangular etc. Subject to the  exact type, the machine will perform an automatic  size change; all the parameters for a size change are stored in the machine’s PLC. Changing from   one size to another is just a push of the button away. The machine will do the rest in under two minutes!

Very easy to clean. Every machine has a cleaning cycle for automatic cleaning of the interior parts.

Low maintenance. Because De Vree uses only the highest possible quality parts, maintenance costs are kept to an absolute minimum.

Long life. There are many De Vree machines still working day after day, filling  millions of litres of product, that are 30 years and older!

Semi-automatic weight filling machines
More or less the same principle applies as with the volumetric machines, meaning that semi-automatic here means automatic filling only. A weight filling machine will however use a mechanical scale with counterweights or an electronic scale for dual stage filling, available in both explosion-proof and non-explosion-proof design.
One of De Vree’s latest designs is an extremely compact and versatile semi-automatic weight filler type V232,  which offers automatic filling and automatic lid closing and which requires only approximately 1 sq m of space. The machine can handle both metal and plastic pails, round, oval as well as rectangular ones. The closing station has a flat press plate for press lids which can easily be exchanged for a crimp head to close metal crimp lids.
The electronic scale for weights up to 30 kg or 60 kg is available in both explosion-proof and non explosion-proof design.
The filling heads can easily be exchanged so that the machine may be used for both low viscous and high viscous products.
 
Fully-automatic weight filling machines
With a fully automatic weight filling machine the operator does not have to place the can/pail on the scale by hand. The containers may be fed to the machine automatically, will be filled automatically, receive a lid, be closed automatically etc, all subject to the degree of automation required.
De Vree will be taking part in the Middle East Coatings Show in Cairo from 17-19 March 2009 at Stand 2 and at the European Coatings Show in Nürnberg from 31 March – 2 April 2009 at Hall 6 Stand 450.