Most machine selectors in this category are lead forms wearing a costume: they ask four questions and then tell everyone to get in touch. This one returns the actual numbers — throughput, dimensions, weight, tray and cup geometry, film thickness and electrical load — because we publish them anyway. You can read the answer and never speak to us.
It is built only from figures published on this site. Where we do not publish something, it says so rather than filling the gap, and where your requirement sits outside our published range it says that too, with what to look at instead. A selector that recommends its own manufacturer for every input is not a selector.
What this tool will not do
It will not quote you, and it will not tell you a machine is right for your product. Throughput on a data sheet is measured on one pack, one film and one product, usually the easiest combination the machine runs. Yours will be different. A viscous product with inclusions can halve a filler's rated speed; a deep draw slows a thermoformer's cycle; gas flush costs time that a seal-only figure does not show.
What the tool can do is stop you comparing numbers that are not comparable, which is where most of the wasted time in this process goes. Cup fillers are commonly published in cups per hour and ours in cups per minute — a factor of sixty between two figures printed the same way. Thermoformers are published in cycles per minute, and a cycle is anywhere from one pack to a dozen depending on cavity layout.
Why we publish the numbers at all
Because a buyer cannot begin without them. Electrical load determines whether you need a new supply. Dimensions determine whether the machine fits the room and gets through the door. Tray and cup geometry determines whether your existing packaging works. None of that is commercially sensitive, and withholding it only delays the conversation to a point where you have already spent time on an option that was never going to fit.
Checked on vendor product pages on 30 August 2026: MULTIVAC names R 085, R 105, R 126, R 145, D 200 and RX 4 without publishing forming depth, film width, output, power or dimensions. SEALPAC publishes a film width range for the F6 and little else. Ilpra publishes five machine categories and no model names or figures at all. Proseal is the exception and publishes throughput and dimensions per model, though not electrical load. Vendor sites change; re-check before relying on any of it.
We are new to the US food market, so we have no American reference sites to point you at and no customer names to drop. Published specifications are what we can offer instead, and they are checkable, which a testimonial is not.
Common questions
How accurate is the result?
It is exact about what we publish and silent about what we do not. Every figure it returns appears elsewhere on this site, on products and the machine family pages. What it cannot tell you is whether a machine suits your product: throughput on any data sheet, ours included, is measured on one pack, one film and one product, and usually the easiest combination the machine runs.
Why does a shift figure convert using 6.5 hours rather than 8?
Because changeover, cleaning and breaks are capacity, not housekeeping. A line specified against 8 hours of running will miss its target on the first day. 6.5 running hours per 8-hour shift is deliberately conservative, and it is stated in the tool rather than buried in it — if your changeovers are quicker, the real figure is better than the one shown.
What happens if my output is above your published range?
The tool says so and names the figure it cannot reach. There are three honest answers at that point: run more than one line, look at a manufacturer whose published range covers your rate, or re-check the requirement — output targets are often set from a peak week rather than an average one, and sizing to the peak leaves a line idle most of the year.
Do you publish electrical load for every machine?
For most of the range, yes. Both cup machines run on 220V, 25A, 2.0 kW. Apollo is the same; Hera is 220V / 50 Hz at 3.5 kW; Athena is 220V at 3.0 kW for MAP and 380V at 6.5 kW for vacuum; Hera-S is 380V at 1.6 kW and Hera-X 380V at 2.4 kW, both three phase plus neutral and ground. It is not published for the FFS range, and the tool says so rather than borrowing a sibling’s number. Electrical load is what your contractor needs before anyone can price the installation.
Can I get modified atmosphere in a cup?
Yes. Both cup machines publish a gas flush option, running up to 25.5 cycles a minute with it rather than the full 30 — so size the line on the gas figure, not the headline one. Modified atmosphere is also published for the FFS range, and Apollo holds a maximum 1% oxygen in the container.
Why do cup machine speeds look so different between vendors?
Because the unit changes and the layout rarely says so. Cup fillers are commonly published in cups per hour; ours are published in cups per minute. Our 30–120 cups per minute is 1,800–7,200 cups per hour. Compared unconverted against a figure like 50,000 per hour, that reads as 50,000 against 96 — a factor of sixty introduced purely by the way the two numbers are printed.