OEE for Aerosol Filling Lines: Valves, Crimping, Gassing and the Water Bath

Key takeaways

• Aerosol lines lose most minutes to format changes and to short stops at the valve feed, cap placer and leak test.
• Gas weight rejects at the checkweigher and crimp rejects are the typical Quality losses. Count them per station.
• Safety stops in the gas house, such as gas detection alarms, are never a target to cut. Code them so false alarms and real leaks are kept apart.
• Set the ideal rate per can size and product from the slowest station, often the gasser or the leak test.
• Price losses in cans, so a valve feed jam and a format change land on one list.

To measure OEE on an aerosol filling line, pick the slowest station for each can format as the pace, log each stop against the station that caused it, and count gas weight, crimp and leak test rejects as Quality. Most of the hidden loss sits in short stops at the valve feed and cap placer.

Fabrico, a computer vision enabled OEE and light MES platform, logs those short stops automatically and asks the operator to confirm the cause in one tap. This guide is for plant managers and CI leads making personal care and home care aerosols: deodorants, hair sprays, shaving foams, air fresheners and cleaners.

What does an aerosol filling line look like?

1. Can infeed. Depalletiser or unscrambler, often with an air blow to clean the cans.
2. Concentrate filler. Fills the product before the valve goes on.
3. Valve inserter and crimper. Places the valve and crimps it to the can, usually under vacuum.
4. Gasser. Fills propellant through the valve or under the cup, in a separate protected gas room.
5. Checkweigher. Rejects cans with too little or too much product or gas.
6. Leak test. A hot water bath or another approved leak test, as aerosol rules require.
7. Actuator and cap placer, coder, then shrink or case packing.

Where does an aerosol line lose time?

Valves and caps are small parts fed from bowls and chutes, and that is where most micro stops start. Our guide to micro stops explains how to keep them in the data instead of filtering them out.

How should safety stops count in aerosol OEE?

A gas detection alarm stops the line for a reason, and no OEE target should push anyone to restart early. But a safety stop still belongs in the data.

• Give gas house alarms their own code, apart from faults.
• Record what the check found: a real leak, a sensor fault or no cause found.
• Review the trend each week. Rising false alarms point at a sensor or its upkeep, rising real leaks point at the gasser or the valves.

Counting these stops keeps them honest. Leaving them out hides a growing problem until it becomes a long stop.

How do you set the ideal rate on an aerosol line?

The pace machine is often not the filler. On many lines the gasser or the leak test is slowest for some formats. Set one ideal rate per can size and product, from the slowest station for that format, and keep it written down.

Foaming and viscous products may need a slower concentrate fill. Choose one rule and keep it: either book the slowdown as a speed loss with a reason, or set an approved lower standard for that SKU. Do not let each crew choose its own speed and call the average the ideal.

A worked shift on an aerosol line

Sample line (illustrative numbers, not a customer): a deodorant line rated at 120 cans a minute for a 150 ml can, planned production time 450 minutes.

• Availability = 348 / 450 = 77.3%.
• Performance: 38,600 cans against an ideal of 348 x 120 = 41,760, so 92.4%.
• Quality: 450 gas weight rejects, 150 crimp rejects, 80 leakers and 120 dented cans, 800 in total. Good cans = 37,800, so 37,800 / 38,600 = 97.9%.
• OEE = 0.773 x 0.924 x 0.979 = 70.0%. Check: 37,800 / 120 = 315 minutes of ideal output, and 315 / 450 = 70.0%.

At a sample contribution of $0.50 a can (or €0.50 in a euro plant), the format change cost $3,000. The speed loss of 3,160 cans cost $1,580. The valve feed jams, each only a minute, cost $1,320, more than the leak test and cap placer stops together. They are the first own stop to fix, and the fix is often in the valve bowl and chute, not in the crimper.

The gas alarm turned out to be a sensor fault. On its own it cost $600. If it repeats every week, it belongs on the improvement list as well.

How do you shorten format changes on an aerosol line?

• Keep change parts per can size on a trolley: guides, star wheels, crimper heads, cap placer parts.
• Record crimp settings per valve and can, and check the first cans against them.
• Prepare valves, actuators and caps for the next SKU before the last can of the old one.
• Time each change to the first good can at rated speed, then split the steps into internal and external work.

The changeover standards guide shows how to set a standard per SKU pair and code the minutes over it.

What mistakes do aerosol plants make with OEE?

• Leaving safety stops out of the data, so false alarms never get fixed.
• One ideal rate for every can size.
• Counting checkweigher rejects but not leak test rejects.
• Filtering out stops under a minute, so valve and cap feeds never reach the Pareto.
• Comparing aerosol lines with liquid filling lines without adjusting for the extra stations.

Liquid home care lines share many of these losses; see our guide to detergent filling line OEE. For the end of the line, see shrink wrapper OEE.

Where does Fabrico fit on an aerosol line?

Fabrico is a computer vision enabled Manufacturing Performance Platform. OEE and light MES come first: automatic downtime logging that keeps own stops, starved and blocked time apart, and OEE live by line and shift.

• The operator confirms the reason in one tap, so a valve jam and a cap feed jam get different codes.
• A camera clip as evidence for a stop, where a camera watches the valve chute or the leak test infeed.
• Losses priced in money and ranked, so one minute stops that add up rise to the top.
• One view across plants for aerosol lines on different sites.
• A work order with its cost to the right technician when a stop is a breakdown.

You start on one line, with a baseline and a decision date agreed in advance. There is no free plan and there are no tiers: each plant gets a quote. Read how a light MES works on a filling hall floor.

Frequently asked questions

How do you calculate OEE on an aerosol line?

Availability is run time over planned production time, Performance is cans made over the ideal at the slowest station's rate, and Quality is good cans over cans made. Multiply the three.

Do leak test rejects count in OEE?

Yes. Leakers and cans damaged in the leak test count against Quality, next to gas weight and crimp rejects.

Should gas detection alarms count as downtime?

Yes, with their own code. Never shorten the safety check, but record what each alarm turned out to be, so sensor faults get fixed.

What is the bottleneck on an aerosol line?

It depends on the format. It is often the gasser or the leak test rather than the concentrate filler. Check which station runs slowest for each can size.

See your aerosol line's losses in a demo

Bring one line and its stop log. We will show valve and cap stops, format changes and rejects, and what each one costs.

Request a demo · Contact us