Serac builds automatic cup filling and sealing machines in Carol Stream, Illinois. Rotary and linear cup fillers run every format and every recipe on one machine — cultured dairy, spreads, dips and salsas, desserts, deli and chilled meals.
Serac cup fillers handle products that defeat most machines. The same machine fills thin cultured dairy, peanut butter, salsa and cookie dough, with the nozzle matched to each texture.
Solids are filled suspended in a liquid or creamy phase — dressing, sauce or cream carries the pieces.
Dry ingredients such as granola, cookie crumb, chocolate pieces and nuts are dosed onto the filled cup as a topping.
Thin liquids, sticky pastes, aerated creams and delicate solids each behave differently as they leave the nozzle. Serac controls the product at the nozzle instead of forcing it through under pressure, and the nozzle end parts change over in minutes.
The video shows ten products, each filled with the nozzle matched to its texture.
Serac cup fillers also dose more than one product into the same cup: single layer, two and three layers, swirls and marbling, inclusions and toppings, and compartment cups.
Serac cup filling and sealing machines run stackable and non-stackable containers in most food-grade materials, and apply foil lids, overlids or caps on the same line.
Seal quality and cup leak control: on a fresh product, the seal is what stands between your shelf life and a return. Serac controls all three variables that decide seal integrity — temperature, pressure and sealing time — so the seal is consistent across every cup and every lane.
Cup leak control is available as an option, measuring seal integrity by lid deflection so a defective seal is caught on the line instead of in the trade. For chilled dairy, desserts and prepared foods, that is what keeps bacteriological problems and customer returns out of your production.
Serac builds rotary and linear cup filling and sealing machines from 800 to 55,000 cups per hour. Each one is a complete filling and sealing line in a single machine, and the model is chosen by output and by how many cups run across.
The filling stations are the same across the range, so the dosing technology qualified on a NEO or a LINEA XS is the same technology running on a LINEA MDN. Growing your output does not mean requalifying how your product is filled.
| Machine | Type | Cups per Hour | Cups Across |
| LINEA XS | Linear | 2,000 – 14,000 | up to 6 |
| LINEA MDN | Linear | 6,000 – 55,000 | up to 32 |
| NEO | Rotary | 800 – 6,000 | up to 3 |
These are Serac linear cup fillers running in production. Swipe or use the arrows to see them all:
Serac’s linear cup fillers cover 2,000 to 55,000 cups per hour on one shared design. The LINEA XS suits small and medium production and runs up to 6 cups across, in 15 ft and 18 ft lengths (4.5 m and 5.5 m), with cam, full servo or hybrid drive. The LINEA MDN takes over for high volume at up to 32 cups across on a full-servo frame, and its length is not capped — the machine is built to the line it has to fit.
A linear machine doses up to five different products into the same cup, so a layered dessert, a fruit-on-bottom yogurt or a variety pack runs on a standard machine rather than a special one.
Serac’s rotary cup filler, the NEO, fills and seals on a carousel rather than a straight line, which keeps the footprint compact. It runs 800 to 6,000 cups per hour, up to three cups across, with a maximum cup diameter of 3.7 in (95 mm), and fills single-layer and two-layer products.
A rotary cup filling machine suits producers running many recipes in smaller batches: specialty and artisan dairy, co-packers with a wide SKU list, pilot and product-development lines, and plants adding a cup format alongside existing production. Format changeover takes under 15 minutes, so short runs stay economical.
Serac Inc is a cup filling and sealing machine manufacturer based in Carol Stream, Illinois, serving food producers across the United States and Canada. Serac brings 99 years of volumetric filling expertise and has manufactured filling equipment in Illinois since 1981.
The LINEA XS cup filling machine is built in Carol Stream, and more than 500 Serac cup filling machines are in production worldwide.
Serac cup filling machines supplied in North America are built with Allen-Bradley PLCs and HMIs, and to North American machine safety practice including lockout/tagout.
Allen-Bradley is the platform most North American food plants already run, so the controls are familiar to your maintenance team and parts come from distributors you already buy from.
Spare parts, service technicians, commissioning and operator training are based in Carol Stream, in your time zone. Serac supports every cup filling machine it supplies in North America, from commissioning through the life of the machine.
Our factory in Carol Stream, IL is open for visits.
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To book a factory visit: [email protected]
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Line efficiency is the share of a line’s theoretical output that it actually produces, after cup misfeeds, seal rejects, dripping between stations and time lost to changeover. Serac guarantees 98% line efficiency on its cup filling and sealing lines. A line rated at 11,077 cups per hour therefore delivers about 10,855 — where a line at 95% delivers 10,523.
Across a year, those three points are weeks of production.
Sample Case: 4 oz Cups on a Six-Lane Line
*Using assumptions of production & operation
Line: 6 lanes, 11,077 cups per hour
Annual Operation: 7 hours/shift, 2 shifts/day, 5 days/week, 50 weeks/year = 3,500 production hours
Theoretical Annual Output: 38.77 Million cups
Based on this production volume, the only variable is line efficiency:
|
|
|
EXTRA CUPS PACKED
+1,163,000
per year
|
EXTRA PRODUCT PACKED
+36,300
gallons per year
|
|
PRODUCTION TIME SAVED
110
hours per year
|
EXTRA OUTPUT
16
extra shifts per year
|
This is an illustrative example. Actual results vary based on your specific operation parameters.
Yes. A Serac cup filling and sealing machine runs different cup sizes, shapes and recipes on the same machine. You change the carrier plates and match the nozzle to the product, then select the recipe on the HMI. Format changeover takes under 15 minutes.
One thing worth defining when you specify the machine is what output means for you. Smaller fill volumes cycle faster and give you more cups per minute; larger volumes give fewer cups but move more product per minute.
Tell us which number matters to your line and we will configure for it.
Yes. Higher control of dosing accuracy reduces the overfill threshold you need to avoid underfilled containers — lowering product giveaway and increasing line ROI.
Serac doses volumetrically and controls the product at the nozzle rather than pushing it through under pressure. Each cycle delivers the same measured volume, and the nozzle is matched to your product so accuracy holds whether you are filling drinkable yogurt, honey or a chunky dip.
Send us your product and target fill weight and our US-based team will tell you what accuracy to expect on your line.
No. Serac fills at low shear: product is placed by the nozzle rather than forced through under pressure, so protein structure stays intact and viscosity holds. That matters most for Greek and high-protein yogurt, where shear thins the product and costs you the texture a consumer notices. The nozzle also rises as the cup fills, which keeps the fill splash-free and the rim clean for sealing.
Send us your recipe and we will match the nozzle end part to it.
Serac cup fillers carry several filling stations along the same line, and each station doses independently. Cups on one carrier plate can therefore receive different products in the same pass, so a four-flavor variety pack comes off the machine filled, sealed and in order — without a second run or a separate line.
The same capability covers multi-packs of one flavor, mixed-format packs, and promotional packs that change through the year. Because the recipes live on the HMI, switching the flavor mix takes a recipe change rather than a rebuild.
Tell us your pack layout and we will confirm the filling station configuration it needs.
Because bolted plates are what make a format change take a shift. Serac carrier plates lift out and drop in by hand, with no tools and no realignment afterwards, which is how a full format changeover is done in under 15 minutes.
Removable plates also come out for cleaning and inspection, so the machine is easier to keep to food-industry hygiene standards than one with tooling fixed in place.
The plates are located and held positively in operation — quick to change is not the same as loose. Cup position stays accurate at full speed.
Yes. Serac cup filling and sealing machines hot fill at up to 95 °C (203 °F). On a cup machine the container is held by its top rim rather than its base, so heat is less of a constraint than you might expect.
Your cup material sets the practical limit rather than the filler. Send us your fill temperature and cup material and we will confirm what the combination will run at.
Yes. Serac cup filling and sealing machines are built to Hygienic Design Guidelines and meet FDA, 3-A and HACCP requirements. The product circuit is cleaned automatically in place, with the nozzles moving into a cleaning position and no operator intervention needed.
Machines are supplied at three levels, matched to how sensitive the recipe is: standard clean, clean and ultra-clean. Ultra-clean filling is what delivers extended shelf life, with cups and lids decontaminated by pulsed light, UV or hydrogen peroxide.
Tell us your target shelf life and we will confirm the configuration it needs.
Yes. Serac supplies its filling units on their own, to be fitted into a cup line already in production. The NDS stand-alone unit brings Serac dosing accuracy and the full nozzle range to a line that is otherwise running well, so you can change how the product is filled without replacing the machine around it.
This suits a producer whose line handles the format fine but cannot dose a new recipe — a layered dessert, a product with pieces, or a texture the existing filler was never specified for.
Tell us what you are running and we will confirm the fit.
The cost of a cup filling and sealing machine depends on your container, your product and the decoration you want in the cup. Serac quotes each project from a specification, and these are the details we ask for:
Your container
Your product
What goes in the cup
Your output in cups per hour, and the number of formats you need to run.
Send us these and our US-based team will come back with a detailed estimate. Contact us here.
