Butter packing: automatic machine, semi-automatic extruder or block cutter — what to choose for your volume

In brief. Butter packing equipment is chosen by answering two questions: in what form the butter will reach the shelf, and how much of it you pack per shift. Pats of 100–1,000 g in foil or parchment are packed by an automatic machine at 30–90 packs per minute. Portions and bars at 100 to 2,000 kg per shift are made by a semi-automatic extruder. If butter is packed by hand, the block is cut with a wire cutter, which pays off from as few as 5 blocks a day. Before packing, butter from blocks is passed through a homogenizer; for direct packing from a continuous butter maker, it is cooled in a crystallizer.

Ways of packing butter

Automatic packing machine: pats for retail chains

If your butter goes to retail chains, you need consistent weight, neat wrapping and steady deliveries. That is a job for an automatic machine. The Milberg FMB machine packs butter, margarine, spread and tvorog (quark) into pats from 100 to 1,000 g: a standard 100×75 mm pack, a 110×60 mm Euro pack, 500 and 1,000 g, with non-standard formats on request. Dosing is by a servo-driven volumetric doser, and the pack format is changed from the touch panel.

The machine is a domestically made replacement for Soviet ARM machines and imported equipment. After the machine, packs are placed into cartons: there is a semi-automatic case packer for this, and an automatic one for larger volumes. We manufacture the machines ourselves and carry out the commissioning ourselves.

Semi-automatic extruder: portions and bars

The extruder uses augers to push butter through a die into a continuous bar, which wires then cut into portions. The shape is set by the die: for example, 7×7 cm for 500 g pieces. Capacity is 100 to 2,000 kg of butter per shift. It runs on 380 V or 220 V mains and does not require a highly qualified technician to set up.

Before the extruder, butter from blocks is passed through a homogenizer or cut into pieces of 2–5 kg. The extruder is integrated into a line: a homogenizer upstream, and a checkweigher with a reject unit and a conveyor downstream.

Block cutter: when butter is packed by hand

The USR-11 wire cutter pushes a block of up to 25 kg through a die with wires: for example, a 20 kg block into 20 pieces of 1 kg or into 200 g bars. The piece size is set by the die, which we make for your target weight. Such a pack stands out on the shelf as a "farm" product, and the machine also cuts soft and hard cheeses.

A block cutter pays off from as few as 5 blocks a day. It suits workshops with volumes of up to 2 t per shift. It is our most frequent delivery in the packing category: 17 projects with the USR-11 are described on the website — from Moscow and St Petersburg to the Omsk Region and Kazakhstan.

Butter from blocks or straight from the butter maker

This is the second question that determines the line configuration.

• Packing from blocks. Butter from 10–25 kg blocks is first passed through a homogenizer. It evens out the structure and moisture, so the butter is dosed more accurately and sticks less to the doser nozzle. The GM homogenizer handles butter from +8…10 °C, and the heavy-duty version from +4 °C; capacity is 800–1,600 kg/h.
• Direct in-line packing. Butter leaves a continuous butter maker at +16 °C or warmer, while most packing machines need about +10…11 °C. A crystallizer heat exchanger is installed between the butter maker and the packing machine: it cools the butter with ice water to 10–11 °C. The crystallizer works with FMB, ARM and any other packing machine.

How to choose for your volume

1. Manual packing, portions cut from blocks — USR-11 wire cutter.
2. Portions of various shapes, up to 2 t per shift — semi-automatic extruder; when packing from blocks, together with a homogenizer.
3. Pats for retail chains — FMB packing machine: with a homogenizer when packing from blocks, with a crystallizer for in-line packing.
4. Blocks for sale or storage — carton packing machine.

Tell us how much butter you pack per shift, in what form, and where it comes from — blocks or a continuous butter maker. Our dairy process engineer will specify the line.

Where the packing equipment is already in operation

In October 2021, a dairy plant in the Kirov Region replaced manual packing with an FMB-200 machine: cutting, weighing and wrapping each pat by hand could no longer keep up with shipments to retail chains. A GM homogenizer is in operation, for example, at a dairy plant in the Saratov Region. All projects are in the ["Case studies"](/projects/ section.

Tell us how you pack butter now and how much per shift — we will select the equipment and send a quotation within one business day. All equipment in this area is in the "Packing and packaging" section.