Peanut Butter Filling Machine for Cups, Portion Cups and Tubs
Dose smooth, crunchy and natural nut butters into pre-formed cups and tubs at ±0.5% accuracy, then seal and lid them in one pass. The SDH-R fills 50–500 g at up to 30 cups per minute.
A peanut butter filling machine doses thick, oily nut butter into cups or tubs and closes them. Hummus Pack's SDH-R is a fully automatic rotary peanut butter filling machine: a servo-driven volumetric piston fills 50–500 g at ±0.5% accuracy, with suck-back nozzles for clean cut-off and wide-bore valving for crunchy pieces. It then heat-seals a roll-film membrane and snaps on a lid at up to 30 cups per minute (18–25 real-world).
- Output
- Up to 30 cups/min (18–25 real-world)
- Fill range
- 50 g – 500 g (approx. 2–17 oz)
- Fill accuracy
- ±0.5% (servo-driven volumetric piston)
- Cup sizes
- 4, 8, 10, 16 oz standard; 2–32 oz custom
- Nozzles
- Cut-off or suck-back (drip-free); wide-bore valving for pieces
- Closing
- Roll-film membrane seal + optional snap-on lid
- Price
- From $45,000 USD (single filler)
What a Peanut Butter Filling Machine Does
A peanut butter filling machine meters a fixed dose of thick, oily nut butter into a pre-formed container and gets it sealed before the product smears, strings or picks up air. Our SDH-R does this as a fully automatic rotary machine built in Calgary, Alberta: cups are denested, filled by a servo-driven volumetric piston, sealed with film cut from a roll and, if you want one, closed with a snap-on lid, all in a single pass.
It is a cup and tub machine. That means 4, 8, 10 and 16 oz standard cups, custom sizes from 2 to 32 oz with matching tooling, and round, square or rectangular shapes. It is not a glass-jar or bottle filler, and we say so before quoting rather than after. If your product goes into screw-cap jars, tell us and we will give you a straight answer on fit. For how thick nut-based products behave across a whole line, read our nut butter filling guide.
Why Thick Nut Butters Are Hard to Fill Into Cups and Tubs
Peanut butter looks simple and fills badly on equipment designed for sauces. Five behaviors decide whether a line runs cleanly:
- High viscosity and yield stress. Nut butter holds its shape until it is pushed, then flows. A positive-displacement servo piston forces the dose out; gravity-fed fillers struggle to keep a thick butter on target.
- Air entrainment. Aerated butter changes density, so a dose can be right by volume and wrong by weight. A controlled piston stroke, and an optional weight checker with a feedback loop, keep grams on target.
- Stringing and tailing. A thick butter drags a tail off the nozzle. A suck-back nozzle retracts the tail and stops drips on the flange.
- Oil separation. In natural butters oil rises and the bottom of the batch turns dense. Most of that is solved upstream through recipe, grinding and mixing; the filler's job is to dose what it receives consistently, and we review your feed arrangement with you.
- Particulates. Crunchy butters carry nut pieces that jam narrow valves, so valve bore matters.
Nut Butter Filling Machine Setup by Butter Type
The right nut butter filling machine configuration depends on what goes into the cup. This table shows where we typically start; the final setup is confirmed on your actual product.
Butter type versus recommended SDH-R setup
| Butter type | Main challenge | Typical SDH-R setup |
|---|---|---|
| Smooth, stabilized peanut butter | Thick, stringy, air pockets | Servo volumetric piston, suck-back nozzle, membrane seal plus snap-on lid |
| Crunchy peanut butter | Nut pieces jam or smear | Piston filler with wide-bore valving, cut-off or suck-back nozzle, piece size checked first |
| Natural (stir-required) peanut butter | Oil separation, oily flange, oxidation | Homogenized feed, suck-back nozzle, clean-flange seal recipe, optional nitrogen MAP |
| Almond or cashew butter | Tree-nut allergen, oil-rich, often more fluid | Suck-back nozzle, optional nitrogen MAP, separate allergen changeover plan |
| Sunflower and other seed butters | Oil separation, own allergen status | As natural butter; cleaning plan set by your allergen program |
| Nut butter with a jelly, honey or crunch layer | Two- or three-component cup | Extra piston or peristaltic filler plus optional garnish filler, up to three fillers in one pass |
Smooth vs Crunchy Peanut Butter: Passing Nut Pieces Through the Filler
Smooth peanut butter is the straightforward case: a servo piston and a suck-back nozzle handle it. Crunchy is a valving problem. The SDH-R's wide-bore valving passes particulates such as nut pieces, but pieces still need clearance. A chunk close to the bore size can bridge and cause a short dose.
The ±0.5% figure is the specification for the servo-driven piston filling machine design; on crunchy blends we confirm it against your product, because piece distribution changes density from dose to dose. Send the largest piece size and the percentage of inclusions. For whole nuts or large inclusions, the optional garnish filler can add them as a separate dose instead of pumping them through the butter.
Get a configured SDH-R quote for your productSend your product, cup size and target cups per minute — we reply within 24 hours.
Request a quoteFill Temperature for Peanut Butter and Very Stiff Butters
Peanut butter thins as it warms, and many producers fill warm so the butter flows into the cup and levels. The SDH-R targets cups filled at a pumpable temperature. It is not a hot-fill, aseptic or retort system, and we do not publish temperature limits we have not confirmed for your product.
Stiff stabilized butters, cold-room fills and unusual formulations are the cases we examine hardest. Share viscosity data or a sample, your intended fill temperature and your cup material, since plastic cups can soften or distort if the product goes in too warm. Our engineers confirm the fill temperature window before quoting. If a butter needs more than the standard piston filler can deliver, we scope a custom engineered-to-order filler rather than promising what we cannot verify. Send us your product details to start.
Sealing Oily Peanut Butter Cups: Clean Flanges and Reliable Seals
Oil is the enemy of a heat seal. A film of peanut oil on the cup flange lowers seal strength and can leave leakers or a membrane that peels unevenly. Three things protect the seal:
- A suck-back nozzle that retracts the butter after the dose, so nothing drips or smears onto the flange.
- A fill level with enough headspace that the sealing surface stays untouched, including when a snap-on lid follows.
- A seal recipe (temperature, pressure and dwell) tuned on your cup and film, with a film whose sealant layer suits your cup material and tolerates oily surfaces. Your film supplier confirms the sealant specification.
The roll-film station heat-seals a tamper-evident membrane; pre-die-cut lids, plastic lid pick-and-place and a snapping device for over-top lids are options.
Nitrogen MAP is optional. Peanut butter is not a short-life refrigerated dip, so we do not promise the 30–45 day extension quoted for fresh dips. For oil-rich natural and almond butters, lowering residual oxygen to 0.3–0.4% with a MAP cup filler setup limits oil oxidation; the benefit is product-dependent and worth testing on your recipe.
How the SDH-R Peanut Butter Filling Machine Works, Station by Station
The SDH-R is a rotary cup filling machine: cups index around a turret and every operation happens in one pass.
- Cup loading: a pneumatic denester places pre-formed cups onto the turret.
- Base filling: the servo-driven volumetric piston doses the peanut butter through a cut-off or suck-back nozzle.
- Secondary filling (optional): a second or third filler adds a jelly, a liquid layer or garnish such as crushed nuts.
- Membrane sealing: film is cut from a roll and heat-sealed to the flange.
- Nitrogen MAP flush (optional): residual oxygen is reduced to 0.3–0.4%.
- Lid station (optional): a plastic lid is picked, placed or snapped on, and cups discharge to the conveyor.
A PLC with an HMI stores recipes and raises diagnostic alerts, so a 16 oz peanut butter recipe and an 8 oz almond butter recipe are a recall away. Changeover between SKUs takes under about 15 minutes. Layered cups such as peanut butter and jelly run as a multi-component fill.
Portion Cups and Single-Serve Peanut Butter Packs: The 50 g Minimum
Foodservice, airline and snack-pack formats are popular for nut butters, and this is where we are most careful. The SDH-R's standard fill range starts at 50 g (about 2 oz). A 2 oz portion cup sits at the low end of that range and is built with matching tooling. Fills below 50 g, such as 1 oz cups, are outside what we offer as standard.
If your product is a 2 oz or larger single-serve cup, the SDH-R handles it with a membrane seal and, if wanted, an over-lid. If you need sub-50 g mini-cups or sachets at high speed, a different machine type is the honest answer. Our portion cup filling machine page explains what the SDH-R does and does not do in this size range.
Allergen Control and Changeover on a Nut Butter Filling Machine
Peanuts and tree nuts are major food allergens in the United States, and sesame became the ninth on January 1, 2023 under the FASTER Act. Canada's priority allergens also include peanuts, tree nuts and sesame. A plant that runs peanut butter on Monday, almond butter on Tuesday and tahini on Thursday is managing cross-contact, so the machine has to be cleanable in a way you can verify.
- Food-grade 304 stainless steel construction and tool-free strip-down give operators access to product-contact parts.
- An optional CIP (clean-in-place) system supports wet cleaning of the product path.
- Peanut oil does not rinse off with water alone, so plan a warm detergent step and a verification method such as visual inspection, swabs or allergen test kits in your procedure.
- Peanut butter is a low-moisture food, so some plants prefer dry cleaning, or controlled wet cleaning followed by thorough drying. Your food safety plan decides, and we configure the machine around it.
Under FDA FSMA Preventive Controls (21 CFR Part 117) and Canada's Safe Food for Canadians Regulations, allergen control belongs to your written plan. The SDH-R is designed to support plants operating under HACCP, BRCGS or SQF; it is not itself certified to those schemes. See our certifications and compliance page for CE, FDA-compliant materials and UL. Mechanical SKU changeover is under about 15 minutes; a validated peanut-to-tree-nut allergen clean is set by your procedure and is separate.
Peanut Butter Filling Machine Price, Lead Time and When to Choose Something Else
The SDH-R starts from $45,000 USD for the single-filler configuration. Price scales with additional fillers, nitrogen MAP, labeling integration and custom tooling. Delivery is 8–12 weeks from order confirmation, and every machine carries a 12-month warranty, with service from our Alberta, New Jersey and California service centres. Our cup filling and sealing machine cost guide breaks the pricing down.
SDH-R specifications for nut butter cup filling
| Specification | SDH-R |
|---|---|
| Machine type | Fully automatic rotary cup filling, sealing and lidding |
| Controls | PLC with HMI, recipe storage, diagnostic alerts |
| Construction | Food-grade 304 stainless steel, CIP and tool-free strip-down |
| Footprint | 44 × 52 in (1,100.5 × 1,315.5 mm); height 65.6 in (1,666 mm) |
| Certifications | CE, FDA-compliant food-contact materials, UL listed |
| Warranty and lead time | 12 months; 8–12 weeks from order confirmation |
The SDH-R is not the right machine for every nut butter job. Choose something else when:
- You need well above 30 cups per minute on a single SKU. An inline cup filling machine line suits that volume; see our comparison of rotary vs inline filling machines.
- You fill glass jars or bottles with screw caps.
- Your portions are below 50 g.
- Your product needs hot-fill, aseptic or retort processing.
For everything else, send your butter type, cup size, target cups per minute and options through the quote form. Our team may reach out to learn more about your application, and replies come within about 24 hours. For related thick products, see our tahini filling machine, spread filling machine and paste filling machine pages.
Peanut Butter Filling Machine — Frequently Asked Questions
Hummus Pack's SDH-R peanut butter filling machine starts from $45,000 USD for the single-filler configuration. Price rises with additional fillers such as a jelly layer, nitrogen MAP, labeling integration and custom tooling. Delivery is 8–12 weeks from order confirmation, with a 12-month warranty. Our cost guide breaks the numbers down.
The SDH-R runs up to 30 cups per minute on a dry cycle and 18–25 cups per minute in real-world production, depending on product, cup size, fill weight and options. We confirm the realistic rate for your butter and fill weight during quoting. For well above 30 cups per minute on a single SKU, an inline line is the better fit.
The SDH-R is a cup and tub machine, not a jar or bottle filler. It fills pre-formed round, square or rectangular cups and tubs from 2 to 32 oz (custom sizes with matching tooling) at 50–500 g. If your product goes into screw-cap or glass jars, contact our team and we will tell you plainly whether it fits.
Yes, within limits we confirm first. The SDH-R uses wide-bore valving that passes particulates such as nut pieces, and an optional garnish filler can add nuts as a separate dose. Send your largest piece size and inclusion percentage so our engineers can check valving, nozzle and fill accuracy on a crunchy blend before quoting.
Stringing is handled at the nozzle: a suck-back nozzle retracts the butter after dosing for a drip-free cut-off that keeps the sealing flange clean. Oil separation is mostly solved upstream through recipe, grinding and mixing, so the filler receives a consistent feed. We review your feed arrangement and sealing film so oil never weakens the heat seal.
The standard fill range starts at 50 g, roughly 2 oz, so a 2 oz portion cup is at the low end and uses matching tooling. Fills below 50 g, such as 1 oz foodservice or airline portion cups, are outside our standard range, and we would not quote the SDH-R for them.
The SDH-R has food-grade 304 stainless steel construction, tool-free strip-down and an optional CIP system, so product-contact parts can be cleaned and inspected. Mechanical SKU changeover takes under about 15 minutes. A validated peanut-to-tree-nut clean follows your allergen control plan under FSMA (21 CFR Part 117) or SFCR, which the machine supports but does not replace.
It is optional. Nitrogen MAP on the SDH-R reduces residual oxygen to 0.3–0.4%, which helps limit oxidation in oil-rich natural and almond butters. The 30–45+ day refrigerated extension we quote for fresh dips does not apply to peanut butter, so the benefit is product-dependent. See our MAP cup filler page for the system.
Yes. The SDH-R carries up to three filling stations in one pass, so a peanut butter base can receive a jelly or liquid layer from a piston or peristaltic filler and crushed nuts from the garnish filler before sealing. Our parfait cup filling machine page covers layered products in more detail.
Related machines & guides
Explore the pages most relevant to this application.
Why producers buy from Hummus Pack
Ready to Quote Your Peanut Butter Filling Machine?
Get a personalized SDH-R configuration and price for your product, cup sizes, and production volume.