Auger vs cup filler — which for your product?
Powder dust vs free-flowing snacks: when each filler wins.
Auger fillers use a rotating screw to meter powder by volume per revolution, which makes them the default choice for fine, dusty, or cohesive powders — turmeric, chilli, garam masala, detergent powder, coffee. The screw compacts the powder slightly as it feeds, which helps with flow but also means auger geometry (pitch, diameter, flight clearance) needs to match your specific powder's particle size and moisture content, not just its product category.
Cup fillers meter by volume using a fixed or adjustable cup that drops through a measured stroke, and they excel with free-flowing granular or piece-form products — rice, small pulses, sugar, salt, some namkeen mixes. Cups are mechanically simpler than augers, have fewer wear points, and tolerate a wider range of piece sizes as long as the product flows consistently into the cup without bridging.
The failure mode to watch for with augers on dusty powders is airborne fines settling on the seal face, which weakens the seal and creates leakers days later even when the pack looked fine at the machine. The failure mode with cups on inconsistent products is uneven cup fill — if your granules vary in bulk density between batches, the same cup volume delivers a different weight, and giveaway or underweight rejects climb.
If your product genuinely sits between the two — for example a lightly oiled, semi-free-flowing mix — a short trial on both filler types with your actual product and film is worth more than any spec sheet comparison. Ask for weight-consistency data (not just an average) across at least 30 consecutive packs before deciding.