6 Critical Applications of Automatic Capsule Filling Machine

1.Filling Powders

Powder filling has been widely used in many fields such as the pharmaceutical industry,food industry and chemical industry as it is one of the most common capsule filling.

Before the powder filling,you will need to get to know the property of the raw powder material to do better filling.

This way,it will help you better choose the most suitable powder filling machine.

Powders are actually fine particles grinded or crushed by some solid substances.

Capsules filled with powders

The main features of powders include:

Powder Fineness

The fineness level of powder can be different,some may be coarse,some may be fine,depending on the drug absorption.

Nowadays,with the improvement of the crushing equipment,some people may frequently ask if the finer the powder the better.

But in fact,it is not that the finer the better,the fineness should be made depending on the variety of the materials and the requirements of the medicine.

When some solid substances are crushed ,its cell wall or cell membrane will be broken that let the effective ingredients fully dissolved,then improve the dissolution,thus can be fully absorbed by the human body,reducing the consumption or cost of your medicinal materials,so as to significantly improve economic benefits.

Powder Fluidity

The powder fluidity refers to the powder bulk density,flow rate,cohesive strength and other physical characteristics.

You may need to study some of these powder properties in order to choose the best powder formulation for your capsule filling process.

Besides,there are other factors that may affect the powder fluidity,like the environment humidity,if the humidity is too high,the fluidity of the powder will be greatly reduced.Then at the same time,if the bulk density of the powder is not as large as the particles,and the capsule volume is too small,the powder will bear the pressure of the filling rod before loading,which may lead to adhesion of the filling rod and unnecessary trouble.

2.Filling Pallets

To reduce the development of drug-resistant bacteria and maintain the effectiveness of some drugs,pallets are filled into capsules.

Some active ingredients are even blended together to be pallets to be filled into capsules.And also some incompatible ingredients are combined into a capsule ,that’s to be a better way to drug administration.

Pallets in Capsule

When pellets are used as fillers of capsules,you need to know its below characteristics include:hygroscopicity, fluidity, bulk density, dissolution and stability.

Generally,the pallets in the capsule need to be hard and dense since the water requirement of the empty capsule,its moisture limit is low,so make sure dry the pallet long and then hardness is naturally better.

As because the capsule has volume limit,the pallet bulk density should be high so as to meet the loading specification.

Now many automatic capsule filling machines can fill pallets .However,you need to know that the filling speed of pallets may be slower than that of the powders.

And you just need to adjust the dosage system to make your automatic capsule filling machine to suit this kind pallets filling application.

3.Filling Liquids

Capsules filling with liquid

Filling liquid to a hard gelatin capsule is an interesting way to handle oily substances such as plant extracts incl,CBD oil.

Nowadays,most automatic capsule filling machine equipped with liquid filling station can handle a wide range of materials such as oily-products, high viscosity paste and wax-type products which thanks to the jacketed hopper with stirrer, can handle melted products at temperature up to + 80°C which then solidify at ambient temperature.

Besides,capsules filled with such products are required to be sealed.

It is easy for you to understand the liquid filling process,it is a typically non-aqueous liquid is filled into the body of the capsule using precision pumps that can deliver a fill weight of 100mg to 1.5 grams as required.

The caps are then placed onto the bodies of the capsules. Either a seal or a band is then applied around the join.

Sealing is typically applied via a fine spray of the sealing solution onto the join, which is drawn into the space between the body and the cap through capillary action, thereby sealing the capsules.

Alternatively, a banding solution is applied through a rotating wheel that delivers the banding solution on to the join. The banding solution is typically prepared from gelatin or HPMC depending on the types of shell materials used.

4.Filling Granules

Granules in Capsule

Granules,also known as powers,extracts or herbal extract powders,are formed by binding

concentrated liquid of decocted herbs to excipients. Depending on the properties of each formula, the excipients used are either non-GMO potato starch or grounded herbs.

The reason you may want to know why granules are used to fill into capsules instead of powders is that,because of particle size differences, the ingredients may segregate, either in the hoppers of packaging machines or on storage in the final bulk container. If this happens, the product will be non-uniform and the patient will not receive the same dose of the ingredients on each occasion.

So this can be minimized by efficient granulation of the mixed powders,called granules.

Granules filling into capsules may contain one or more active substances with or without excipients and, if necessary, suitable colouring and flavouring substances.

They are mainly used for low-toxicity, high-dose drugs. Methylcellulose Granules, for example, are used as a bulk-forming laxative and have a dose of 1–4 g daily. Many proprietary preparations contain similar bulk-forming laxatives.

Besides,you need to know there are several categories of granules:

• effervescent granules
• coated granules
• gastro-resistant granules
• modified-release granules.

An automatic capsule filling machine used to fill granules into capsules should not damage the coating on the granules,which is to protect the gastric when swallow the capsule.

5.Filling Tablets

Different from powders and granules,tablets are larger solids in size.

It is that some drugs are volatile or irritating to the stomach and small intestine,or have bad taste then filled into capsules to protect its active ingredients.

Tablet in capsule

Even though filling tablets into capsules is not very common in the pharmaceutical industry,capsules with tablets fills can be seen in some drugs.

And the automatic capsule filling machine with special dosage system will make your filling with tablets come true.

The number of tablets filled into the capsule is determined by the volume of the capsule.

6.Filling Combinations

The combination of products filling into capsules is often seen in nowadays pharmaceutical industry since some substances filled into capsules may not dissolve into liquid totally,then you may consider such kind of method ,like the combination of liquid and granules,liquid and semi-solid.

Combination of filling

At present,most automatic capsule filling machines are designed with high degree of filling options,that enable complex filling methods such as “tablets” and “pallets” maximizing full flexibility of your scheduled products.

Conclusion

From above introduction,you may that see that in fact,there are many applications of automatic capsule filling machine nowadays,what you need to do is to study some of the properties of the substance you want to fill into the capsules in advance in order to avoid unnecessary problems such as powder sticks to the punch and spilt,then you may inform the your supplier to better know how to modify the machine accordingly.

Besides,you also need to get clearly whether the formulation in your capsules meet the required standards which is to guarantee your final drug products conform with the GMP standards ,that is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration.

Apart from that ,you also need to know some regulations in your capsule filling process,these include:

1.Whether the to be filled substance compatible with the capsule

2.You should make sure the uniformity of your filled substance whatever it is powder,pallet,liquid,granule,tablet or combination .

3.Regularly maintain or clean the automatic capsule filling machine since it is too fast in speed to ensure the filling effectiveness and reduce the bad filling or defects.

Last ,you may see from the key application of automatic capsule filling machine,the final capsule product may vary depending on the different filling materials and its propertites.So for a good filling process,first you may need to choose a well-known automatic capsule filling machine supplier to guarantee the afterwards accurate and precise filing.