Capsule Making Machine

A Capsule Making Machine also known as capsule fillers or encapsulating machines is an automated capsule filling machine having an electromechanical system that fills either hard or soft gelatin capsules with proper materials or substances. Capsule Making Machine is technically utilised extensively for pharmaceutical/medical applications and is precisely used to fill empty capsules with pellets, powder, tablets, granules or liquids.

Process of Capsule Making Machine

The capsules need to be accurately processed and filled with the help of a capsule Filling machine. The capsules are rectified, caps and bodies are parted, active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) are then filled, wasted capsules are rejected, capsules are sealed in place, ejaculated and then cleaned and all this done with the help of a capsule filler. An automated capsule filling machine will do the entire filling process itself. 

The complete working of an automated capsule filling machine is detailed below:

Loading of Raw Materials: First, loading the empty capsules and the filling material into corresponding product hoppers is done. Main operation parameters need to be fed at the PLC control system to guide the operations of the machine.

Capsule Rectification: The capsules formed in a factory have their caps and bodies joined which need to be rectified before the filling process begins. For rectification, the capsules are fed into the capsule delivery plate with multiple circular channels inside to hold the capsules. Then, the capsules are permitted to fall on a horizontal fork which acts on the center of the capsule and then the vertical fork corrects the direction of them. 

Separating Capsule Caps and Bodies: After rectification, the capsule tray is transported to the capsule filling station and the caps and bodies of the capsule are detached by means of a vacuum divider. Once the capsule separation is completed, the cap and the body are moved to their corresponding stations.

Medication Filling: The capsule body is shifted to the filling station for active ingredients filling which is done by numerous different methods.

Tamping Filling: The capsule powder is compacted with the help of a tamping punch and then moved from one tamping punch to next to achieve a smooth finish.

Intermittent Dosator Filling: In this technique, the empty dosage tubes are put in a dosage hopper and the dosage punch inside the tube crushes the ingredients into a very fine powder.

Dosage Cylinder Filling: In this technique, two dosage pistons under the hopper regulate the filling of ingredients.

Vacuum Filling: This technique straight away pulls ingredients inside the dosage tube with the help of vacuum pull. Then compressed air is used to blow the powdered content into the capsule body.

Waste Capsule Rejection: Occasionally some of the capsule bodies do not get detached from the capsule caps called as wasted products. There are pins situated inside which pull such capsules out of the mold and blow them into an aggregation bag. The capsule caps and bodies are then both transported to the next station for locking.

Locking Capsule: The two trays containing the capsule bodies and caps rotate in sync in the locking station and the baffle plate situated overhead the capsule tray and the pin is situated below the tray moves as well to lock the two parts of the capsule in place.

Capsule Ejection: Once the capsule is locked in its place an ejection device expels the locked capsules out of the capsule tray and sends them to the outlet.

Cleaning: Once all the capsules are expelled, the tray moves back to the first station, i.e the capsule rectification table. The tray is then properly cleaned for any powdered leftovers or waste capsule bits.

Advantages of Capsule Making Machine:

• Compact cGMP model for automated production of capsules.
• Design is cGMP – current good manufacturing practices compliance.
• Flexible for all capsule shapes and sizes.
• All contact parts AISI 316 & non-contact parts AISI 304.
• Innovative even layered pellets and powder in one single capsule.
• Automatic declutching of loaders when the loading ring is full.
• Minimizes operator attention and ensures maximum production.
• One-stop machine encapsulation and additional packaging.
• Auto drug hoppers in feed mechanisms decrease weight variation and improve productivity.

An automatic capsule filling machine finds applications in pharmaceutical companies to help with the production of hard gelatin capsules which are utilised in formulation with pellets, granules, and powders either discretely or in providing different combinations.