6 Stations You must Know to Improve the Filling Quality of Automatic Capsule Filling Machine

1.Empty Capsule Rectification and Separation Station

AIPAK automatic capsule filling machine working principle

This section is the empty capsule feeding mechanism,which is to load the empty capsules into the mold for the next procedure body and cap separation.

Here,you will see most of your empty capsules are connected capsules as whose body and cap are joined together originally.

For the filling stage,firstly,all these empty capsules need to be sorted and orientated,that is in other words,rectified.

When these empty capsules are randomly poured into the capsule hopper,and load down to the capsule loading board,you will see there is a plurality of circular channels inside the capsule loading board which are connected with the capsule hopper.

In fact,these tubes are used for one empty capsule to go through,and the lower part of each tube is equipped with a capsule block slide.

And during the process,you will see the capsule loading board will reciprocate up and down to make the empty capsules insert into the tubes .When it goes down,the capsule block shelf will rotate to drive the capsule block slide to release the capsule,and the capsule will fall out of the hole.

At this time,actually ,the empty capsules are not really rectified as may be still the body head down or the cap head down while falling down.

Then there will be a capsule delivery head acting on the middle of the capsule body,it will push the capsule to orientate,which always pushes the capsule body to the edge of the capsule orientation conveying comb,and then press the capsule head downward to turn the capsule over and push it vertically into the mold hole.

Now,you will see the empty capsules rectification is finished.

Secondly,you will see it will go to separate the capsule caps from the bodies.

When the empty capsule enters into the mold hole,the vacuum suction seat will rise and tightly attached to the lower mold.

And since the diameter of the step hole of the upper mold and lower mold is smaller than that of the capsule cap and body respectively,when the vacuum is connected,the capsule body will be vacuumed into the lower mold hole,and the steps in the upper mold hole will block the downward movement of the capsule cap.Then the empty capsule caps are separated from the bodies.

The most common problems of this station include poor separation and flying caps.

It is because that you will need to pay attention to adjust the vacuum separation pressure to be appropriate,which can’t be too large or too small.

As if the pressure is too large,there will be cap flying,if it is too small,it will lead to bad separation.

Meanwhile,you must also pay attention to the capsule quality and purchase from reliable factories and make sure they have passed the inspection.

2.Capsule Filling Station

This capsule filling station mainly controls the filling weight of the capsule contents.

It is in the intermittent time after the punch rod rises, the powder hopper will rotate an angle. After one revolution, the powder in the metering plate mould hole is compacted by each punch rod in turn.

And when the filling rod is lifted from the mold hole, the powder hopper will also rotate, and the powder on the metering plate will automatically fill the remaining space in the mold hole. After filling once and compacting once until the sixth time, the punch rod pokes the powder column in the mold hole out of the metering plate and makes it fall below the empty capsule to complete the filling work.

It has taken the advantage of the relative movement between the scraping block and the metering plate to scrape off the excess powder on the surface of the metering plate to ensure the measurement requirements of the powder column.

While in this station the main common problem is that the weight of the contents is unstable.

The reasons mainly include three aspects:

Firstly, it is because the metering plate and the lower module are not well aligned, which makes the weight of some finished capsules always light.

It is not easy to find out this problems here, and you must do a good job in the alignment here when assembling and debugging the automatic capsule filling machine before production.

Secondly, you must pay attention if the gap between the isolation block and the metering plate is too large, which makes the powder flow into the metering hole through the gap during the empty filling process, resulting in the weight of the capsule being too large.

Here,you are advise that the gap between the isolation block and the metering plate should be adjusted to 0.05 ~ 0.1 mm. Since if it is too small, it will wear the metering plate and damage the equipment.

3.Defects Removal Station

You may find the caps and bodies of some empty capsules are not separated due to some reasons,so they will not be filled with powder and remain in the upper mold hole,in order to prevent them from mixing into the finished product, they need to be removed before the capsule be locked.

The function of this station is to discharge these poor separated capsules.

You will find there is a pusher located between the upper and lower mold,it can move up and down reciprocally,and there is also a thimble on the pusher.

When the upper and lower mold rotate,the pusher will stop at the lower limit,and the thimble will disengage from the upper mold,and when the mold stops at this station,the pusher will go up to make the thimble insert into the hole of the upper mold.

Here,it is if there is separated capsule cap on the upper die hol,the upward thimble will have no effect on it.

And if there is empty capsule which not been pulled out from the upper die hole,it will be pushed out of the upper mold by the upward thimble and inhaled into the air chamber.

It is the principle that the waste empty capsule will be removed.

But here the key things you need to pay attention is to adjust the vacuum negative pressure to ensure that all the unseparated capsule can be removed and the capsule cap on the upper mold cannot be sucked away.

As if the vacuum pressure is too small,the defective capsules will not be completely eliminated; if the vacuum pressure is too large, the capsule cap will be sucked away, causing unnecessary waste and reducing the yield.

4.Capsule Locking Station

This station is to lock the capsule body and cap, which is an important step of capsule filling.

It is through the action of the push rod to make the filled capsules lock to meet the requirements of the finished product.

It is when the upper and lower mold rotates to the locking position together,and the axes of the upper and lower modules coincide.

The upper baffle above the mold starts to move in opposite direction with the ejector pin below. The upper baffle presses the capsule cap, the ejector rod rises, and then the capsule cap body is closed and locked.

The common problems of this station you must pay attention include:capsule splitting.

The main reason is that the upper and lower molds are not aligned well, the capsule body and cap are not on the same central line when the capsule is locked, resulting in damage to the capsule body or capsule cap.

Another phenomenon is that the locking state is poor,including the shrinkage of the capsule head, damage of the capsule, separation of the capsule body and capsule cap.

The main reason for shrinkage and capsule damage is that the locking length is too short.

The separation of capsule body and capsule cap is that the capsule is not locked due to the long locking length,and the capsule body and cap separation may occur in the process of capsule transportation.

Here,you are recommended to measure the locking length of the capsule before debugging the automatic capsule filling machine so as to ensure that it is in the qualified range so as to ensure the stable production of the automatic capsule filling machine and ensure the filling quality .

5.Capsule Discharge Station

This station is to collect the finished capsules that pushed out by the push rod with good locking .

The principle of this capsule discharge station is the main component of this device is a discharge ejector which can move up and down.

When the upper and lower molds carrying the locked capsules rotate to the top of the capsule discharging station and stop, the capsule is pushed out of the mold hole.

And capsule is then blown to the discharge hopper and slid into the barrel.

6.Clean Station

This clean station is the cleaning device to clean the mold for the next cycle.

When the upper and lower molds are pulled by the main working plate and stop at the cleaning station, they are just placed at the gap of the cleaning device.

At this time, the compressed air is opened, and the powder, the powder residues and broken capsules in the mold hole are blown out from the down direction of the lower mold.

The dust suction system above the mold hole will suck it into the vacuum cleaner to keep the mold hole clean, so as to facilitate the circulation operation in the next cycle.

Conclusion

The above is not only the 6 stations that you must know to improve the filling quality of automatic capsule filling machine,but also the whole filling process of this machine.Though all these steps seem complicated,in fact,all of which only take a few seconds,the compact design has made all these steps can proceed at the same time. So now an automatic capsule filling machine speed can reach to 250,000 to 450,000 capsules per hour with the filling accuracy up to 99.99% which will be the ideal option for your mass production.Furthermore,if you are in small scale manufacturing,you can choose the type of automatic capsule filling machine according to your actual filing requirement or refer to  the capsule filling machine selection guidance .