The innovation doesn’t slow down here at Vitaquest! Last month, we unveiled our Enclony Planet 6G-TC Automated Tablet & Capsule Inspection Machine. We are now proud to announce the acquisition of another innovation: the brand-new Stokes 720 Double Tablet Compression Machine. This new machine builds on our commitment to growth and improvement, enhancing the tablet manufacturing process and ensuring our products remain the highest quality nutraceuticals available in the market. Here’s how.
The Tablet Compression Process
Though tablets may be small, they require a complex multi-stage manufacturing process. Raw materials must be weighed, milled, granulated, and mixed to ensure the correct amounts are used in the final product. These ingredients often start as powders. As a result, compression plays a pivotal role in turning these powdered ingredients into a uniform, stable, and solid nutraceutical tablet.
Tablet compression machines use hydraulic pressure to press together the powder granules. The raw materials are separated into a lower and upper punch. Then two large wheels, or pressure rolls, push the punches together to form the tablet. Tablets can be thin and hard or soft and thick, depending on the distance between the two punches.
Hundreds of thousands of tablets are manufactured every hour thanks to this compression technology; however, some defects can still occur, especially when using older technology:
- Capping: When air is trapped in a tablet, causing a fracture to occur at the top.
- Lamination: When a split occurs in the sides or bottom of the tablet.
- Sticking & Picking: When granules of raw materials become stuck to the punch (sticking) or to the lettering/logo design embedded in the punch (picking).
As you’ll see, the new Stokes 720 improves this process and eliminates many of these common defects.
The Stokes 720: Revolutionizing Tablet Manufacturing
The Stokes 720 features a dual-chamber feeder that provides constant and consistent head pressure. We can run out almost 100% of a given batch, resulting in increased production yields, significant cost savings, and an overall higher efficiency than older machinery. The control system is also fully computerized, so we can automatically control weight and ensure specifications are maintained throughout a compression run. Plus, the control system collects performance data, helping us understand factors impacting our deliverability. All of this keeps downtime to a minimum, allowing us to develop your products faster.
The Stokes 720 also improves our quality assurance process by helping eliminate capping and lamination thanks to pre-compression technology, which removes air from the product before final compression. Meanwhile, an upper and lower die table scrapper helps keep the press clean to prevent sticking and picking. Dust is isolated into the compression zone and purged with positive air, keeping the machine and our production environment cleaner.
Last but not least, this machine also features OSHA-approved safety interlocks that will allow our operators to run this machine with confidence in their workplace safety.
Other features include:
- A four-column heavy-duty structure that provides stability and low noise levels
- A removable turret
- Sealed roller bearings to eliminate oil leaks
- Automatic punch lubrication to ensure the long life of tooling and cams
- A cleanly designed hopper and butterfly valve assembly to prevent the loss of powder
- An extra-large hopper opening to help material flow
- Enhanced lighting in the upper and lower sections for better visibility into the compression process
With increased efficiency, reliability, performance, and safety, this new acquisition provides a better experience for our operators, a better product for our customers, and a better future for our company.
Innovate with Vitaquest
This new machine enhances the tablet manufacturing process and represents another improvement for our business as we continue to honor our commitment to delivering what’s next in the nutraceutical industry. Our customers directly benefit from these enhancements, delivering higher-quality products to store shelves more efficiently and affordably.
Are you looking for a nutraceutical manufacturer to help you innovate exciting new products? Request a nutraceutical manufacturing price quote from Vitaquest today or call 800-526-9095 to speak with one of our knowledgeable sales executives.
