In the dietary supplement and vitamin industry, consumer demand for “natural” products is a key driver behind brands’ preferences for vegetarian HPMC capsules. But as many manufacturers have discovered, not all empty capsules are created equal. In fact, capsule quality can have a significant impact on the success of your manufacturing processes.The simple truth is this: High-quality capsules reduce downtime and waste. After all, what happens when capsules don’t separate well; don’t load properly; break, split or tuck during the joining process; or have other running problems? You incur extra expense due to frequent stoppages for cleaning, downtime for troubleshooting, wasted fill material, or, even worse, inspections.
Conversely, when capsules run well on your filling equipment you enjoy higher yields, better efficiency, and lower overall costs.
As innovators of a revolutionary and proprietary process, CapsCanada has created K-CAPS® vegetarian capsules. K-CAPS have a proven track record of resolving manufacturing problems for the dietary supplement industry. The following provides an overview…
Capsule tooling fit
To minimize defects and waste you want a capsule that fits precisely within your tooling. If your empty capsules are 0.001” of an inch too small, for example, they can be loose and wobbly within the tooling. If the empty capsules are too big, they might not seat well into the tooling. And if there are any problems with capsule loading and feeding your machinery will get dirty, resulting in downtime and waste.
To address these problems K-CAPS are sized to work well with the most prevalent types of machinery and tooling and manufactured to a very precise standard. This gives you the excellent capsule-to-tooling fit—and associated higher yields and lower downtime— for which CapsCanada is known. Plus, because K-CAPS are heavier than most vegetarian capsules, they’ll stand up better to imperfections in your filling machine, even as your tooling starts to get worn out.
Capsule separation
Empty capsules that fail to separate are another common problem that results in dirty filling equipment, wasted filling material, and increased downtime.
To support higher yields, K-CAPS vegetarian capsules are designed to separate extremely well. They will even separate well at low suction levels, such as what happens when the filter on your vacuum pump has gotten dirty after your filling machine has been running for a long time.
Maximized fill capacity
If you’re like many manufacturers, you frequently push the limits on how much fill material a capsule will hold. But if the capsule dome isn’t strong enough to withstand the extra pressure needed to close these “overstuffed” capsules, you’ll end up with a lot of damaged capsules and wasted fill material.
K-CAPS HPMC capsules have extremely strong domes, giving you the ability to maximize the quantity of fill material without causing excessive capsule breakage.
Capsule joining
Splits and tucks are commonly seen with HPMC capsules. Many factors can contribute to these joining problems, including poor capsule-to-tooling fit and a fill material with a large particle size.
Although K-CAPS do not eliminate joining problems completely, their more robust construction makes them more resistant to tearing or breaking if the two edges collide during the joining process.
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Inconsistent quality
With many vegetarian capsules on the market, manufacturers find that some lots run well while others run poorly. K-CAPS have a high level of consistency from one lot to the next. All of the technical details and dimensions of the capsules, from the roundness and wall profile to the weight and separation properties, are dependable from batch to batch. The use of high-quality raw materials and precision manufacturing processes both contribute to this.
Issues related to formulations
In addition to all of the above issues related to the vitamin and supplement manufacturing process, K-CAPS HPMC capsules can also help the dietary supplement industry address a number of issues related to formulations. K-CAPS are an excellent choice for hygroscopic formulations, and their low moisture properties work very well with moisture-sensitive APIs such as probiotics. K-CAPS are not as prone to the issues with brittleness and cross-linking that are more frequently seen in other polymers. Plus, when combined with a band-seal, K-CAPS can be filled with various types of oil-based liquids, a growing product sector in the nutritional industry.
