Hello all,
Any input is appreciated and thank you in advance.
I’m on the hunt for a quality packaging machine for flower and theres a lot of options out there that of course all have their reasons why their the best.
This will be my first packaging machine and I can’t afford to get this wrong.
*Prefer jar packaging but am open to pouches.
*as automated as it can be (within reason)
reliability is most important.
weigh from 1g- 454 is ideal but at minimum of 1-56g
*keeps track of what it packages so we don’t need to count.
*seals or puts the lid on ready for the shelf
I see so many its making me dizzy, price ranges from the ceiling to the moon.
IF ANYONE EVEN USED ONE AT WORK OR A FRIENDS PLACE PLEASE SHARE YOUR INPUT!
I am always so excited to talk about packaging equipment. It was the second thing I got to work with in my engineering career. What kind of price tag are you willing to have here?
I don’t feel comfortable with your range 1g to 454g - that is going to cause you to have many change parts, in my opinion. Plus you’d have to have 1000’s of lbs every day to need the expense of automatically packaging lb bags.
Personally - I always preferred machines that were going to pack into jars (aka bottles). I have some more questions - each answer will help us dial in the kind of machine you are really looking for. Gosh I love these adventures on F4200!
How many lbs do you need it to do per day or per hour?
What is the size range on your flower? Micro-pop, pop, mids, tops, seriously giant tops?
Do you need it to package things that are not flower? Kief or trim or other things?
What are your in-house standards for weight accuracy and precision?
How many people will be working on your line? 1-2 , 3-5, more than 5?
What kind of jars are you thinking? Glass, HDPE?
If pouches instead, is someone holding the pouch or is the machine holding the pouch?
Are you weighing the container after with a human OR do you want the machine to do all of that?
Do you expect the machine to do anything other than fill things? Like - put the lid on the jar, or put a label on the jar, or seal the pouch, or form the pouch, etc.
If my questions made you think of new things, please share. The more we know the better our map to your solution will be.
Okay - this is seriously fast, if you are packaging 8ths. The cheaper machines will require that a human place the bottle, put the cap on after it is filled, and take the bottle off from the end of the line. Usually those lines can fill and cap/seal around 30-60 units a minute, which is about half the 500lbs an hour you are asking about here. And that’s going super fast, meaning sometimes a person will miss one or two. I’ve been three places where people using fully manual processes could package about 100-150 lbs an hour without anything but scoops, vacuum sealers, and scales.
Okay - this brings the type of feeders that will fill your bottle/jar and check the weight down into a more manageable level of categories. You’ll have an auger style or the vibration style - sometimes you can get one with both. In any case - it will either be based on volume (which you tune for each specific product going through) or using a loss on weight system (hopper is weighed, each fill removes, X weight).
1 to 2 people means a very automated machine. Where the people load product on one end and take product off on the other end. These machines exist, I’ve seen them cost millions of dollars (by Bosch or Uhlmann) They have large footprints (think 48ft by 8ft, perhaps more, plus utilities). Its doable but you’ll also have to pay someone for automation support.
Normal jar - does it have to be glass? There are companies that will sell you the jar AND sell you the equipment to package that jar as well, filled and everything.
Okay - bottle? Pouch? They are very different machines in some ways and the same in others. Filling is very similar - but the forming of the pouch and sealing of the pouch are different than aligning a bottle, placing a cap, screwing the cap on, and sealing the bottle. You can have both - but I have never seen anyone do it on a single automated line. You could have a mostly manual option, where people hold the pouch/bottle and all the machine does is weigh/dump.
If you are thinking pouches - you can really go two directions. 1) pouch is already made and the machine just opens the pouch and fills it. (Like Paxiom) 2) pouch isn’t made, machine pulls through the material blows the pouch into a mold, fills the mold, and then seals over the pouch. Like an Uhlmann, there are other brands, I always liked Uhlmann cause their change parts were easy to get on and off. Could have the machine setup in an hour and rolling.
I’ve probably given you a lot of information without actually answering your question. For Cannabis - I’d try first at N2 Packaging. You won’t have to convince them to work with your company or jump through many hoops. They have solid equipment and excellent packaging options (many different options available, including pre-labeled containers and labels printed on the line).
I’m on contract right now so I can’t come help right away - but if they don’t get you where you need to go, please reach out and I’ll work to get you the right equipment for your needs.
Cassin, First, thank you for the reply I’ve learned quite a bit from you.
I thought my expectations may be high, they normally are.
I was hoping to get something to fit in a 8Wx9Hx40L reefer seacan but I can figure it out if its bigger.
I’m going to start by contacting N2 packaging and see what they can do.
I’ll keep you updated, it might be nice to hire someone like yourself to get us the right equipment. It’s intimidating trying to buy something for this amount of money and knowing so little about it. I know what I want it to do but not sure whats possible and cost effective.
Labor is always a issue, I get along better with machines than people, normally in the long run the machine is cheaper, more reliable and more productive.
Thats not always the case, I’ve been sucked into many trimming machines that proved to collect more dust than trim flower.
I can add more people to the process, I just tend to have high hopes. I’m open to hearing other options.
Thanks again for the info its been very informative
I spoke to N2 packaging. The canning uses nitrogen and I want to stay away from that. From what I understand once you open the container the flower goes dry very fast.
Probably you can run the machine without N2. I’ve found two of their containers to be really good for resealing. They have like 10-15 types you can choose from and N2 injection was an option on the line I looked at but not mandatory.
Nitrogen is good to reduce oxidation if you need increased shelf life.
Gosh I love these adventures on F4200!
