You may be confused about dosing disc capsule filling machines and tamping pin capsule fillers. Actually, they are the same thing. Thanks to their excellent precision and efficiency, these machines are highly popular in today's market.
What is a Dosing Disc Capsule Filling Machine?
A dosing disc capsule filler is a must for automatically or semi-automatically filling capsules. It supports many materials to be filled like pellets and powders.
The filling process mainly works through a rotating disc with cavities and tamping pins. It ensures consistent portions of material when filled, allowing for precise dosing. It also distributes the contents evenly within each capsule.
Many people choose this type of machine because it has good automation and is efficient. The dosing disc allows for precise fill weight control. In addition, you can add cavities and tamping pins to meet custom production needs.
Find out How Dosing Disc Capsule Fillers Work
Here is a video to help you understand the whole working process.
When exploring the working principle, the dosing disc and tamping pins should be learned. They work closely with other 3 parts: powder bowl, tamping springs, and tamping ring. They comprise five pressing stations and one transit station. Take the powder for example. Let's see how the dosing system works.
In most cases, it includes the following four stages.
Stage 1
After pouring into the powder hopper, the powder is distributed by the dosing cone uniformly. Then it forms the powder bed. As the dosing disc spins, the powder fills the cavities. During this, the tamping ring acts like a lid, keeping the powder in the holes.
Stage 2
The dosing disk spins around. Then, the holes match the tamping pins of the first pressing station. The pins work like when you use a spoon to press cookie dough into a cookie cutter. They pack the powder tightly into the hole.
Stage 3
The disc keeps moving. And more powder continues to fill up the holes. The holes will align with the next tamping pins. Then the tamping pins press the powder as in stage 2.
It goes on until the fifth tamping pins finish tamping. As a result, The plug in the hole will be as deep as you require.
Stage 4
After forming a complete plug, the holes reach the transit station. The plug will be pushed by the sixth tamping pins into the capsule bodies in the segments. To help you understand, here is a picture of the whole process.
Three Points for Dosing Disc Working Optimization
For a better tamping process, it’s important to know 3 things.
Dosing Disc Thickness
The dosing disc thickness decides how much powder goes into each capsule. With the proper thickness, we can get the right amount of powder in each one. And their dosage is equal. There are many thicknesses to choose from, or you can customize one to meet your needs.
The dosing disk thickness must be picked correctly. You can calculate it by looking at some points like capsule sizes. If not, two problems might happen.
- If the dosing disc is too thin, it will hold less cavity. Less powder then will fit in. As a result, you won't get the weight you want.
- If the dosing disc is too thick, it will have more space. Then the plug may not be stably pushed into the capsule. Because the pressure you set is not enough.
Powder Properties
Free-flowing and sticky powders are common materials for tamping pin capsule filling machines. To avoid the powder loss and get the same fill weight, you can add more to make a higher powder bed. There are some differences between free-flowing powders and cohesive powders.
For free-flowing powders, like herbal powders, the height of the powder bed stays the same. The way it works is the same as mentioned above. For cohesive powders, they would stack up. As a result, the required depth and weight could not be achieved in previous stations.
Usually, a slow filling speed is good for cohesive powders. It makes the fill weight better and more consistent. For free-flowing powders, it is okay with normal filling speeds. Because they won't clump while being processed.
Tamping Pressure
Fill weight has a close relationship with tamping pressure. If the fill weight doesn’t meet your requirement, it may be because the powder isn't spread evenly. Or because the powder is packed in different densities.
You may try increasing the tamping pressure in this case. This way makes the powders closer together, removing any spaces or piles. It also makes them more even and tightly packed.
Moreover, when you press the powder harder, there tends to be less loss. This helps to maintain the same powder weight in each capsule.
Dosator Capsule Filling Machines VS Dosing Disc Capsule Fillers
Another type of capsule filler is dosator capsule filling machine. Compared to dosing disc capsule fillers, it uses a dosator tube and piston to complete the filling process. Here is a picture to show their differences in making a tightly packed plug.
Besides, if you want to fill DPIs, dosator capsule fillers are better. For regular medicines or health products, you can choose any of these machines.
The End
Tamping pin fillers are chosen by more and more buyers. After reading, I believe you are confident of a high-quality capsule filling.
As a leading capsule manufacturer in China, Huada Pharma provides a series of high-quality dosing disc capsule fillers. We also have a professional technical team to offer engineering solutions. If you don’t know how to operate the machine, we can give you step-by-step help. For any questions, feel free to contact us.