This document summarizes small and large scale capsule filling machines. It describes the components and manufacturing of hard and soft gelatin capsules. Various filling methods are discussed including direct, indirect, and vacuum-assisted techniques. Specific machines from companies like Lilly, Farmatic, Hofliger & Karg, Macofar, mG2, Osaka, and Zanasi are outlined with their models and capacities. Capsule sealing and recent filling equipment are also briefly covered. In summary, the document provides an overview of capsule manufacturing processes and machinery used at different production scales.

1. SMALL SCALE AND LARGE SCALE CAPSULE FILLING
MACHINES
Under the esteemed guidance of
Dr.Bhanja
M.pharm., Ph.D
Presentation
By
Sandeep Undavalli

2. CAPSULES
Capsules are solid dosage forms in which one or more
medicaments are enclosed in a water-soluble, biodegradable shell
made up of gelatin.
Depending upon their formulation, the gelatin capsule shells may
be hard or soft.

3. Components Of Capsules
1. Gelatin
2. FD & C and D & C colorant
3. Sugar
4. Water - 12 to 16 % but may vary depending on the storage
condition
5. Sulfur dioxide (0.15%) - prevent decomposition during
manufacture
6. Opaquants/Opacifying agent - titanium dioxide

4. HARD GELATIN CAPSULES
Also referred to as “DFC” Dry Filled Capsule.
CAPSULE SIZES
For human use, empty capsules ranging in size from 000 (the
largest) to 5 (the smallest) are commercially available.
For veterinary use: No.s 10, 11and 12 having capacities of 30, 15
and 7.5 g, respectively

5. Filling operation of
hard gelatin
capsules

6. Filling hard capsule shells
The process of working:
• Rectification
• Separating the caps from empty capsules
• Filling the bodies
• Scraping the excess powder
• Replacing the caps
• Sealing the capsules
• Cleaning the outside of the filled capsule
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7. RECTIFICATION
• The empty capsules are oriented so that all point the
same direction i.e. body end downwards
• In general, capsule pass one at a time through a
channel just wide enough to provide grip at cap end
• The capsules will always be aligned body end
downwards, regardless of which end entered the
channel first with the help of specially designed
blades
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8. Separation of caps from body
• The rectified capsules are delivered body end first
into the upper portion of split bushings or split filling
rings
• A vacuum applied from below pulls the body down
into the lower portion of the split bushing
• The diameter of the bush is too large to allow them
to follow body
• The split bushings are separated to expose the
bodies for filling
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9. FILLING
DIRECT FILLING METHODS:
1. The Punch Method
Powder is placed on a sheet of a clean paper or porcelain plate.
It is formed into a cake having a depth of
approximately one-fourth to one-third the length of the capsule
body.
Then empty capsule body is held between the thumb and
forefinger and punched vertically into the powder cake repeatedly
until filled.

10. 2. Feton capsule filling
with empty capsule in the loader tray, the tray placed
on top of the filler unit
the loader inserts the capsules into the filling unit and is removed,
and the top plate is lifted to separate the caps from the bodies
the powder is placed on the unit and the capsule bodies filled
the top plate is returned to the unit and the caps placed on filled
capsule bodies
Eg: ProFill 100

11. ProFill 100

13. INDIRECT FILLING METHODS:
Auger-Filling Principle
• Powder or granules are contained in mass flow
hoppers with rotating augers
• Powder is fed continuously out of the hopper
outlet due to the rotation of the auger.
• Amount of powder fed into the body depends
on the time capsule body spends underneath
the hopper outlet and auger speed
- slower rotation increases the fill weight

14. Auger- Filling
Principle

15. • Vibratory fill principle: In the powder, a
perforated resin plate is positioned and
connected to a vibrator
• The powder blend tends to be fluidized by the
vibration of plate and assists the powder to
flow into the bodies through the holes in resin
plate
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16. Vibration-assisted Filling

17. • Piston tamp principle:
• In this pistons or tamping pins lightly
compress the individual doses of the powders
into plugs( also called as slugs) and eject the
plugs into empty capsule bodies
– DOSATOR PRINCIPLE
– DOSING DISC PRINCIPLE
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18. – DOSING DISC PRINCIPLE: A solid ‘stop’ brass
plate is sliding down the dosing disc to close off
the hole. Five sets of pistons compress the
powder into cavities to form plugs
– DOSATOR PRINCIPLE: It consists of
cylindrical dosing tube fitted with movable piston.
The position of the piston is preset to a particular
height to define a volume. Powder enters the
open end of dosator and is slightly compressed
against the piston into a plug
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19. Filling of Pellets
• Double Slide Method
• Vacuum-assisted Method

20. Double Slide Method
• Pellets flow from pellet magazine to
dosing chambers
• Dosing slide is closed to separate dosing
chamber and pellet magazine
• Outlet slides open

21. Double Slide Method

22. Vacuum-assisted Method
• Dosing tube enters pellet bed
• With the help of vacuum, the pellets are
sucked into the dosing tube
• Excess pellet are scraped off the end of
the dosing tube
• Dosing tube is lowered and pellets
released into capsule body

23. Vacuum-assisted Method

24. Filling of Tablets
• Dosing slide which can accommodate exactly 1
tablet moves underneath tablet feeder
• Slider moves over the capsule body where tablet
simply drops into it
• If properly filled, the pin dropped into the capsule
body will have limited movements, the horizontal
bar connected to the pin touches the sensor
• If not properly filled, horizontal bar will switch the
sensor indicating incorrect filling. Empty capsules
can be detected and eliminated from the product.

25. Filling of Tablet
sensor
Tablet feeder
Dosing slide

26. CAPSULE FILLING MACHINES
• Eli Lilly and company, Indianapolis, IN
• Farmatic SNC, Bologna, Italy
• Hofliger and Karg, Waiblingen, Germany
• Macofar SAS, Bologna, Italy
• mG2 S.p.A., Bologna, Italy
• Osaka, Osaka, Japan
• Parke-Davis and company, detroit, MI
• Perry Industries, Green Bay,WI
• Zanasi Nigris,S.p.A., Bologna, Italy

27. Lilly/Parke-Davis
Storage hopper
Rectifying unit
Two piece filling ring
Powder hopper
Peg ring
Closing plate
Collecting chamber

28. •Pelletised or granular materials are readily filled.
•Auger principle
•A relatively high speed, automatic, continuous machine called
the ROTOFIL specifically designed to fill pellets is available.
•Capacity: 1200 capsules per minute

29. FARMATIC SNC
Farmatic offers three models of filling equipments
Model Capacity
 40000 capsules
per hour
 80000 capsules
per hour
 160000
capsules per
hour
Farmatic Model 2000/60
Capsule filling machine
2000/15
2000/30
2000/60

30. Working of Farmatic machine model
 Continous motion with dosator type feeding units
 Totally enclosed for dust and noise control
 Adjustable vacuum for separating the capsules after
rectification
 Product hopper: powder is moved by a screw conveyer to the
operating tower.
 Dosators: Measure and deliver the powder as a slug to the
capsules.
 Digital display: indicates the status of the weight and
compression.

31. Hofliger and Karg
HOFLIGER KARG AUTOMATIC
CAPSULE FILLING MACHINE
H & K line consists basically of
four machine models.
GKF-303
GKF-602
GKF-1500
GKF-2500
Thixotropic liquids
Capsules,pellets
And tablets

32. H & K model GKF-602
Empty capsule storage hopper
Rectifier
Bulk powder storage hopper
Capsule body transport segment
Closing station
Filled capsules ejection station

33. Working of Hofliger and Karg model
Empty capsule storage hopper: holds the empty capsule shells.
Rectifier: rectifies the capsules.
Faulty capsules are removed and checked by a vacuum system,
which provides a signal upon feed interruption.
Bulk powder storage hopper: holds the bulk powder and
delivers following AUGER principle.
Capsule body transport system: holds the separated bodies and
caps individually and transports to various working stations.
Completely automatic and require only compressed air and a
power for operation.

34. Macofar
• Macofar line of equipments consists of three models.
• Low to medium capacity machines
MODEL CAPACITY
MT-12 35,000 capsules per hour
MT-13/1 5,000 capsules per hour
MT-13/2 10,000 capsules per hour

35. WORKING OF MACOFAR EQUIPMENT
• Similar method of rectification and filling.
• Separation accomplished by vacuum.
• Follows dosator principle.

36. mG2
• Five models of continuous motion filling machines are offered
by mG2.
MODEL CAPACITY
• G36/4 150 capsules per minute
• G36/2 300
• G36 600
• G37N 1600
• G38 1000

37. mG2 model:
• Similar method of operation as macofar model.
• G37 modified to G37N to
• continuous motion providing 2 ½ times the filling rate of
G36
• Improved handling of empty capsules.
• Lessened power dusting and noise reduction.
• External adjustments of weight control and powder
compression.
• G38 slightly slower than G37N

38. OSAKA
 High capacity, continuous motion machine.
 The only model available is
R-180 : 70000 to165000 capsules per hour
 Follows vibratory filling principle
 Two rows of capsule bodies
 External adjustment of fill weights
 Can be modified to 400000 capsules per hour with some
auxiliary equipment.

39. OSAKA MODEL R-180
SEMI AUTOMATIC CAPSULE
FILLING MACHINE

40. PERRY
• Model: CF ACCOFIL
• Capacity: 60000 capsules per hour
• Capsules rectified into 24 vertical tubes
• Sensor system assisted rectification
• Screw feeder
• High pressure air assisted bushing clean up.

41. ZANASI
• Nine different units in four model lines
• LZ-64 : 4000 capsules per hour
• AZ-20 : 9000 TO 20000 capsules per hour
• BZ series
• BZ-40 : 30000/hr
• BZ-72 : 60000/hr
• BZ-110 : 110000/hr
• BZ-150 : 150000/hr
• Z-5000 series
• Z-5000-R1 : 70000/hr
• Z-5000-R2 : 110000/hr
• Z-5000-R3 : 150000/hr

42. ZANASI AUTOMATIC
CAPSULE FILLING MACHINE

43. CAPSULE SEALING
1. sealing the joint between the 2 capsule parts
2. Sealing them with colored band of gelatin (Kapseals).
3. Through a heat welding process that fuses the
capsule cap to the body through the double wall
thickness at their juncture - distinctive ring around the
capsule where heat welded
Example: Weld’s gelatin seal

44. 4. Liquid wetting agent that lowers the melting point in
the contact areas of the capsule’s cap and the body
using low temperatures (40-450C)
5. Lightly coating the inner surface of the cap with a
warm gelatin solution immediately prior to placement on
the filled capsule body.

45. Weld’s Gelatin seal fuses the two capsules halves to create one piece
capsule that is tamper-evident

46. SEALING OF CAPSULE

47. Recent Filling Equipments
• Roto-fill: - 2 lakh capsules/day
• Acco-fill: - 75,000 capsules/hr
• Roto-sort: - 1,50,000 capsules/hr

48. Soft gelatin capsule

49. SOFT GELATIN CAPSULES
Also referred to as as Soft Elastic Capsule. Are
prepared from shells of gelatin plasticized by the addition of
glycerin, sorbitol or polyol.
The shell may contain preservatives to prevent from
fungi.
A soft gelatin capsule has a seam at the point of closure
of the 2 halves, and the contents can be liquid, paste or
powder.

51. Methods For commercial Manufacture Of Soft
Gelatin Capsule
1. Plate-Process.
 A warm sheet of prepared gelatin is laid over the
lower plate and the liquid is poured on it.
 A second sheet of gelatin is carefully put in place
and this is followed by the top plate of the mold.
 The set is placed under the press where pressure is
applied to form the capsule which are washed off
with a volatile solvent to remove any trace of oil
from exterior.

52. Rotary Die Method
 Liquid gelatin flowing from an overhead tank is
formed into two continuous ribbons by the rotary die
machine and brought together between twin rotating
dies.
 At the same time, metered fill material is injected
between the ribbons precisely at the moment that the
dies form pockets of the gelatin ribbons.
 These pockets of fill-containing gelatin are sealed by
pressure and heat and then severed from the
ribbon.
 The capsule is washed with organic solvent and pre-dried

53. • Advantages:
- capsules can have all
kinds of shapes and
sizes
- different colors for
both sides
- wide variety of fills
• Disadvantages:
- high amount of shell
waste material
- longer drying time
compared to Globex
Method

54. 54
Rotary die soft capsule
machine The dies for production of soft
capsule

55. Globex Method
• Filling is pumped through the inner capillary of
a concentric double capillary
• Shell forming solution is pumped through the
outer capillary of the concentric double
capillary
• The soft capsules are then immersed in a
cooling bath of about 4oc (usually liquid
paraffin).
• Cooling bath ensures immediate sol-gel
transformation, hence formation of flexible yet
firm robust outer film.

56. Globex Method
• Soft capsules are collected,
washed with organic
solvent to remove residues
of cooling liquid, and
gently dried at a relative
humidity of 20% in infrared
tunnels.
• Advantage: production of
seamless capsules which
are tamper-evident and
free of contamination or
entrapped air.
Cooling bath

57. REFERENCES
• The Theory and Practice of Industrial Pharmacy by Leon
Lachman and Herbert A. Lieberman (Special Indian Edition
2009) Page No: 374-412
• http://www.wohlassociates.com/used-encapsulators-capsule-fillers/
parke-davis-type-8-capsule-filling-machine-miscellaneous-
tooling.html
• http://www.ebseos.com/file/629.pdf
• www.pharmagupshup.com
• www.google.com
• www.pharmech.com

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