Industry Insights
We recognize through our years of involvement with gel cap manufacturing that poor wedge coating quality or a non-ideal coating can result in some of the following:
QUALITY ISSUES
- Twisted seams
- Air pockets
- Leakers
OPERATIONAL ISSUES
- Sticking or jamming ribbons
- Build up & clogging
- Peeling & flaking wedges
RESULTING IN
- Increased scrap rates & set-up times
- Increased downtime
Our Solutions
If you’re experiencing one or a combination of these problems, here’s how we can help:
IMPROVE QUALITY
- Help match wedge coating to your gel ribbon
- Apply a consistent coating thickness
- Coating removal without affecting wedge radius
ENHANCE OPERATIONS
- Improve process stability
- Reduce costs and downtime
- Reduce setup time
- Partners with industry leaders to supply the most reliable FDA coatings in the industry
RESULTING IN
- Reduced scrap rates & set-up times
- Maximize product yield
- Increased uptime
We can provide wedge radius measurement
- Helps you determine when to recut or replace a wedge
- Measures and tracks your part’s physical properties
- Provides you with a diagnostic CMM report on each of your wedges
- We keep coating history of your wedge through serial number surveillance
This knowledge will give you more confidence in your decisions and will result in more reliable wedge performance.
CUSTOMER STORY
Maximizing productivity and improving inventory management
Wedges are critical components used to manufacture soft gelatin capsules. This piece is integral to gelatin capsules because if it’s not coated properly, the capsules end up with twisted seams, air pockets, or leakage.
THE PROBLEM
A major international nutraceutical company got in touch with us and needed a solution to leaking gelcaps caused by the state of their existing wedges. This industry leader needed a long-term solution that ensured next-day turnaround time.
THE OPPORTUNITY
After several tests and research with both quality and time sensitivity in mind, we recommended a lower friction, food-grade Teflon™ coating. This application would be best suited for these specific gelcaps and its required ribbon thickness.
The performance of wedges are integral to success, or failure, of manufacturing gelatin capsules. To ensure quality we established a pre and post QA inspection process.
Wedges have precise surface and dimensional properties and we determined that serial number tracking paired with QA inspections would provide valuable benefits the customer.
THE SOLUTION
We helped our client improve operating performance, reduce maintenance downtime, and improve capsule quality.
In partnering with our client, we also implemented a preventative maintenance schedule that allowed us to offer 24-hour turnaround time between shipment drop-offs and pick-ups. With serial number tracking and inspection processes, we were able to build trust, maintain transparency, and report important details related to the wedge, its coating, its life, and its condition using coating measurement technology.
Suppliers
We proudly use only trusted and proven suppliers for all of our surface finishes.
Customers
If you’d like more information on how we can help you, you can call, email, or fill in the following information to get started: