Empty capsule

Our auto packing capsule line uses a laser to detect when a capsule passes by it, which is how it counts the capsules. Weight is not used on that specific machine. Our QA team then weighs each finished bottle, but there is a range they can be in spec with. Microzinc is so small. It's in a size 3 capsule. That only weighs 48mg. The plastic bottles can vary by 48mg themselves. A single capsule being empty won't throw off that variance enough to reject that bottle. Then our QA team does manually count some from each batch, but that's only a certain % of the run. They can't manually count every capsule in every bottle in a run. That would be nuts. This is why we always overfill. There are manufacturing variances in automated processes that just can't be 100.00000% every time. We do millions and millions of capsules a month. A single empty capsule getting through on a single bottle is just part of an acceptable automated process variance. This is the entire reason we add more capsules to every unit. 99% of other brands build their units exactly to spec, so the few that get an empty capsule or on the lower end of the machine tolerance just get less than they paid for. That's what all brands accept as part of their manufacturing variance. We don't. To ensure nobody is ever short, we give everyone more than they paid for, so that the very few that do get something on the lower end of the manufacturing variance are still getting what they expect. I know it might not sound like much, but us putting more active ingredient into each capsule, then us putting more capsules in every unit, costs a lot of money every month. It's not a small number. However, we do that so that no customer is ever short. Things like this are why we do that. So to ensure that the 1 customer out of 1,000 that is affected by a process variance is not short, we give everyone more. That's the only way, other than doing what a pharmacy does, and manually filing everyone's bottles by hand. Even then, no system is every perfect every time over millions of units. It's just not the way the world works. That's why you build your processes to shift the lower end of the process variance to be at target. That just costs more, so almost nobody does it.

As to how an empty capsule can exist in a full batch itself, that's just part of what happens with an automated capsule filling machine. Sometimes a single hole in the ring might not separate the halves of the capsule properly. Bulk capsules come put together. The automated capsule filling machine then separates them, fills them, then puts them back together. Sometimes a capsule might not align right, or just be particularly difficult to separate, so the two halves might not properly separate before the filling step. There is another machine after the capsule filler that uses a slight vacuum to suck away any empty capsules that get through. However, that suction has to be adjusted to each batch. In a small size 3 run like Microzinc, you can't have too much suction or it starts to suck out full capsules as well. Inevitably a few empties are going to get through in a multi-million capsule run. It's just part of that automated processes variance as well. It happens less as you go up in size and weight for the capsules, due to the weight differential between full/empty. Again, this is why we shift our processes up so that the lower end of that process variance is at our target. We have an automated machine that will weigh every single capsule in a run, but we don't use that on every batch. This is because it moves VERY slowly. It would take days for it to weigh every capsule in a million capsule run, so we only use it on batches that fall into a certain process variance that warrants it. There is a sick ass automated capsule filling machine that will weigh every single capsule as it is manufactured, but that's a million dollar machine. We ain't there yet. Someday I might be able to throw a million dollars on one capsule machine, but we have a ways to go for that yet.