Category: Uncategorized

Posted on by — 2 Comments

iCell Filling/Capping SOP

Filling SOP, iCell Ceramic Snap on Cartridges

Thank you for your interest in the Ascent iCell ceramic snap on cartridge. These cartridges are known for their world class power and flavor, but a lesser known fact is that any operation that desires to fill iCell in scale must be very sophisticated and efficient:


Necessary Equipment:

  1. 1x Fast moving filling machines like the Vape Jet or any of the Cart Farmer fillers.
  2. 4x 12mm socket wrenches with 3/8” drive
  3. 4x 6” Socket extensions with 3/8” drive
  4. 1x Homogenizer suitably sized to handle the entire batch being processed
  5. 1x Filler Operator
  6. 1x Capping Engineer (2 are preferred if keeping up with the Cart Farmer series fillers)
  7. 1200w Microwave oven

Process:


To begin make sure your filling machine is set up properly:

All heat pads should be tight and securely fastened, you do not want any heat slipping out between any possible spaces between the heat pad an material vessels (lines, reservoir, and fittings). As you are setting up your product I.e homogenizing/mixing you should be pre heating your filling unit.

  1. Your line heat pads on the cart farm unit should be set to 80-100c
  2. Your reservoir heat pads on the cart farm unit should be set to 50-80c

Allow your cart farmer to preheat for 10-15 minutes

Mixing

Mixing to full homogenization is extremely essential. For complete homogenization, the material being mixed must be in liquid form with viscosity similar to olive oil. 1200W Microwave Ovens cook distillates and diamonds to homogenization temperatures (90c) within minutes:

  1. Heat your base material to mixing tempurature
  2. Once totally liquified, your starting material vessel have pre-weighed batches of terps dumped in.
  3. Once the terpenes are mixed in, you can place the homogenizer probe in and mix. (Your homogenizer should be adequately sized to mix the entire batch in less than a minute.)

Filling

Now that you have the product mixed and up to a temperature of 80c you can pour your product your reservoir:

1. Once you have all product in your reservoir you can begin to prime your gun:

  • To do so begin by bringing the gun to the top of the reservoir and depressing the plunger to push all the volume in the dispenser out.
  • As you continue holding the plunger all the way down on the gun bring the gun below the reservoir and than let it refill.
  • Repeat process approx. 5-10 times.

Remember: even when the material starts to flow freely, continue to prime the dispenser a few more times afterwards to make sure that all material going through lines is to the correct temperature.

2. Now you are ready to start filling. With either your crushed/round 8ga or crushed/round 14ga needles, you can begin to carefully fill your cartridges

  • DO NOT!! rest the needle on the glass and pressed up against the post.
  • Every fill should be with the needle directly pointed down into the cartridgeto avoid placing stress on either center post or surrounding glass.

Capping

There is a 5minute time limit on caping the cartridges. The filler operator must be able to to do the amount needed to fill a tray done in under 3-4min. This is because each individual cartridge must capped within the first five minutes of filling it.

It is the filling team’s job to get the product off heat as fast as possible for the best color and flavor so set the filling space up to be efficient from filling to capping. The cappers should be directly opposite of the filler, with the filler starting closest to the capper and moving left to right, so the capper has easy acces to the cartridges without obstructing the filler.

  1. When the filler starts their fill, they announce “FILLING” to the team. The capper then starts a clock and marks the first cartridge filled to ensure correct capping.
  2. The capper should be equipped with both individual caps and a 100 tray of caps, to ensure capping occurs whether the filler is finished or not.
  3. The capper places either an individual cap or full tray.
  4. The capper then aligns the cap over the cartridge, and presses down with the capping tool (12mm socket wrenches).
  • With individual caps, the capper can place caps with their left hand and cap with their right
  • With the entire rack, a capper can place the tray with both hands and then dual wield capping tools (12mm socket wrenches) to cap extremely quickly.

Acent full ceramics are the only cart farm cartridges that can be flipped after filling to offset capping pressure without flooding the coil. This allows for a fuller looking cartridge.