Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/377863
36 September 2014 Tablets & Capsules have the capabilities for temperature control. So we did a tremendous amount of stability work up front to make sure the softgel would be robust and not lose any of its disinte- gration [properties]." Hatchett said one of the keys to the company's success in softgels was the auto ribbon control (ARC), a proprietary CapPlus technique. "ARC basically controls the ribbon thick- ness in a remarkable way. Normal gel is inconsistent in viscosity, which re - quires constant operator adjustment to film thickness. When the thick- ness varies, so does the softgel qual- ity. ARC takes the operator and the viscosity out of the equation and that enables us to have perfect seals, mini- mal scrap, faster machine speeds, and world-class quality." On schedule and on spec Forever Living's softgel operation covers 22,000 square feet and includes two softgel machines, each with a 10-inch die roll. Other equip- ment includes 600-liter gel reactors and 300-liter transfer tanks, and each line has five tumble dryers, or tun- nels. Annual capacity is between 1 and 2 billion softgels. Hatchett credits CapPlus for fit- ting all the equipment into a tight space and for adhering to a timetable that other people called unrealistic. "We didn't pull the trigger on pur- chase orders until the beginning of February 2011, but we were pro - mised that softgels would be up and running by July 4th, Indepen dence Day 2011," Hatchet said. That included building out the facility, installing dehumidification equip- ment, putting in systems to do the quality checks, and setting up the analytical equipment. "Everyone said 'Good luck with that. To get softgels up and running like that is virtually impossible.' Some of the people I talked with said, 'No way, maybe by the end of the year,' but Wayne had us up and going at the end of June. He hit his timeline and we were mak- ing quality softgels, the best quality softgels, in very short order. "As long as the operators follow the procedures, everything goes right. It's only when they've strayed outside the procedure or used their own cre- ative solution to make something work that we have issues. Time and time again, when we go back to the standard operating procedures and get the correct setup in place and make sure the formulation was built correctly, we have no problems." The success of the operation is reflected in the statistics. "I look at throughput and I look at scrap rates, the reclamation, which for us is zero. I look at the quality statistics, both sensory and analytically, and that we're doing the checks on those soft- gels on a consistent basis throughout the process. We are constantly re - viewing the data to make certain that the softgels we provide our cus- tomers are the best softgels in the world. You can talk a lot about how great this equipment is, but I like to look at the numbers. That's where we know the product is working well. We've been very good at ensuring product quality before it ever goes to the consumer, so we've never had a recall; we've never had any of the product come back to us. We built it right from the front end." T&C CapPlus Technologies, Phoenix, AZ. Tel. 623 582 2800 Fax 623 582 4099 Website: www.capplustech.com Forever Living Products International, Scottsdale, AZ. Tel. 888 440 2563 Fax 800 455 3503 Website: www.foreverliving.com The inspection room includes several dehumidification chambers, capsule polishers, and graders for removing over- and undersize softgels. USA +1 973 467 8140 CAN +1 514 667 6777 UK +44 (0)1782 597540 BB-1243 SCREEN DISASSEMBLE RAPIDLY, AND SANITIZE MANUALLY OR IN AN AUTOCLAVE SMALL BATCH QUICK-CLEAN SIFTERS SCALP MATERIAL LOADED INTO PROCESS EQUIPMENT, CONTAINERS OR VESSELS PORTABLE BATCH SIFTERS BULK PHARMACEUTICALS AND NUTRACEUTICALS 5 SPECIALIZED WAYS SCALP OR DEDUST, THEN CLEAN OR STEAMINPLACE, OR DISASSEMBLE IN MINUTES C.I.P/S.I.P. VIBRATORY SCREENERS BATCH OR INLINE CENTRIFUGAL SCREENERS SLIDE INTERNALS FREELY FROM THE DISCHARGE END OF CANTILEVERED SHAFT FOR SANITIZING BAG DUMP VIBRATORY SCREENERS REMOVE BAG SCRAPS AND OTHER OVER SIZE MATERIALS DUSTFREE • Contamination-free • Sealed, dust-tight systems • Crevice-free designs • Highest sanitary standards • Virtually zero residual • Fast, thorough wash down • Capacities from grams to tons/h • Batch or continuous • Standard and highly custom designs