Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/678483
over to NeoCell's production coordi- nator, Javier Barragan, who was glad to part with the old equipment. "At the end, the most I could get from that line was 12 bottles per minute, and demand kept on increasing every month. We were just going back- wards," he said. "We needed some- thing capable of doing bigger pro- duction outputs because we were still growing." 20 May 2016 Tablets & Capsules NeoCell's new packaging line supports fast growth didn't need and adding some options it did. The bottling line Barazi speci- fied includes a SortStar bottle unscrambler, a Street Fighter SF-100 electronic counter-filler, a Syn - chroblock desiccant and cotton inserter, a metal detector, a BeltStar inline capper, an induction sealer, a BeltStar retorquer, a BandStar neck bander, and a LabelStar labeler. Barazi then turned the project The heart of the NeoCell's new tailor-made bottling line is the Street Fighter SF-100 electronic counter-filler. Its speed and accuracy is a welcome change, said Javier Barragan, the company's production coordinator. I N D U S T R Y NeoCell of Irvine, CA, is a family- owned, research-oriented supplier of premium collagen-based dietary sup- plements. The company opened in 1998 after its founder learned first- hand about the therapeutic benefits of collagen. It was the first US company to offer dietary supplements contain- ing pharmaceutical-grade collagen. As the company has grown—busi- ness has quadrupled over the last 6 years—NeoCell has replaced a vari- ety of its production equipment. In 2013, managers took aim at the bot- tling line that packages its tablets and capsules. "It was falling apart and there was no hope of repairing it anymore," said Mo Barazi, the com- pany's plant manager. "Plus, it was taking too much time, so we took the opportunity to start from scratch and run our line the right way." Barazi researched the market at trade shows. "The shopping wasn't difficult because the numbers tell you everything you need to know. As long as the machines do what they're supposed to do, there's no difficulty in making comparisons. The diffi- culty is just choosing exactly how far your dollars can go." In 2013, he visited WestPack and examined equipment from a variety of companies, including Capmatic, Montreal, Quebec. "The Capmatic line was on the high end for us, but when it came down to it, we felt that the details warranted a discussion, and they worked with us on the price," Barazi said. The company also offered to customize the line by removing components NeoCell a p p l i c a t i o n