How To Choose The Right Machinery For Cannabis Processing

This article by Chynna Pearson was originally published on Cannabis & Tech Today, and appears here with permission.

The global cannabis industry has grown massively since its birth. Cannabis processing is currently being done in large factories.

The FRITSCH team in the lab. Photo courtesy of FRITSCH Inc.

Unfortunately, even with the progress made, machinery for processing is often made without consideration for the specific materials being processed.

At the moment, the consensus on processing cannabis is that it requires heavy machinery.

According to Supercritical Fluid Technologies, companies typically focus on particle size during the cannabis extraction process; “Large pieces of material have limited surface area, and therefore require large volumes of CO2 solvent for full extraction.”

The larger the surface area the more solvent will be needed to complete the process.

Due to issues like inconsistent sizing coming from milling machines, consistency is now highly sought after among machinery.

Companies dealing with milling and particle sizing can expect to spend the same amount of money and time each yield with consistent machinery.

Unfortunately, not all cannabis extraction and milling machines are created equal. 

FRITSCH Milling and Sizing, Inc. created the Universal Cutting Mill PULVERISETTE 19 to fix this issue.

Robert, Sebastian, and Max Fritsch. Photo courtesy of FRITSCH Inc.

The century-old German-based company specializes in the manufacturing of laboratory instruments.

FRITSCH Inc. says “the PULVERISETTE 19 has been optimized for cannabis processing; it finely mills cannabis plant material in preparation for SFE processes. The efficient and precise reduction in particle size optimizes oil output and formulation.”

FRITSCH has progressed from the usual milled grains to specializing machines to process cannabis.

Melissa Fauth, President and CEO of FRITSCH, explains, “With the experience FRITSCH has in pharmaceutical, food, and agricultural markets; we have instruments that were specially designed and engineered to reduce plant material and work with medicinal products.

In the cannabis industry we have taken that experience and we’ve been able to optimize an instrument specifically for the special attributes of the cannabis plant to be able to give the best success for elemental analysis and the laboratory testing or in processing prior to production.”

OUTCO, a California medical cannabis company, is focused on complete vertical integration as well as the science behind processing and extraction.

“How can we make sure our patients are getting consistent quality products every single time?” OUTCO CEO Lincoln Fish asked.

The company looked to the PULVERISETTE 19 for the answer.

Blake Grauerholz, OUTCO Extraction Manager, says, “Our FRITSCH mill has increased productivity ten-fold.

It allows us to extract all of our cannabis.

Photo courtesy of FRITSCH Inc.

The mill is very unique in that it gives us a very consistent particle size and at our own discretion; we are able to coarsely grind or finely grind it into a powder.

The powder is vital, not only can we fit more product into the extractor but also ensures an even extraction.”

The Cannabis Scientist reports the “PULVERISETTE 19 is an efficient tool to quickly comminute large volumes of cannabis plant material to a precise particle size.

Plant material is fed into the PULVERISETTE 19 through a large funnel for fast throughput.

The negative pressure in the milling system ensures a continuous flow through the cutting rotor and the selected sieve cassette for precise particle sizing.”

Read the original Article on Cannabis & Tech Today

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