Breaking the Bottleneck: Jornen’s Multi-Tube Feeder Conquers High-Speed Square Tablet Packaging
Project Background: The Geometric Challenge of Irregular Shapes
In today’s solid dosage market, pharmaceutical and nutraceutical brands increasingly adopt unique geometric tablet shapes to enhance brand recognition and differentiate their products. Recently, Jornen took on a highly challenging project: engineering a reliable feeding solution for purely square tablets. During the Site Acceptance Test (SAT), this customized solution achieved a flawless 100% fill rate on a high-speed, continuous-motion blister packaging line.
As industry professionals know, square tablets are notoriously difficult to process. Unlike round tablets that roll naturally, square tablets feature flat edges and sharp right angles. When they pass through traditional feeding chutes, they are highly prone to interlocking and “bridging,” which blocks the product flow. Furthermore, if the tablet’s edge thickness isn’t optimally designed, pressure within the feeding tube can cause the tablets to act as wedges, leading to “twinning” (overlapping) or flipping. This inevitably results in empty blister pockets, broken tablets, and costly machine downtime.
The Jornen Breakthrough: Customized Multiple Tube Blister Feeder
To completely resolve these pain points and meet the customer’s demand for high-volume, high-yield production, our engineering team deployed a highly customized Multiple Tube Blister Feeder.
As demonstrated in the recent SAT trial video, this system exhibited remarkable stability and exceptional feeding efficiency. The core technical advantages of this system include:
1. Precision Control via a Three-Tier Combo Structure
The feeder operates using a meticulously synchronized three-tier tray system (upper, middle, and lower).
● The Upper Tray utilizes high-frequency micro-vibration to help the square tablets overcome the frictional resistance caused by their sharp corners, allowing them to glide smoothly into the custom square tubes.
● The Middle Tray acts as an escapement or “gatekeeper,” precisely controlling the descent to ensure only one single tablet is released per cycle.
● The Lower Tray ensures millimeter-level alignment with the blister cavities below.
2. Reciprocal Motion for Continuous Webbing
The blister machine featured in the video operates on a high-speed continuous motion principle (the forming web is continuous-motion). To accommodate this, our Multiple Tube Feeder is mounted on a servo-driven reciprocal tracking mechanism. When the feeding command is triggered, the entire feeder assembly moves synchronously forward at the same speed as the alu-PVC web. It instantly deposits a full index of square tablets while moving, then rapidly retracts to its starting position. This innovative design significantly extends the “safe time window” for the tablets to drop, a critical factor for successfully packaging irregular shapes at high speeds.
3. Custom Tube Clearances for Jam Prevention
Using the customer’s actual tablet dimensions and pressing tolerances, our engineers utilized advanced 3D simulation to optimize the internal clearances of the feeding tubes to their absolute physical limits. The calculated clearance allows the square tablets to slide down freely under gravity while strictly restricting their ability to rotate or tilt. This fundamentally eliminates the root cause of tube blockages.
SAT Results: Passing the Ultimate Test with Flying Colors
The SAT operational footage provides the most compelling evidence of success. Even at full production speed, the square tablets flow seamlessly, dropping precisely into their designated square cavities without hesitation or jams.
Furthermore, on the integrated Laetus Vision Inspection System display, every single blister pocket registers a green “PASS” frame. This confirms not only a 100% volumetric fill rate but also that the tablets are lying perfectly flat in the correct posture—with no flipped edges or chipped corners—laying a flawless foundation for the subsequent sealing station.
Conclusion
Feeding irregular shapes like square tablets remains one of the most demanding engineering subjects in blister packaging. The resounding success of this SAT once again highlights Jornen Auto-Pac’s deep engineering heritage and expertise in solid dosage packaging. No matter how unique your product’s shape may be, Jornen is dedicated to providing customized, highly reliable automatic feeding solutions to elevate your product quality and production efficiency.
Learn more about this feeder：
https://www.jornen.com/products/tube-blister-feeder/