In the early planning of an operation in Massachusetts that will include the production of manufactured goods - concentrates, extracts, and edibles.
Assume I know nothing. Let’s assume we want to manufacture the full spectrum of what is possible. Aside from the commercial kitchen, I need an equipment list.
Please include your opinions about what are the best pieces of equipment, including manufacturers’ names.
If possible, please include the foot-print of each piece of equipment you name.
If it is NOT possible to manufacture all products under one roof, why not, and which ones work best together.
Also, please add any considerations you think are necessary when choosing equipment for or anything else you think I should know.
Thank you all in advance. I look forward to your responses.
Hi Suehiko -
I’m going to pitch right here…
I am a steel manufacturer and as a steel manufacturer, I believe that stainless steel rolling grow tables are the superior choice.
Whether you grow in dirt or hydroponic, rolling tables will increase your growing floor substantially - by eliminating all the aisles.
And we recently took an order for stacking tables - essentially turning 40,000 sq ft of floor into 120,000 sq ft. of growing floor space. Wood and plastic just can’t do that.
Got a problem with mold or bugs? You’ll have to burn that to effectively get rid of it - with steel, you’ll roll it outside and use a pressure washer. There’s a reason that surgical procedures are performed on stainless steel.
I am the owner of this manufacturing facility and would be pleased to talk to you (when you get to that point) about your specific needs. I can show you what we have built for other operations - knowing that yours will be specific to your facility.
If you are looking for odor mitigation and contaminant control, in an indoor space, Agriair would be a great product line to look into. Agriair’s PHI technology offers a safe, chemical and maintenance free method of eliminating odors with extra benefits for the health of your growing environment. On average, Agriair purifiers remove 85% of the strong odors from cannabis and other VOCs all while sanitizing your environment from mold spores, mildew, virus and bacteria.
Every facility has unique specifics. We offer individual recommendations on how to best suit your needs while protecting your product. Each product line offers varying coverage, some with built-in industrial blowers and other with options for installation into existing HVAC or air moving systems.
I’m tagging in our equipment manufacturers and suppliers on the site (@EquipManufacturers@EquipSuppliers) to see if anyone has any more applicable advice (relevant to the original posters question only please )
We also have several owners and some employees of processing facilities here as well that could possibly shed some light (@ProcessorOwners@ProcessorEmployee !)
What you will be able to do will depend a lot on your state rules. In
Colorado, there are three separate licenses for growing, making
concentrates and edibles, and a retail store.
If you are making concentrates there are several major types of extraction,
some of these like Butane may be specifically not allowed.
Ethanol- often the simplest and least expensive, I would recommend the type
where you extract with very cold ethanol, you will need equipment like a
rotary evaporator or thin film evaporator to get separate the alcohol from
the cannabis oil
Butane- Very cost effective, but can be dangerous and difficult to permit
because it uses a combustible gas, it is the best method for making the
dabbable products shatter and wax, you will need vacuum ovens to remove the
butane
CO2- high start-up cost, this equipment is expensive to buy, and often
difficult to maintain, you will need some post-processing to remove water
and CO2. You will also need a way to de-carboxylate either the flower
before extraction or the oil after extraction.
There are other types two like rosin, and bubble hash, pure heated air
extraction, steam distillation and many other less used technologies.
My advice to you would be to select your extraction method and go from
there. There are positives and negatives to each technology.
Looking for serious large operations interested in ‘air scrubbers’ for purification and aqueous ozone for ‘fusarium’ reduction etc. Get back at this email. art
Art Pichierri-President/CEO
CCUA/IC
1-800-398-4313 www.cdcs.ushttp://www.cdcs.us
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My suggestion would be to find a consultant that is able to adapt your facility to your needs and wishes. Every facility is different and choices depend on what you’d like to achieve. If you need a few great let me know.
Howdy @suehiko. I agree with @Daan. The first step in this process is finding either a key employee with a chemistry/extraction background who can run the facility and is familiar with all the equipment, or find a consultant who has already built these sort of facilities who can walk you through it making sure you don’t make any of the common mistakes of a first-timer.
Common extraction companies include:
Apeks
Eden Labs
Precision
BHOgart
Best Value Vacs (medium to smaller size)
Places to get vacuums and rotovaporators:
Across International
Best Value Vacs
Cascade
GrowersHouse (shameless plug )
I coincidentally had dinner with some high-end extraction consultants last night. If you’d like to chat with them, shoot me a message and I’ll give you a warm introduction. I believe they’re members of the forum as well, although I don’t know their usernames off the top of my head.
In that case, there are a number of automated harvesting solutions that we offer I would encourage you to check out. Lisa is our Sales Manager in the NorthEast part of the US and can demo any of our equipment for you before you make any choices. We offer:
Dry Trimmers (our flagship)
Trichome Extractors (for Kief to turn into edibles, rosin press, etc)
Destemmers (speed up the time it takes to destem your flower before trimming or processing into oil.)
AutoSorter (Automatically sort your flowers for various sizing)
Precision Batcher (custom weight batches of product to be packaged to the end-consumer)
we have a couple more tricks up our sleeve that should be coming out early-mid 2018
If you would like more information you can check out our website (www.GreenBroz.com)
Our Instagram account (@GreenBroz_Inc) has countless videos of our various machines in action. Our YouTube.com/GreenBroz page is a great resource too.
Feel free to DM me any contact information or if you would like me to send you Lisa’s. She’s great to work with and can demo anything you want to see in person before you consider purchasing it.
The beginning stage of anything you need in regards to concentrates, extracts, edibles or manufactured goods - are clones!
Being able to produce your own clones, in house, for cultivation - all the way through harvest, in order to acquire the product needed for further manufacturing and breakdown of extracts, edibles, etc - is simply priceless.
EZ-CLONE pioneered this system nearly 20 years ago and has been the industry leader in aeroponic propagation ever since. Our systems design is not only efficient, in respects to turn times, but also on the energy cost aspect of operation. Our systems are designed with commercial cultivation & actual horticulture research behind them. No guessing on what works, we know for a fact…literally!
Below, you’ll find detailed information on our EZ-CLONE Commercial Pro, Cloning System. Any further questions, comments or concerns, please feel free to reach out. Thank you and best of luck in your endeavors!
EZ-CLONE COMMERCIAL PRO SPECS
Cloning Sites - 459 Total Cuttings
Total Power Consumption - 5.1 Amps / 612 Watts
Physical Dimensions - L 50”x D 30”x H 78” Powder Coated Steel Frame specifically designed to roll through any standard size door frame. Utilizes less than 10 Square Feet of space.
Heavy duty Roller Castors for easy mobility. Each shelf built with its own Sliding Drawer that opens for simple access to cuttings.
Single Watertight Electrical Box houses all components in one location. Uses only 1 Standard 120V Electrical Cord.
Custom 20 Gallon Reservoir with Moulded Handles and Drains on long and short sides.
30 Micron Water Filter, inside of reservoir, very easy to change by hand.
Outboard Water Pump has individual Motor and Pump Head. Motor uses 4.2 Amps / 500 Watts. Comes set from factory at 75 PSI.
High Pressure Tubing routed snuggly and safely inside the Frame Rails. Leakproof Quick Disconnect Fittings, with Locking Clips on each fitting for added safety.
Custom Mister Heads secured to the bottom of each Catch Tray, producing a 30 Micron Droplet at 75 PSI. Misters are simple to disassemble for inspection and cleaning.
Fully fitted with Light Reflectors. Each containing two T5 Bulbs, which individually produce 39 Watts and 6500 Kelvin. Each Light has its own On/Off Switch. LEDs will also be an option.
The frame houses two timers, one for the Water Pump, to customize your Aeroponic On/Off Cycle, and the other to control your Lighting Cycle.
I am in absolute agreement with @dann I have been manufacturing and installing high seed precision packaging lines for 10 years and my company has been offering the same for over 40. If you’d like to to discuss this with me. Feel free to hit me up.
We offer a full complement of equipment from bulk product in to out the door in retail packages. We build all of our systems here in the USA (California) and have been providing high precision automated weighing system for 40 years. I offer fully automated precision net weigh packaging system, you can see mine here: Micro420 (Cannabis Packaging Machine ) 0.1g resolution 100% Made in USA - YouTube. I’d be happy to send you other videos as well, of course this is not applicable for liquid fill but just FYI.
If Butane is allowed and the permitting burden is not higher than other methods, I think I would go butane. My number two choice would be cold press ethanol, and CO2 would be my third choice. I have used all 3 of those techniques professionally. I now work for a company that uses only hot air as an extraction technique but it would not be the best method if you are just starting out. If you have further questions my email is Dana@nespurity.com, I am happy to help if I can. I have been in the industry since 2013, have worked as the director of extractions at two companies and as an analytical chemist at one of the Colorado Testing labs.
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