In cannabis production, innovation isn’t a choice but a necessity. With a company like Oregon’s Sugar Tree Farm, finding a way to bring sun-grown cannabis from farm-to-nail in the most local and sustainable way requires innovation throughout the production process.
Luckily, ensuring product integrity through seamless filling operations is critical to our crew at Vape-Jet. That’s why Sugar Tree Farm reached out to us for assistance with their mission: maintaining product quality from seed to dab.
Now, with Dab Factory and Sessions, their distinguished Butane Hash Oil (BHO) brands, Sugar Tree Farm is leading the charge for smaller mom-and-pop shops with the most well-cultivated, high-quality products available.
We sat down with General Manager Joy Kintz, and two of their extraction experts Jeremiah Kintz and Dario Flynn to discuss their cannabis automation journey from carts to dabs and to see how they harness the power of Vape-Jet to grow their production processes.
Launching with Vape-Jet
Before
Dario, Joy, and Jeremiah reflect on starting their business and realizing quickly that automation was the only way to compete.
“It’s 2024, carts have been around for a while,” Dario says. “There’s a lot of companies that are absolutely destroying it, and they make fantastic products.”
“If we want to even try to compete with [other cannabis companies] we have to use all the tools in our arsenal to bring the highest-quality options to people,” Dario says.
Knowing they would need to invest in automated equipment for cartridge production to compete in a saturated market, Sugar Tree embarked on an extensive research phase, dedicating close to a year to refine their processes and select the best equipment.
The turning point came when a neighboring facility upgraded to a Vape-Jet fully automated cartridge-filling machine, allowing Sessions’ crew to test the waters by borrowing their semi-automatic Jet Fueler. “We were like, ‘this is really awesome,’” Joy explains. “We realized we needed to go bigger and faster because we were launching whole new brands. So, we got in contact with Vape-Jet,” Joy says.
Investing in a Vape-Jet fully automated cartridge filler was the only practical way to scale operations. “Manual filling methods or semi-automated solutions wouldn’t cut it given our growth projections,” Dario explains.
Joy emphasized the importance of efficiency from the outset. “We understood that starting small wasn’t an option in today’s competitive market. By investing in advanced equipment like the Vape-Jet, we could ensure consistent quality and meet consumer expectations.”
“We thought, ‘we’re going to launch something new, we need to shoot for the stars.’ So in our mind, we thought, well, we might as well just pull the trigger and go for the big boy. We went straight to the Vape-Jet and just ran from there.”
Growing with Vape-Jet
After
Sessions’ production capacity grew precipitously. Growing at such an accelerated rate was remarkable for a new product line. Their new Vape-Jet matched Sessions’ mission: achieving a sustainable product workflow that matched their customers’ desire for fresher, more local, and additive-free cannabis products.
In recent weeks, they’ve added a second Vape-Jet, and are expecting to fill double their current filling rates, a still-massive 2,500 vape cartridges every four hours (with four hours of labor dedicated to labeling and preparing for distribution). With two machines, Sugar Tree expects to produce 8,000-9,000 vape carts per day.
Their production speed will improve further because, as Joy explains, with a seamless workflow of two Vape-Jets, one running disposables, and one running 510s, “we can run the same strain and get two products at the same time,” Joy explains. That’s less changeover, less waste, and, especially at scale, a great way of reducing production costs.
What do they fill?
Sugar Tree Farm specializes in sun-grown cannabis, integrating their Dab Factory and Sessions brands as the core of their full-spectrum hash oil offerings.
510 (AVD EZ Click) and All-in-One (iKrusher Uzo)
Vape-Jet Partner equipment works seamlessly with our automated filling machines.
Vape-Jet partners are vetted by our crew and represent some of the top brands in cannabis production. We precision calibrate our equipment for partners like AVD and iKrusher to ensure seamless, efficient cartridge-filling.
Butane Hash Oil from 100% cannabis (strain-specific terpenes from cannabis only)
The Dab Dispenser Semi-Auto helps keep each strain fresh from source to customer. “As the extractor, it’s not my job to be some kind of magician and turn [extracts] into something fantastic,” Dario explains. “It’s my job to showcase what these awesome growers have been working their butts off to bring us.”
Collaborating with Vape-Jet
At Vape-Jet, we work closely with brands like AVD and iKrusher to ensure our filling machines work seamlessly with our customers’ hardware.
“That’s one of the things I’ve been super impressed about, not only have you guys had our back with our facility, but you’ve gone above and beyond to communicate with AVD,” Dario says.
Vape-Jet’s in-house engineering team worked with AVD to create custom-designed occlusion jigs for both the AVD and iKrusher hardware to maximize the efficiency of our machine vision system and boost throughput rates while filling.
“In the few months that we’ve been working with you, I’ve personally seen changes from AVD and from [Vape-Jet] to meet in the middle and make some really kick-ass stuff,” Dario says.
“The occlusion jig you guys created for us has made it hands-down, almost seamless,” Joy explains. “We did experience issues filling [510s] before, but since we’ve gotten the jigs you’ve made, it’s been night and day.”
“With the [AVD] jig, we cut the time it took to fill 50 carts in half,” Dario says. “It was about six, seven minutes before. Right now, I’m filling 50 cartridges in under three minutes. I almost can’t take them out and put lids on any faster than that.”
“Ryan Hoitt got that [jig] out to us within 24 hours,” Dario remembers. “He came and dropped it off first thing in the morning, and we tested it right there to make sure it worked one hundred percent. We had one of the fastest runs that I’ve ever seen. Like just over two minutes to fill fifty carts.”
Piloting the Dab Dispenser
The newest member of the filling fleet, our Dab Dispenser Semi-Auto, is the result of countless hours of R&D both in our facility and in our partner labs. Sessions was one of the first test pilots to join our Pilot Program, collaborating with us by providing data and feedback to improve the design of our products.
As a witness to the evolution of the Dab Dispenser, Dario recalls changes to the machine based on feedback from their lab team. “I’ve been super impressed about [the Pilot Program] every step of the way. We’ve seen several different variations and modifications.”
“It seems like every single day, you guys came in here and tweaked the [Dab Dispenser] a little bit,” Dario says. “You might have had a new piece of hardware, a software update, cutting down fill times, cutting down load times—just adding new things.”
“I was actually very happy with the product that you all brought to us two, three months ago, but Ryan and Devon said, ‘We’re not even close to done there’ and they’ve kept going.”
How did the Dab Dispenser do?
Speed
By hand, their team can fill and package 400 to 600 jars a day, a number dependent on operator experience and a host of other variables in a very manual process. With the initial prototype of the Dab Dispenser Semi-Auto? They are gramming 300-350 jars an hour. “Right now, my extraction teams are making 5,000-7,000 grams a day,” Dario says.
Labor
“[The Dab Dispenser] helps reduce the amount of burnout that the packagers feel from sitting there and repetitively gramming by hand,” Joy explains.
Simplifying production and saving on labor is also a huge competitive advantage. “[Vape-Jet] gives us the opportunity to compete with larger corporations or companies that have [more] money to spend on labor. For us to be a small company and be able to, put out that much product in such a short amount of time is a game-changer.”
Preserving Product Quality
Sessions’ extracts consists of outdoor-grown flower, varying in viscosity and thickness, meaning their semi-auto machine is dialed in for each strain. Producing less terpene-heavy strains, the Dab Dispenser is a perfect platform to nail that batter, budder and sauce consistency.
“For the good majority of our strains, [the Dab Dispenser] is freakin’ perfect,” Dario says.
Accounting for the ideal filling variables of each strain, the Dab Dispenser can preserve strain-specific characteristics while weight-checking each individual jar, allowing operators to package products quickly, preserving flavor and quality.
Every gram looks good, too: “The gram presentation is fantastic,” Dario says. “You get a nice little gram right in the center of the jar. There’s nothing on the sidewalls, nothing on the lids.”
“We haven’t really had any issues with jamming, blowing motors, or putting too much pressure—[the Dab Dispenser is] a pretty seamless process,” Dario says.
Vape-Jet Support
Communication
When it comes to getting the support you need, quick communication is the best way to limit downtime. “[Vape-Jet] support has been great on any questions we asked,” Jeremiah says.
Support Tickets
“I really liked how you can access tickets and support requests right from the machine,” Dario says. “Throughout the day, I’ve had questions and reached out to the Vape-Jet team, and while I’m doing my workflow without having to stop, I’ll get a notification and message right on the screen. So that’s really cool—just because it’s so instant.”
Technical Support Professionals
“Everybody is so respectful,” Joy says. “You never get the feeling that like you’re bothering them, or they think they’re above you.”
“You guys have given us the opportunity to grow as a company, given us the ability to survive as a small mom-and-pop operation. And, in my opinion, I think some of the mom-and-pop operations have some of the highest quality products in this industry.”
“For consumers as a whole, the opportunity to try products from all kinds of companies and not just big conglomerates—you’ve really saved the little guy by creating products that streamline our business and help us to compete on the same level as bigger companies.”
“Another company might see us as not that big of a deal. Or like we don’t deserve as much attention as somebody else because we’re smaller, but you never get that feeling with Vape-Jet. You always feel like [Vape-Jet] really care about their customers genuinely.”
Elevating Production with Vape-Jet
Was the team at Sessions able to exceed their production goals and expand operations?
“Tenfold,” Joy confirms. “We had no idea what we were going to be capable of. And now that we have two Vape-Jets and a Dab Dispenser…”
“It took us about a month to realize that one Vape-Jet wasn’t going to be enough,” Dario says.
“Joy can tell you that she gets phone calls every single day, asking, ‘When are more carts going to be on the menu? Do we have more? How many more do we have?’”
“We’re pumping out almost double the amount of units that we were doing six months ago. And we thought we were doing pretty good six months ago, and we’re not even at full speed yet.”
Looking Ahead with Sugar Tree Farm
By harnessing the power of automated vape-filling and dab dispensing technology, Sugar Tree Farm, Sessions, and Dab Factory have elevated their production processes and set new standards in quality and scalability. We look forward to seeing what the future has in store for this amazing team.
Other Vape-Jet Success Stories:
Proper Brands
Ration, Blue Box Brands & BeGreen Supply
Fernway
True North Collective MI
C3 Industries
Terrapin Care Station
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