Author: VJ Crew

ElevatedRX: Customer Feature

Post author By VJ Crew
Post date April 10, 2023

Proudly cultivating, extracting, and manufacturing from the heart of New Mexico, ElevatedRx is a licensed cannabis extraction and manufacturing company raising the bar for premium-quality cannabis products. Guided by a mission to provide superior edibles, wax, and distillate for consumers, the team at ElevatedRx won the “Best Cart” award with Peaches and Dream at the Essie Awards and continues to focus on delivering products with the highest quality, purity, and potency.

With this mission in mind, the next step for ElevatedRx was to ensure every touchpoint in their process was handled with the same care as extraction. When your customers and mission demand perfection, every cartridge fill counts. That’s why the ElevatedRx team reached out to the Vape Jet crew and how they got started with the Jet Fueler.

In this customer feature, we spoke with Bobby and Danny who work in the lab at ElevatedRx to see how they have implemented our semi-automatic vape cartridge-filling machine and what tips they would like to pass on to other folks in the cannabis industry looking to elevate their products.

Before the Jet Fueler
Optimizing Throughput with the Jet Fueler
Tips, Tricks, and Product Support
10/10

‘In the Beginning’: Before the Jet Fueler

In the beginning, there was nothing…

Well, not really. In the beginning, there was hand-filling. Bobby and Danny recall the painstaking process of filling distillate by hand (with a syringe gun) the same way many of us remember hard times—lots of character-building, not too much fun.

Filling five vape cartridges at a time by hand meant having to cap each of the cartridges before filling more to ensure oil didn’t discolor in the cartridge. It also required a lot of labor, wasn’t fast by any means, and introduced variables that invite cartridge failures.

Before the Jet Fueler, ElevatedRx filled about 500 vape cartridges a day with four to five employees dedicated to the task for eight hours each.

‘Let There Be Light!’: Optimizing Throughput with the Jet Fueler

Switching to the Jet Fueler changed the game, Bobby and Danny agree. “[The Jet Fueler is] a lot more consistent with every single cartridge,” Bobby says. “It gives you very consistent carts, and it’s a lot cleaner too. I hate having sticky hands and sticky clothes.”

Having a Jet Fueler also gave a significant boost to ElevatedRx’s QA process. Before, there simply wasn’t time to weigh vape cartridges in the thorough way they do things now, Bobby and Danny say. In other words, having a semi-automatic vape cart filler allows them to focus on refining their processes rather than focusing purely on filling.

Now, ElevatedRx is filling much more volume, allowing them to pull more samples for QA to ensure repeatable quality fills. The fills have been a lot more consistent during spot checks, too, Danny says.

After the Jet Fueler, ElevatedRx can fill up to 2,000 vape cartridges a day with a single employee filling and one capping. That’s 1,500 more cartridges, quality-filled, and 50-60% less labor! They also switched from steel vape cartridge caps to ceramic AVD cartridges, which have resolved previous capping issues and made the cartridge-filling process much more efficient.

Jet Fueler Love: Tips, Tricks, and Product Support

Bobby and Danny’s favorite feature of the Jet Fueler? The heating elements. “The heating elements are really good. Having three separate heaters for the reservoir, needle, and line is very smart and prevents the degradation of your oil from excessive heat.”

Another great part about working with Vape-Jet is the industry-leading support team. “I’ve had nothing but good experiences. [The support team has] always been there for us any time we need anything. I’ve never encountered someone where I’ve felt like they were having a ‘bad day.’ They have always been chipper, nice, and able to help us out fairly promptly.”

Asked whether they had any tips and tricks for the Jet Fueler, Bobby and Danny identify a couple of items:

Work with Vape-Jet support to find the perfect target for each cartridge and oil type to ensure consistency.
Use a filter! “We just use a coffee filter, but it fits perfectly on top of the reservoir. I recommend a filter so nothing gets into the reservoir or valve.”

Unparalleled Cartridge-Filling Technology + Vape-Jet Support = 10/10

How likely are you to recommend Vape-Jet? “100%—10,” Bobby and Danny agree, “especially the price point compared to other machines. The Jet Fueler is super, super on point compared to anything else so far.”

At Vape-Jet, we’re always looking at how we can cultivate premium experiences for vape cartridge fillers and end users alike. ElevatedRx is a great example of how you can grow your brand, decrease labor and product loss costs, and establish yourself as a quality solution provider by optimizing your vape cartridge-filling workflow.

What’s next for ElevatedRx? The sky is the limit. With a new Vape-Jet fully-automatic cart filler in-house, we see more award-winning fills on the horizon. In fact, ElevatedRx just launched a disposable vape cartridge made possible by their Vape-Jet and Jet Fueler cart-filling machines. So, make sure to stay tuned to ElevatedRx to see what they have in store for 2023!

In the meantime, if you want to become another success story, reach out to our crew and we’ll find the best solution for your business.

Like our customer features? Check out these other success stories:

Don’t forget to sign up for our monthly Re:Fill newsletter to get early access to company updates, product releases, and other exciting announcements. Follow us on the essentials, too: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube.

Tags blog, customer feature, jet fueler, news

Laboratory

Measuring Vape Cartridge Success with N.N. Analytics

Post author By VJ Crew
Post date February 27, 2023

After exploring the reasons why vape cartridges fail in our previous blog post, it’s time to dive into the science of measuring vape cartridge success. Joining us again is Jake Rubenstein, the President and CEO of N.N. Analytics. In this blog, Jake shares his expertise on how Vape-Jet, N.N. Analytics, and other contributing factors ensure your cartridges perform at their best for a premium vaping experience.

What Leads to a Vape Cartridge Success?
How N.N. Analytics Can Resolve Your Vape Cartridge Failures
Standard Measurements We Use at N.N. Analytics
Guaranteeing Vape Cartridge Success: Measuring Solution Rheology and Cartridge Performance

What Leads to a Vape Cartridge Success?

Before we get into the finer scientific details of vape cartridge success, we should look at the factors that lead to a premium vaping experience. Here are the key elements that contribute to successful vape cartridges we’ve seen at N.N. Analytics:

Ensure your vape cartridge performs the same when full, half-full, or near empty without leaks, clogs, or dry hits.
Correct amount of delivered aerosol—correct standard Aerosol Collected Mass (ACM) between 25 to 60mg/puff in most vaping applications measured under a standard ISO regimen.
Low-Pressure Drop (PD) values—a properly assembled cartridge with an oil that has a matched rheology will not have a high PD value when compared to a control sample.
Lack of leaks through the 510 center-post—minimal device weight loss (DWL) is measured throughout the lifetime of a cartridge that was not captured or measured as Aerosol Collected Mass (ACM).
Lack of evaporation through the 510 center-post—minimal device weight loss (DWL) as measured throughout the lifetime of the cartridge that is not captured and measured as Aerosol Collected Mass (ACM).
Lack of leaks into the center post by way of the failure modes identified above.
Lack of leaks through the mouthpiece by way of the failure modes identified above.
The proper delivery of cannabinoids measured in the Aerosol Collected Mass (ACM) without deterioration by way of elevated coil temperatures and a lack of airflow through the cartridge.

What variables are critical for vape cartridge success?

Choosing reliably vetted hardware with a proven track record and direct relationships with a trusted analytical lab.
Confirming the compatibility between each type of cannabis oil and the hardware you intend to fill.
Standardizing your formulation and enforcing process control throughout your extraction and filling operation to reduce variability in your oil output as measured by standard rheological assessments on a batch-by-batch basis.
Confirming that the batch-to-batch variance does not fall outside of the approved rheological bracket defined for the cartridge-oil combination.
A collaborative effort with open communication between the vape hardware manufacturer, vape filling machine manufacturer, vape testing facility, and you.
The Vape-Jet product support team can tailor your filling temperatures and speeds to your formulation. N.N. Analytics can also develop and confirm with Vape-Jet the correct filling parameters that will support ideal cartridge performance without failure.

How N.N. Analytics Can Resolve Your Vape Cartridge Failures

N.N. Analytics facilitates the standardization of oil-hardware combinations with characterization testing. Our approach to resolving your vape cartridge failure challenges comes in two phases.

Phase One: Establishment of Approved Parameters

Rheology Characterization and Performance Assessment of Solutions for Cartridge Filling—this is where we characterize the oil solutions to understand how they perform in each hardware SKU. In short, this process helps us understand whether known rheology will affect the performance and failure rate of the cartridge part number that is approved for sale.

Failure Mode and Effects Analysis: Cartridge Performance Assessment (Leakage & Dry Hits)—we use this standard metric to evaluate a new part number in hardware that we haven’t assessed yet. We evaluate stability performance, including device weight loss, pressure drop, and aerosol collected mass. This testing is performed with standard solutions (oils) that are deployed by NN Analytics, meeting the criteria of low, medium, or high viscosity:

Low Viscosity: Akin to rosin formulations or those with terpene additions of greater than 10%
Medium viscosity: Akin to formulations that have a standard number of terpenes and are standard performers – This is our target range for most formulations
High Viscosity: High potency oils with minimal terpene or diluent additions require optimum shear rates of cartridges tuned to high-viscosity oils.

Phase Two: Continual Evaluation of Approved Ranges

Stability Studies—used to evaluate the stability performance of a new batch of hardware by ACM/DWL and by delivered cannabinoid concentrations in the ACM.

Oil Performance Assessment—used to evaluate a new batch of oil manufactured to a specific recipe by rheological assessment and terpene/cannabinoid measurements in the ACM according to the standard (approved) reference sample.

Standard Measurements We Use at N.N. Analytics

Device Weight Loss

Device Weight Loss (DWL) measures the total change in filled mass of oil in a cartridge. This measurement is taken when the vape cartridge is filled and capped at T=0, then monitored throughout the lifetime of the cartridge during testing or stability studies before Aerosol Collected Mass (ACM) measurements are taken.

Over time, oil may leak or evaporate due to leakage or evaporation from an improper cap seal or airhole feed size that allows atmosphere to enter the vape cartridge by way of the center post or air inlets at the bottom of the cartridge, leading to reduced ACM, evaporation of volatile terpenes, and possible oxidation of cannabinoids.

DWL and reduced ACM are both causative variables of leakage that causes oil to emit from the 510 thread or air feed holes, which are indicative of a rheological mismatch of the oil viscosity with the hardware, namely:

coil-wicking material porosity
feed hole size
airflow hole size
Improper oil rheology

Aerosol Performance

Aerosol collected mass (ACM)—this variable determines the efficiency of the cartridge as a complete unit that will establish a parameter we call “ACM” for the amount of vapor emitted from the cartridge during normal expected vaping conditions.

ACM can be influenced by many factors and is considered a correlative variable for cartridge performance rather than a causative variable, such as device weight loss (DWL) or pressure drop (PD).

Aerosol Constituents

There are many constituents in cannabis and hemp aerosol, which we can classify as indicative of proper or improper performance. These measurements are taken hand-in-hand with aerosol collected mass (ACM) to understand the correct selection of good oil and hardware combinations during expected vaping conditions (ISO and CORESTA methods) and identify failures during vaping that may lead to emissions of harmful or potentially harmful constituents (HPHCs), such as:

Heavy Metals
- Tested using ICP-MS
  - Chromium (stainless steel parts or coil)
  - Nickel (coil)
  - Cadmium (stainless steel parts or coil)
  - Lead (coil solder)

Aldehydes
- Tested using GC/MS
Volatile Solvents
- Tested using GC/MS
Microplastics and solvated plastics
- Tested using LC/MS

Other foreign material (coil-wicking material including ceramic particles, rayon, or cotton fibers)
- Tested by Scanning Electron Microscopy Tandem Energy-Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy (SEM/EDX)

Guaranteeing Vape Cartridge Sucess: Measuring Solution Rheology and Cartridge Performance

How do vape cartridge producers guarantee their solution will not leak when choosing new cartridge hardware?

The way to guarantee that leakage will not occur is to standardize the minimum “thickness” of the solution used in a particular hardware platform. N.N. Analytics accomplishes this with strict measurements of solution rheology to define the viscosity, shear rate, and elasticity of oils using an iso-accredited method for rheology measurements.

Additionally, N.N. Analytics measures coil performance by deploying its patent-pending Iron Lung aerosol collection technology to assess aerosol performance by measuring pressure drop, capturing the aerosol, and measuring the total weight and constituents within the aerosol. Pressure drop measurements allow us to evaluate leakage preventing aerosol delivery. Aerosol weight measurements allow for the characterization of atomizer/coil performance.

N.N. Analytics’ patent-pending “Iron Lung” aerosol collection technology

How can vape cartridge producers guarantee their solution will feed well when choosing new cartridge hardware?

The way to prevent dry hits is by standardizing the maximum thickness of the solution in a particular hardware platform.

Unleash Your Vape’s True Potential with Vape-Jet & N.N. Analytics

As you can see, the science behind a successful vaping experience requires cultivating a unique balance between the formulation of the oil, the hardware used, and the filling process.

At N.N. Analytics, we use a combination of measurements to ensure that your vape cartridges perform optimally and meet industry standards. Our expert team works closely with you, the vape hardware manufacturer and the vape filling machine manufacturer to resolve your vape cartridge failure challenges. Let N.N. Analytics help you achieve the premium vaping experience your customers deserve.

N.N. Analytics Full Service E-Liquid Testing Laboratory | Click to Browse Our Services

Need some help taking your vape cartridge filling performance to the next level? Reach out to our crew and learn how Vape-Jet can provide next-level products for your customers.

Some of our success stories:

Tags analysis, blog, industry insight, news, partner, vape-jet

General Jet Fueler Jet-Fueler Partners Vape-Jet

Customer Feature: Ration, Blue Box Brands & BeGreen Supply

Post author By VJ Crew
Post date December 26, 2022

At Vape-Jet, we are always inspired by the innovative ways our customers use our products to drive success in their businesses. That’s why we’re excited to share our interview with a man who truly does it all, Chris Michaud. As the CEO and Founder of Blue Box Brands, Ration Cannabis, and BeGreen Supply, Chris shared valuable insights on how using our products has helped grow his businesses.

As our newest hardware partner, Chris’s company BeGreen Supply builds custom-branded cannabis hardware and packaging. Moreover, Chris’s team uses our semi-automatic Jet Fueler to fill vape cartridges and disposables for his consumer brand Ration Cannabis, a cause-based cannabis brand dedicated to supporting military veterans.

Brands like Ration demonstrate that Chris strives to build businesses that give back to the community. So, along with some valuable operational insights and inspiration for other businesses looking to enhance their own workflows, we hope this customer feature serves as a reminder of how the cannabis industry—and associated industries—can give back.

Without further ado, let’s dive into our interview with Vape-Jet CEO, Developer, and Founder Ryan Hoitt and Chris Michaud.

Watch the full interview above or check out the written article below.

Blue Box Brands
Outreach and Advocacy
Building Brands with Vape-Jet
Currently Filling
“Service is King”

Who is Blue Box Brands?

With product lines ranging from vaporizers and smokables to mouth sprays and edibles, Blue Box Brands is a collection of high-quality cannabis businesses curated to support community causes and serve niche consumer audiences.

Chris describes Blue Box Brands as ‘a curator and creator of brands.’ On the macro level, Chris explains, “we work with a couple of organizations in D.C., making sure that we’re paying attention to where policy sits and where veterans have access or don’t have access, or maybe there’s an education hole.”

On the micro level, Blue Box Brands gives back to more localized organizations. One example is Swim With a Mission. “It’s a great group,” Chris says. “They work with the Navy SEAL Foundation out of Florida. We co-host events every year—this was our second year this past July—where you have a paintball tournament, every team gets a Navy SEAL, and you go through the whole tournament with them.”

Chris describes these experiences as immersive and rejuvenating, allowing Blue Box to give back to the community and veterans who have laid it all on the line. “We’re able to give back dollars to things like improving household accessibility, giving money towards billing codes, or direct help and counseling.”

“That’s awesome,” Ryan says. “As a former Navy guy, go Navy.”

“Whether Ration’s helping on the philanthropy side or Blue Box is helping a brand that’s adjacent to its own portfolio, we’re really about commercializing brands and preparing them for scale,” Chris explains. “We have a good relationship with our sister company BeGreen Supply which helps provide packaging and hardware, and that’s what brings us together with Vape-Jet.”

Outreach and Advocacy

With philanthropic outreach and advocacy playing a major part in what Chris and his team do, we wanted to highlight the various initiatives his team is involved in and the ways they work to create lasting positive change.

“Ration does a lot of outreach and advocacy and a lot of philanthropy,” Ryan begins. “Can you tell me more about that, how you got started down that route, and why did you select veterans’ organizations?”

“Veterans service organizations (VSOs) do a lot, and I’m never going to suggest that we can do their job better. It was important to me to find and vet good VSOs so we could accomplish what we’d like to from a for-profit business perspective,” Chris says.

The ways Ration works with different VSOs depends on the scale of each organization, Chris explains. “Our favorite component is really getting to find out what these people need. Before starting Ration, we spent the first year down in D.C. talking to different groups and finding out who was going to make sense to partner with, who was not going to be afraid of cannabis, who was going to speak up about cannabis in their lobby sessions, in their peer groups. And we found some fantastic people through that process, whether they be individuals or organizations.”

From that first year, Chris and his team identified that what veterans need is true support. “Our business is providing support to individuals, whether that’s getting them involved with therapy plus medication plus alternative medication.”

Providing support to veterans in this way really hits home for Chris, whose father served in the Air Force. “My father, back in the day, caught a piece of ammunition off of a plane that was very, very large and messed his back up. He’s been very successful since then, but just a couple of years ago, his injuries started to flare up again, and very recently, in the last year, he was prescribed a number of opiates and a nerve suppressant,” Chris says.

Eventually, Chris got a call from a family member in the clinical community: “She said, ‘what can we do to get your dad off of these things?’” It was an odd call, Chris explains, because this family member is the expert. “So, you know, [I shared] any bit of exposure that we’ve had in this space to help them get through that. Within two weeks, he was off of the entire opiate program. He kept the nerve suppressant, but he was off the opiates, and now he’s, you know, it’s his choice he doesn’t continue to use cannabis, but it got him through that moment, and now he’s clear of everything. Small success stories like that yield great results, and I want to see that continued in that community.”

Building Brands with Vape-Jet

“I know we were introduced through Vape-Jet,” Ryan says. “I believe it is BeGreen Supply that operated and purchased the machine. Can you tell me more about how you found out about Vape-Jet and how that’s been going for you?”

“Sure,” Chris says. “I found out about Vape-Jet by walking the floor at MJBizCon a few years ago, but it was totally by chance, and we were super happy to find a great team and you leading that team. I have a background in medical devices and FDA compliance and pushing things forward to the next level, which is why I wanted to build a device company before getting into brands. But I was like, ‘this guy gets it.’”

“That was a great meeting,” Ryan recalls. “I remember because we didn’t have a booth that year. I believe you and [Vape-Jet COO] Devon started chatting heavily about medical devices and all the insanity of bringing devices through marketing and FDA approval and everything else.”

“That was fun because the origins of why we started in the cannabis space really followed that track. We were, you know, a couple of friends who wanted to get away from how long it took to bring products to market in the medical device industry. Now, we’re on to onto kind of a faster-paced industry. It’s volatile, but it’s a lot of fun, and there’s a ton of opportunity to help people and brands.”

“Can you tell me more about what Vape-Jet devices you use and how you’re using them?”

“My interaction with Vape-Jet is from two different lenses,” Chris says, “whether that’s direct through Ration and some of the other brands that we have in-house or some of the customers that we support from BeGreen Supply. I was truly attracted to Vape-Jet from our origin story, but also the fact that I found real success in my customers’ stories back on the BeGreen front, whether that’s supporting MSOs or direct brands like Ration. [Vape-Jet] has really versatile system[s], whether we’re talking about an individual filler, such as the Jet Fueler or the Vape-Jet, that’s a little bit more comprehensive.”

Jet Fueler 2.0 The Most Advanced Semi-Automatic Vape Cartridge Filling Machine - Click to Learn More

Vape-Jet 4.0 | The Most Advanced Fully-Automatic Vape Cartridge Filling Machine - Click to Learn More

“From my perspective, I love being able to recommend a myriad of systems, and Vape-Jet is always number one at the top. And it also has a great capping solution, which is pretty rare to find systems that are designed to work together,” Chris explains. “Internally, I love setting up my partners for our own brands. We go in from a manufacturing assessment standpoint, and we ask, ‘okay, what’s the real capacity of this place and what do we want to get them to?’”

From there, Chris helps teams understand their labor, infrastructure, and facility needs. “We typically like to start groups with a Jet Fueler and then graduate them to a Vape-Jet, and our multistate approach is really aimed at facilitating that conversation through Vape-Jet. So we’re taking Blue Box Brands as a portfolio and going to all these different states, and we’re requiring Vape Jet to be part of that protocol.”

Currently Filling

With Chris focused on implementing Vape-Jet filling machines into production across brands, we wanted to get an idea of the devices they’ve filled and are filling currently.

“From the BeGreen front, most of our customers are filling cartridges. 510 remains a pretty strong player in the world of vaporizers, but we have seen an increase in disposables at a national level. Beyond that, though, we have got some things that are being built internally—that [may] be a proprietary pod system that’s coming out here very soon,” Chris hints.

“Service is King”

“One of my favorite things about Vape-Jet is that, from an executive level, I can pick up the phone and call Vape-Jet, and [you] can log into our machine,” Chris explains. As a benefit he’s enjoyed over the years, Chris knows that he can troubleshoot any Vape-Jet or Jet Fueler issues with our support team and receive quick assistance so his team can get filling again.

“On that note,” Ryan says, “not a lot of people know this, but our organizational structure is all built around support from the very beginning. Every single one of our departments, it doesn’t matter who they are, reports to support. Sales reports to our support department, manufacturing reports to our support department… Everything is focused around support because I’ve found that with any device you build, any piece of equipment that has moving parts and some that don’t, something is going to break, and the business processes you build around that fact are incredibly important.”

“Definitely,” Chris agrees. “Service is king; learned that through manufacturing a long time ago, whether it was setting up a big factory or working with mom and pop, it’s all based on service.”

Thank You

We’d like to thank Chris for taking the time to speak with us and share his insights. It was a pleasure to learn more about the amazing things Blue Box Brands, Ration Cannabis, and BeGreen Supply are doing in the world besides providing high-quality solutions for other businesses and end-users. We wish Chris and his team continued success and fulfillment in the coming years. Keep up the great work supporting veterans, and thank you for making a positive impact.

MJBizCon 2022: Vape-Jet Has Leveled Up

Post author By VJ Crew
Post date December 5, 2022

Three days of cannabis industry pandemonium in Las Vegas? Must be MJBizCon 2022!

With over 30,000 attendees, industry insiders, and celebrity cameos, this year’s MJBizCon was one to remember. The Vape-Jet booth was packed, our fully-automatic Vape-Jet vape cartridge-filling machine and semi-automatic Jet Fueler took center stage, and our industry friends are thriving—what more could you ask for?

See how it all went down and why this MJBizCon was the best yet:

The Evolution of VJ at MJ
Partners and Friends at MJ
The Evolution of the Vape Market
The Evolution of Vape Producers
MJBizCon Speaker Session: Vape Market Breakdown

The Evolution of VJ at MJ

Among the returnees to MJBizCon this year, Vape-Jet founder and CEO Ryan Hoitt had a great time reconnecting with friends and introducing newcomers to the world of vape cartridge-filling automation.

To Ryan, the differences from 2019 to 2022 couldn’t be starker: “In 2019, we walked around, smuggling in brochures and doing guerrilla marketing trying not to get caught.” In those days, Vape-Jet was a fairly new concept, and the potential of an automatic cartridge-filler was not as obvious as it is today. “Our handouts got trashed faster than we could place them, but it brought in just enough interest to bootstrap the first couple of sales,” Ryan recalls.

In 2021, we set up our first Vape-Jet booth, allowing us to build some brand awareness and connect with folks interested in innovation. “People were starting to take notice, and sales were climbing,” Ryan says.

If 2019 and 2021 were focused on establishing our brand and generating interest, 2022 was the payoff. “We had to take off our branded shirts just to get a moment of silence during after-hours events and date nights,” Ryan says. “People came purposefully to see us in person. All around town, we ran into existing clients, formed relationships with new ones, and got to experience our 10 seconds of fame.”

This development, though not entirely surprising given the rapid growth of automated vape-filling processes, was very special to behold. “When we started building a B2B vape cartridge-filling equipment brand, I never for a moment thought we would experience so much recognition, admiration, and command such respect in the industry.”

“I am incredibly proud of the entire Vape-Jet team for making this a possibility, and I can’t wait to see what 2023 brings.”

Partners and Friends at MJ

It was great seeing so many familiar faces this year, including:

Hardware Partners

Customers

Fernway
True North Collective MI
Bing Enterprises
Monkey Bonez Vape Distribution
Long Beach Originals

Equipment Manufacturers

Terpene Suppliers

Arcane Aromatics

Media

The Evolution of the Vape Market

Of course, Ryan wasn’t our only representative at MJBizCon. Resident chemist, COO, and co-founder Devon Reid also made his return to the tradeshow floor this year.

Aside from being chased around MJBizCon (until he took off his branded gear), Devon notes a decisive industry focus on improving QA. “The market is shifting from a fixation on throughput to a focus on quality,” Devon says. “The renewed focus on quality encompasses not only the machine that puts the oil into the cartridges, but the cartridges themselves, the oil itself, the upstream processes for obtaining the oil, and the downstream consequences of implementing all the upstream quality improvements.”

Why? Because a surplus of supply means customers are faced with more options than ever before. Now, Devon says, many businesses are taking a holistic approach to product planning. “From high-quality equipment to high-quality products, businesses see the positive consequences for end-users (increased sales) and employees (increased retention).”

Utilizing automatic cartridge-fillers like our Vape-Jet fully-automatic filling machine is a surefire way to improve customer and employee satisfaction. “Fire in, fire out—it’s that simple,” Devon says.

The Evolution of Vape Producers

Vape-Jet sales rep Sawyer Sheppard has seen his share of cannabis industry tradeshows and has developed a keen eye for industry trends and matching customers with solutions that fit their long-term goals.

At MJBizCon 2022, Sawyer highlights a key theme: versatility. “With the rise in different form factors—including disposables, pod-type systems, and higher quality oils like live resin and rosin—heating up in the market, versatility is the name of the game.”

To improve their versatility, Sawyer noticed that brands are increasingly looking for partnerships. “Many customers are now looking for long-term equipment suppliers that they can grow with,” Sawyer says, emphasizing the word “growth.” “After being burned by tone-deaf ‘product support teams,’ businesses want a partner who is not just selling them equipment, but is dedicated to their long-term growth.”

MJBizCon Session: Vape Market Breakdown

What’s happening in the vape market as we enter 2023? Industry trends took center stage as insiders discussed consumer and quality developments heading into the new year.

If you weren’t able to attend, don’t worry, here are some key highlights:

Consumer Trends

Women now account for 57% of vape cartridge users
Consumers increasingly focus on cannabis growers due to live and solventless processes, whole plant efficacy, and the cannabis marketing ecosystem
Speakers emphasized good manufacturing practices that keep formulations simple and test at every stage of the process

Quality Trends

It has never been more important to hire people who really love cannabis
Shelf stability is essential, but old cannabis shouldn’t be written off
The days of scarcity are over, so diversification of products is paramount

What’s Next?

Freeze-dried flowers, cannabis experiences (lounges, serving, sampling, pallet development)
States requiring vapor testing during production
New vape sizes and cannabinoid focus coming to market

‘Till MJBizCon 2023!

We want to extend a sincere “thank you” to everyone who made it to our booth this year! MJBizCon 2022 could not have been the success it was for our team without your support, and we look forward to building off the positive energy we received. The cannabis industry is driven by innovators who prioritize product quality, responsible scaling, and versatile technology, and we are proud to continue leading the charge in vape cartridge automation.

If you are interested in partnering with us, reach out to our crew to learn how Vape-Jet can provide next-level products for your customers.

Tags blog, jet fueler, mjbizcon, news, vape-jet

Jet-Fueler Partners Vape-Jet

Fernway: Customer Feature

Post author By VJ Crew
Post date November 21, 2022

What better way to enjoy New England’s Fall foliage than paying a visit to our good friends at Fernway in Northampton, Massachusetts? As creators of Massachusetts’ 1^st recyclable cannabis vape—The Traveler—and long-time Vape-Jet customers, it was only fitting that we caught up during the changing of the seasons to discuss—well, change.

Vape-Jet CEO, Developer, and Founder, Ryan Hoitt sat down with Fernway’s COO and co-founder, Kevin Wu, to see how things are going. Read on to learn about Vape-Jet and Fernway’s ongoing collaboration, the move to sustainable industry practices, Vape-Jet tips and tricks, and more:

The Vape-Jet Experience
An Innovative Trio: Vape-Jet, Fernway, and Cilicon
Kevin’s Vape-Jet Tips and Tricks
The Power of Partnership

The Vape-Jet Experience

Since their founding in February 2021, Fernway has used Vape-Jet cartridge-filling machines to ensure they maintain high QA standards and have scalable technology to grow with their business. Starting with our Jet Fueler semi-automatic vape cart filler in 2021, Fernway is now up to five Vape-Jet fully-automatic cartridge-filling machines, four of which operate side-by-side in their Northampton facility.

“How did you learn about Vape-Jet?”

“It must have been on the internet somewhere… We were just four guys in a house at that time, and we didn’t have the money to spend on a fully automated, big fancy machine,” Kevin says. After testing and evaluating almost every machine on the market, Kevin came across the Jet Fueler — “It was a perfect fit for what we needed and a great machine to learn about oil paths and how distillate and cannabis oil can move through PTFE lines and reservoirs.”

During those early days, Vape-Jet and Fernway went through the growing pains of high-throughput manufacturing together, allowing both businesses to grow and learn from one another. “You gave us a lot of feedback on things that needed improvement,” Ryan says.

“Yeah, I think you make it sound a little worse than it was,” Kevin jokes. “I will say that the [Jet Fueler] was repeatable and that was key for us because we wanted to bring a high-quality, consistent vape product to market.”

When Fernway did run into an issue, Kevin opened a support ticket, and the Vape-Jet support team would stay on the phone until they resolved the issue. “That gave us a lot of peace of mind,” Kevin adds. “If there was an issue with the machine, we wouldn’t be left stranded.”

“In my opinion, we’ve had a really collaborative relationship,” Ryan says. “A lot of our recent software upgrades—in terms of data reporting, batch records, and whatnot—were direct suggestions from you.”

“I see us as fellow travelers and kindred spirits in that our products and companies are becoming larger and more sophisticated, and we have to grow together,” Kevin says. “That can only happen if we’re sharing information back and forth.”

After eventually scaling to three Jet Fuelers, Fernway upgraded to the fully-automatic Vape-Jet. “Now, we have five of them,” Kevin says.

Growing Together: Switching to a Fully-Automated Workflow

After realizing their business was scaling too quickly to fill every vape cartridge manually under a needle, the Fernway team realized it was time for some automated assistance.

“The transition was actually fairly easy because of how familiar we were with the Jet Fuelers,” Kevin says. “The Vape-Jet team helped create profiles that are unique to each piece of our hardware.” So, whether Fernway is filling their 510 half-gram vape cartridges or one of their Traveler sizes, a customized hardware profile is ready to quickly and accurately fill to spec.

“Beyond setting up those initial profiles, the process of loading the reservoir into the machine, pressurizing the machine with the nitrogen assist, [and] setting the temperature zones was all very familiar to us,” Kevin continues. “It was big relief when we saw that platform and the needle moving around, and we knew we didn’t have to fill those cartridges one by one anymore.”

Scaling and Sustainability—Friends at Last

Now selling half and full-gram 510 vape cartridges and Massachussettes’ first recyclable vape cartridge, the Traveler (available in 0.3 and 0.7-gram sizes), Fernway is moving the industry toward more sustainable practices that consumers demand.

“We’ve been seeing a lot of movement in the market away from 510s toward more disposable packaging,” Ryan Hoitt says. “Could you tell me the challenges involved with setting [the Traveler] up?”

“We saw the same [trends] you did,” Kevin Wu agrees. “Customers really enjoy the all-in-one form factor with the oil and the battery connected, but we didn’t like the environmental impact of that product form.”

The solution? Fernway found a recycling partner. “After one of our recyclable [vape cartridges] are spent, [and] the oil is consumed, the customer can bring [the Traveler] back to where they purchased it and deposit it in a recycling box.”

A few times a year, after the Fernway team collects all the recycled Traveler vapes in their facility, their recycling partner collects the spent devices, dips them into liquid nitrogen, then pulverizes them. “Then they heat it to recover different materials found in the devices,” Kevin says.

An Innovative Trio: Vape-Jet, Fernway, and Cilicon

“So, I know with the Traveler you’ve been working with Cilicon as the hardware manufacturer,” Ryan says. “Can you describe the experience of developing and launching that product with such a tight feedback loop between their team, the Vape-Jet team, and yourself?”

“We selected Cilicon as our all-in-one hardware vendor almost a year ago,” Kevin explains. “We went through several rounds of testing and decided that the performance and the profile of [their] product was exactly what we wanted. The missing piece was ‘how are we going to fill these at scale?’ That’s when we reached out to you.”

When Fernway decided to launch the Traveler, they sent photos of the device and asked if our team could get a Vape-Jet to fill them. “To my surprise—and to our good luck—you were already in contact with [Cilicon] and we were able to design a custom jig which was rapidly prototyped by the Vape-Jet team,” Kevin says. Within a week of that discussion, Fernway validated their new product’s workflow with Vape-Jet automation, ensuring they would not have to invest in additional equipment.

A few months later when the devices arrived, they came with additional jigs based on Vape-Jet’s initial prototype. “Now, we’re selling tens of thousands a month,” Kevin says. “I would categorize [the Traveler] launch as smooth as [a product launch] could possibly go. So I think that’s a credit to you and a credit to the Cilicon team.”

Kevin’s Vape-Jet Tips and Tricks

‘Keep the machines clean!’: “Make sure you’re fully cleaning out the reservoirs after every batch.” Kevin highlights the importance of running isopropyl alcohol through the PTFE lines to ensure operators won’t encounter residual oil from the previous batch.
‘Take it slow!’: “Once the [Vape-Jet] is up and running, it’s filling a tray of 100 vape cartridges in five or six minutes. There’s no reason to rush the manual parts of the process along.”

The Power of Partnership

“I really do appreciate our partnership here. I feel like, even though you’re across the country, we’ve got a partner that’s not going to leave us stranded. If we have a problem, I know someone on your team will help us, and you’ll take the time and clear out the schedule. That’s so rare to find out in the market.”

“It’s been amazing to watch your business grow,” Ryan says. “It’s been one of the highlights of my career to be able to be that partner in this and just work with you guys. And yeah, we’re a solutions provider, but that feedback loop and the connections we’ve made over the past couple of years… it’s been a highlight of my career, so I really appreciate it.

What’s next for Fernway?

Kevin mentions a new seasonal pumpkin spice flavor for their Traveler (released in October) and launching a line of live resin vape cartridges for the ultimate cannabis experience.

Want to share your Vape-Jet story?

Reach out to our crew and let them know you’re ready for your customer feature. Check out our other customer success stories: C3 Industries, True North Collective, Terrapin Care Station.

If you are interested in providing the highest-quality product for your customers, reach out to our crew to learn how Vape-Jet can provide next-level products for your customers.

Tags blog, customer feature, jet fueler, news, vape-jet

General Vape Hardware

Vape-Jet Hardware Partner: AVD

Post author By VJ Crew
Post date October 24, 2022

Cutting Edge Filling Technology Meets Hardware Innovation with Vape-Jet’s Latest Collaboration

Early on, our team at Vape-Jet recognized that developing superior products for our customers meant working with like-minded companies who prioritize cannabis expertise. That’s why we structured our Vape-Jet Partner Program to provide customers with seamless hardware solutions that maximize the efficiency of their fully-automatic Vape-Jet or semi-automatic Jet Fueler workflow. Teaming up with Advanced Vapor Devices (AVD) was an obvious choice. This partnership creates a streamlined vape and cartridge filling system that makes it easier than ever to produce at scale. AVD cartridges are among Vape-Jet’s most frequently filled vape cartridges. We also share core company values like equipment accessibility, advanced customer support, and hardware reliability.

“AVD’s commitment to consistency, innovation, and quality control is the reason all Vape-Jet systems get pre-shipped with AVD profiles. Their hardware is what we use for final validation because we can count on it to be reliable.”

Ryan Hoitt, Vape-Jet CEO

AVD: Industry-Leading Technology that Delivers Flavor and Reliability

Innovation backed by expertise. After cultivating decades of cannabis knowledge, AVD understands the relationship between cannabis extraction, formulation, absorption, and heating. This allows them to develop a superior vaporization delivery experience trusted by hundreds of cannabis oil brands across North America.

As a leading vaporizer technology company, AVD provides:

No-Burn Technology™ — designed exclusively for the cannabis extract industry for true-to-strain flavor, terpene and cannabinoid preservation

Reliable Technology — with an almost zero failure rate.

Cannabis Expertise — 20+ years of cannabis industry experience and extensive QA protocols for premium user experiences.

Rapid Stock Replenishment – stock orders fulfilled in 1-3 days and custom orders in 4-6 weeks.

Post-Sales Support — the industry’s longest 180-day end-user warranty backed by knowledgeable North American-based support.

Quit burning your oil with carts that run too hot.

Overheating cannabis obliterates the terpenes and the very essence of the plant that makes each strain unique and flavorful.

AVD recognized that live resins, sauces, and full-spectrum extracts need consistent low heat to prevent burning and preserve terpenes. That’s why AVD cartridges and batteries are crafted with No-Burn Technology™.

Every AVD cart and battery is specifically engineered to provide consistent heat to deliver incredible flavor and keep terpenes and cannabinoids intact. Delivering this type of quality for their customers has secured AVD’s reputation as one of the most trusted vape cartridge providers in the market. In addition to their products’ incredible reliability, AVD’s total control over their raw material supply chain ensures that inventory shortages and long lead times are a thing of the past. That’s a huge win during an era of global supply chain disruptions.

Driven by Innovation

No-Burn Technology™

After thousands of hours of R&D, testing, and quality control, AVD’s patented No-Burn Technology™ is at the heart of every AVD cartridge. This industry-leading science creates a safe and superior sensory experience with every hit. With SmartPulse™ Power Control, even long smoking sessions are heated smoothly from the first hit to the last.

AVD EZ Click™ Solutions

EZ Click™ hardware represents one of the proprietary technologies that make AVD so special. With this 50-at-a-time, snap-on filling and capping system, EZ Click™ cartridges are designed for rapid high-end, automated vape cartridge production at scale. Because our Vape-Jet works extensively with the EZ Click™ line, no capper is required, meaning lower costs for end-users. In short, when you pair AVD EZ Click™ cartridges with Vape-Jet automation, you have one of the most optimized vape cartridge productions on the planet.

AVD EZ Click™ Cartridges

AVD Glass EZ Click™ — The industry’s first glass cartridge designed for rapid filling and capping.
AVD Polyresin EZ Click™ — Powerful, durable, and true-to-strain flavor.
AVD All-Ceramic EZ Click™ — Using Zirconia medical-grade ceramic, AVD’s all-ceramic cartridge is designed for premium oils and chemically inert for exceptionally clean flavors.
GoodCarts by AVD – Built for less complex oils like distillates, botanical terpene blends, Delta-8, and other novelty cannabinoids. GoodCarts Glass and Polyresin EZ Click™ Cartridges come pre-racked in two trays of 50 units each and are put through the same rigorous quality control practices that you would expect from AVD.
- GoodCarts Glass EZ Click™ Cartridge
- GoodCarts Polyresin EZ Click™ Cartridge

Once capped, all AVD and GoodCart vape cartridges are non-refillable and tamper-resistant, which is critical for selling to highly regulated markets.

Mouthpieces

Choose from 20 distinctive mouthpieces to create a unique vaping experience and set the tone for your brand. AVD mouthpieces are compatible with all AVD cartridges.

Disposables

AVD all-in-one cartridges offer discretion and convenience to users, but they also let you take control over the way your oils are heated for the best vaping experience possible.

AVD Glass EZ Click™ Disposable — Classic presentation and ultimate flavor preservation.
AVD Stem All-In-One Disposable — Smoother, fuller hits and a HempZyme™ construction that uses less plastic.
GoodCarts Disposable — Quartz core and flavor retention using power-wave modulation.

Batteries

Your consumers will enjoy a superior vaping experience by pairing AVD’s cartridges with their universal 510-thread batteries.

AVD Stik Battery with SmartPulse™ technology, high / low voltage switch that allows users to prioritize big clouds or flavor, and universal 510 thread.
AVD Seed Battery with SmartPulse™, high / low voltage switch that allows users to prioritize big clouds or flavor, and haptic vibration feedback for intuitive use.
AVD Alpha Pen with SmartPulse™,high / low voltage switch that allows users to prioritize big clouds or flavor, and a discrete removable cap.
AVD Stik Button Battery with SmartPulse™, push–button activation, and three voltage settings for flavor, well-rounded, and cloud experiences.

Make it Your Own with AVD Design House

AVD Design House offers superior customization options to match your unique brand personality.
Classic Customizations — finishes, colors, and textures that make your product(s) pop.
Premium Customizations — exclusive form factors that differentiate your brand to stand out on the dispensary shelf.

Vape-Jet x AVD

As two tech-driven companies at the leading edge of the cannabis vaporizer industry, our partnership with AVD has many benefits for our customers:

Seamless Cartridge Production — unlock end-to-end efficiency with Vape-Jet filling and capping automation and AVD’s reliable, designed-to-scale hardware.
Proprietary Technology — backed by decades of cannabis, chemistry, and engineering knowledge, Vape-Jet and AVD both navigate the cannabis space with innovation and quality at the forefront.
Expert Support — both the Vape-Jet and AVD teams are available for expert product support and guidance with superior customer service.
Tested in the Field — Vape-Jet partners are thoroughly vetted for hardware compliance and integration with our products. Just ask our customers.
Precision Calibrated — protect your oil with two companies that don’t take shortcuts. Rigorous R&D and quality testing goes into every product delivered by both AVD and Vape-Jet to ensure the best possible end product.
Dependable Supply — Vape-Jet and AVD emphasize strict inventory management and in-house development, allowing total control of stock inventory. Exceptional lead times and reduced product delays decreases your stock outage risks and maintains your products consistently on the shelf.

Customer Success

True North Collective MI

Maybe you’ve read our customer feature with the good folks in Michigan at True North Collective. For those who haven’t, True North’s dedication to safety, compliance, and consistency makes their cannabis flower, edibles, and concentrates some of the highest quality products out there.

The team at True North Collective are devoted users of Vape-Jet’s vape cartridge-filling machines – not only for their reliability and speed, but for their ability to scale. This allows them to meet demand at a moment’s notice.

With their move to Vape-Jet cartridge-filling automation, True North also switched to AVD EZ Click™ cartridges for a seamless production workflow.

Distillation Director Joey Stutz reports, “We did R&D on a bunch of different disposables, pods, and other carts that aren’t EZ Click™. Ultimately the best flavor came from the EZ Click™ AVD [cartridges].”

So, if you were still on the fence about combining Vape-Jet and AVD hardware, True North’s success might help ease your mind. After all, True North Collective couldn’t be happier with the quality oil they can offer their customers, which allows them to scale in a highly competitive market.

Punch Edibles

At Punch Edibles, the partnership potential of Vape-Jet x AVD quality is no secret either. To get the inside scoop, we spoke with Lab Director Brennan Beasley, who uses AVD EZ Click™ Cartridges, combined with AVD’s EZ Click™ jig, a Vape-Jet fully-automatic for filling, and the Squish-o-Matic 1000 for capping.

“Vape-Jet makes filling our AVD cartridges seamless,” Brennan says. “The technology of the two together provides an elevated filling experience with little to zero downtime.”

As Brennan explains, “[Combining AVD and Vape-Jet products] allow us to fill with precision and provide our customers with an end product that expresses all the qualities we are trying to preserve. I recommend Vape-Jet and AVD hardware for anyone serious about keeping the quality of their product intact, volume filling, and having the best support in the market.”

Perfect Your Production Process

If you are interested in taking your production to the next level, while providing a premium product for your customers, reach out to our crew to find out how AVD and Vape-Jet together provide a seamless solution for your production needs.

Tags avd, blog, hardware, news, partner

General Vape-Jet

Vape-Jet’s Six Star Service and Product Support

Post author By VJ Crew
Post date September 12, 2022

Optimizing Your Cartridge-Filler with Our Six Star Service

When it comes to investing in technology, especially automated technology, it can be difficult to put a price on product support. In the cannabis industry, moving to vape cartridge automation can feel like a big step with many unknowns. Luckily, with Vape-Jet, you’re never flying solo.

With our Six Star approach to product service and support, we work with our customers to improve their workflows, troubleshoot issues, predict maintenance needs, and even integrate their design suggestions into our machines. We believe pairing our advanced cartridge-filling technology with fast, accessible product support is the best way to ensure every person involved, from vape producer to end-user, is satisfied.

See how our Six Star approach affects our customers and streamlines post-sales support:

Consultative Approach to Sales
Post-Sales Support
Remote Access
Proactive Maintenance
Service Warranty & Response Times
Customer Feedback Integration

Consultative Approach

Sales

What is a consultative approach? For us, it means building an informed relationship with our customers that takes a holistic view of their operation. This relationship begins with our sales process, which focuses on your business’s particular needs. In fact, we won’t suggest investing in a Vape-Jet fully automatic cartridge-filling machine unless it’s the right fit for your production demands.

As part of our consultative approach, we leverage the combined knowledge and experience of our team to discuss not only your filling and packaging needs but your hardware challenges and process bottlenecks. Our aim—through our vape cartridge-filling machines and industry experience—is always to increase the efficiency of your entire production. Our resident cannabis chemist, Devon Reid, will even diagnose your product formulations or extraction process and offer suggestions for improvement.

Post Sales

Shipping your brand new fully-automatic Vape-Jet, semi-automatic Jet Fueler, or Squish-o-Matic 1000 is only half our sales process. The other half begins when the equipment ships to your facility.

Our dedicated product support team will guide you through onboarding and shipping. So, when your machine arrives, your team is prepped and ready for installation.
The Vape-Jet HelpDesk allows you to submit support tickets, coordinate remote installations, request hardware compatibility reports, report errors, schedule meetings, and more.
You’ll receive unlimited training and hardware calibration assistance

Did we mention that our industry-leading Vape-Jet support team boasts same-day response times? And that’s just the beginning of getting your filling process on the right track.

Remote Access

There is nothing quite like hands-on technical support when you need it most. That’s why—in addition to its machine vision alignment camera—each Vape-Jet fully-automatic cartridge-filler comes equipped with an internal system overview camera.

Using the system overview camera in conjunction with Microsoft Teams, our engineers will walk you through installation, training, machine calibration (per your specific oil needs), and any support needs as if they were physically by your side. That means no matter where your operation is located, our expert team of in-house engineers can diagnose and troubleshoot machine errors and misconfigurations.

A look at the Vape-Jet product support team at work using remote access to help customers through needle calibration and support.

Proactive Maintenance

When it comes to automation, you want to partner with a business that cares about constantly improving their machines in the field. With advanced platforms like our Vape-Jet fully-automatic and Jet Fueler semi-automatic cartridge-filler, our technical team can actively manage and support our entire fleet of machines from HQ. This means we are constantly reviewing data reports, analyzing equipment configurations, looking out for repeat errors, and guiding businesses on how they can optimize the performance of their machine. In short, with proactive guidance, our team saves your operators from wasting time and product.

The Vape-Jet support dashboard showing an overview of all active machines in the field, which allows our product support technicians to proactively monitor the fleet.

What is Active Deployment?

Active deployment means we are constantly working to improve our software based on customer feedback. As a partnership focused on quality vape cartridge production, we listen to our customers, regularly adding new features, custom modifications, and software updates to ensure your vape cartridge-filling machine runs as efficiently and smoothly as possible.

Vape-Jet Service Warranty & Response Times

We know how important it is to keep your machines running at their best so you can continue offering optimal solutions for your customers. That’s why all Vape-Jet filling and capping machines include a renewable one-year warranty with a service level agreement. This agreement includes access to our dedicated support team, free troubleshooting and how-to articles, self-guided repair and maintenance documentation (including manuals for our Vape-Jet, Jet Fueler, and Squish-o-Matic), and so much more.

Need urgent support? Our support response times are as quick as 15 minutes and always the same business day. As Joey Stutz from True North Collective MI explains, “Anytime we have an issue, I go online or send a support message, and they’re on it within a day. If it’s super time-sensitive. Just the other day, we had an issue with the needle, and they got on within 30-45 minutes. Customer service is great.”

We will also provide free overnight shipping for any materials or parts you need to get your operation back online as swiftly as possible. “You guys are very responsive and get parts overnighted,” Kimberly Long from Terrapin Care Station says. “I come in and fix [the Vape-Jet], and we get things going.”

Customer Feedback Integration

We recognize that our customers are the best resource we have for improving our machines. In fact, several features of our vape cartridge-filling machines are the result of customer feedback, including:

Automated workflow improvements
Multi-shot dispensing options for tinctures
Non-standard fill pattern optimization for irregular trays

Want to read more about our customers’ experiences and interactions with the Vape-Jet crew? Check out our customer features: Terrapin Care Station, True North Collective-MI, C3 Industries.

See How Six Star Service and Support Benefits You

“Best filling machine out there, not just because of the technology and efficiency of the machines, but because of the people in this company and the support they continuously provide. You can’t put a price on what you get with Vape-Jet.” – Vertical Supply Company

If you’re looking for an automated vape cartridge-filling solution provider that embraces achieving more together, then you should see how we can optimize your operation for the long haul and contact our sales team today.

Interested in our new partner program? Learn more here.

Tags blog, news, product support, service, support, vape-jet

General Vape Hardware

Vape-Jet Hardware Partner: CILICON

Post author By VJ Crew
Post date August 15, 2022

Introducing the Vape-Jet Hardware Partner Program

At Vape-Jet, our team has spent the last four years developing our filling technology to create the most versatile, advanced vape cartridge-filling machine on the market. With compatibility being a major demand in the industry, we’ve focused on delivering the ultimate freedom of choice for our customers. That’s why our filling machines work with many styles of 510 cartridges, pods, and disposables, so our customers can make their vape hardware selections with confidence.

But why stop there?

So far, we’ve chosen to recommend hardware manufacturers based solely on our customers’ experiences. And while our customers provide valuable feedback, we decided to take things a step further and really dial in compatible hardware vendors to assure the highest quality filling operation for Vape-Jet users. With the new Vape-Jet Partner Program, we’ve done just that.

Vape-Jet hardware partners are thoroughly vetted by our team, extensively QA-tested in the field, and are dedicated to optimizing their hardware to run seamlessly on our equipment. With this program, we will provide a comprehensive, one-stop solution for all your vape production needs, from hardware to filling to capping. This is the future of vape cartridge production.

Our First Official Vape Hardware Partner: CILICON

What makes a true partnership work? A shared set of values and the desire to achieve more together. By partnering with CILICON, we recognize a company with a similar drive for innovation and technology that made our equipment so successful in the field. Equally as important, CILICON shares our belief that by working together, rather than competing, we can do more to help our customers achieve success.

By focusing our efforts on collaboration, we combine our industry-leading automated filling machines with CILICON’s extensive product catalog and enhanced market analysis to inform future hardware designs. But that’s not all. With guaranteed hardware compatibility and standard operating procedures, your vape-filling experience has never been easier or more efficient.

Together, CILICON and Vape-Jet provide an Integrated Vape-Filling Solution.

Elevating Your Vape Cartridge Production Together

Vape-Jet

Premier vape-filling automation technology
Innovation driven product design and development
Industry-leading proactive product support, data analytics, and fleet management

CILICON

An extensive supply network of vaporizer production
A robust technology platform supplying customized hardware solutions
Over 13 years of extensive manufacturing R&D experience
Customer-centric market trend analysis.

Vape-Jet x CILICON

Driven by Technology—two businesses built on a foundation of independently-developed equipment and informed by real-world data analysis.
Cannabis Synergy—end-to-end vape cartridge services.
Customer Focus—market research and hardware alignment solve equipment problems faster and make your life easier.

Vape-Jet 4.0 Filling CILICON Vape Hardware (510 Cartridges)

Vape-Jet 4.0 Filling CILICON Vape Hardware (Machine Vision System)

Work Smarter by Working Together

Integrated Services: Comprehensive product solutions

Optimize your vape-filling process with confidence using Vape-Jet x CILICON as a one-stop solution for all your production needs, from filling to capping, with the flexibility of choosing a fully-automatic Vape-Jet or semi-automatic Jet Fueler.

Streamlined Workflow: Reduced communication, manufacturing, and labor costs

Cutting out the middleman and working together directly creates the ultimate cost-effective workflow with fewer delays and lower communication, manufacturing, and labor costs.

Guaranteed Compatibility: Confirmed hardware integration

Our teams have worked tirelessly to set and confirm optimal hardware compatibility, so you don’t have to. See compatible hardware.

Standardized Operating Procedures: Tailored hardware support

Effortless filling begins with automated workflows and precise documentation specifically for each hardware type.

Unified Mission: Collaboration over competition

Why waste time and energy competing when we can achieve better results together? As strategic partners, our sole focus is customer success.

Cutting-Edge Innovation: Driven by technology

Two businesses built on a foundation of independently developed equipment and informed by real-world data analysis.

How Vape-Jet x CILICON Supported Fernway’s “Traveler Collection”

At Vape-Jet, we want the best results for our customers. That’s why real-world success is one of the most important components of our new Hardware Partner Program. Recently, we worked with CILICON on the successful release of Fernway’s new Traveler collection.

Fernway Traveler Collection - Filled by Vape-Jet 3.0 Using CILICON Hardware — Image Source Fernway Traveler Collection

Who is Fernway? Fernway is a cannabis oil and hardware provider located in Northampton, Massachusetts. Partnering with CILICON to design the ultimate recyclable, all-in-one cannabis vape makes perfect sense when you consider Fernway’s emphasis on providing high-quality cannabis products. Since Fernway is also a devoted Vape-Jet user (we said they ‘emphasized providing high-quality cannabis products,’ right?), we reached out to get the inside scoop.

Q. What product launch did you develop with CILICON and Vape-Jet?
A. “This month, Fernway launched the Traveler Collection, Massachusetts’ first recyclable all-in-one vape product, available in 0.3g and 0.7g sizes.”

Q. What challenges did you face during this process, and how did these brands work together to help you overcome them?
A. “Despite the new form factor, the CILICON and Vape-Jet teams worked together to rapidly design and produce a custom filling solution that allows us to fill the TRAVELER devices just as efficiently as our 510 cartridges.”

Q. What was your customer experience while bringing this product to market?
A. “CILICON and Vape-Jet have both supported Fernway with excellent customer service by being responsive to issues and proactively working with us to improve our product and processes. Any time we have an issue with our equipment, the Vape-Jet team is just a phone call/video call away to resolve our issues, and their ability to remote into the machines from their office has proved invaluable to diagnose new issues.”

“By having Vape-Jet and CILICON work together to launch the Traveler, we were able to shorten our launch schedule by more than 6 weeks.”

#notadroptowaste

As your integrated vape-filling solution provider, CILICON x Vape-Jet are determined to protect your oil with the finest hardware because, when it comes to filling oil, there is #notadroptowaste.

If you are interested in becoming another success story and providing the highest-quality product for your customers, reach out to our crew to learn how CILICON and Vape-Jet can work together to elevate your vape-filling operation.

While you’re at it, don’t forget to sign up for our monthly Re:Fill newsletter to get early access to company updates, product releases, and other exciting announcements including more CILICON x Vape-Jet customer features to come. Follow us on the essentials, too: Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

Tags blog, cilicon, hardware, news, vape-jet

General Jet Fueler Jet-Fueler Partners Vape-Jet

True North Collective MI: Customer Feature

Post author By VJ Crew
Post date August 1, 2022

A Shared Dedication to Quality

When it comes to offering transformative solutions for your customers, you have to embrace a growth mindset that challenges the status quo. Every day, our team at Vape-Jet has lived by this ethos, and we love when others do too. That’s why it should be no surprise that today, we’re focusing on True North Collective—an unapologetically authentic purveyor of craft cannabis products.

As one of Michigan’s premier cannabis brands, you can bet that the True North Collective (TNC) team doesn’t take any shortcuts. Since 2019, they’ve emphasized the healing potential of cannabis and have cultivated multi-award-winning products for medical and recreational users alike.

True North Collective - From Michigan, For Michigan | Click to Learn More

With three brands in the TNC family, it didn’t take long before their vape cartridge-filling production needed a boost. Most importantly, this wasn’t a time to take shortcuts with their operation. Recognizing the innovation and quality behind Vape-Jet products reflected their own high standards, Vape-Jet automation and True North Collective were a perfect match. TNC decided to invest in our Vape-Jet 3.0 fully automatic and a Jet Fueler 2.0 semi-automatic filler, and that’s where our story begins.

This week, we sat down with TNC-Michigan’s Distillation Director, Joey Stutz to see how their operation had changed since acquiring our cartridge-filling machines:

Before and After
Labor Cost
Support
Operator Tips from Joey
Why Vape-Jet?

Vape-Jet in action at True North Collective’s Michigan facility.

Before and After

Before investing in their first Vape-Jet, TNC was filling cartridges by hand with a generic cartridge-filling gun. Since there were no heating elements in the filling gun, fill techs had to heat the oil separately. With this heating variable added to an already physically intensive filling process, TNC had to dedicate up to six employees at a time for filling and capping, which limited them to filling 50-100 cartridges at a time and up to 1,000-2,000 a day.

And after they bought a Vape-Jet?

With the Vape-Jet they can fill about 4,000 distillate cartridges per day—and that’s with one person for filling and capping. Needless to say, that was a huge improvement over hand-filling!

With the speed and precision of a Vape-Jet in their facility, TNC saw an opportunity to use our semi-automatic Jet Fueler to generate new products, like a line of premium sauce cartridges coming to market soon. For businesses looking to accelerate their growth by adding product lines—or rapidly boosting their throughput to meet demand and enter new markets—the flexibility of a Vape-Jet and Jet Fueler tandem is highly effective.

With their move to Vape-Jet automation, TNC also switched to AVD EazyPress cartridges (one of Vape-Jet’s most filled hardware suppliers) for a seamless production workflow. “We did R&D on a bunch of different disposables, pods, and other carts that aren’t EasyPress, but ultimately the best flavor came from the EasyPress AVD [cartridges],” Joey says.

Labor Cost

By switching to Vape-Jet, True North Collective reduced its labor needs by 83% while doubling its production output.

“The Vape-Jet is automated, so you need someone in the room watching it, but they can also be doing something else while the machine is running itself. It’s not like that person is just dedicated to filling the entire time or just dedicated to one other process. The machine makes it so that one person can get carts ready, they can get the oil ready for the carts and mix the terpenes into it, they can watch the machine and cap at the same time. [The Vape-Jet] makes it very easy for us to reduce the amount of labor overall,” Joey says. “We don’t even have to use the VJ every day right now because it can fill so many, and it’s so efficient.”

What about fill accuracy? Any improvement there?

Although their hand-filling operator was very skilled and experienced, it would have been difficult if they had to train someone new. “Whereas the Vape-Jet comes in, and you just work a computer a little bit, and you’re good to go,” Joey says. “There’s not a lot of skill required to operate this machine, just knowledge.”

How easy is it to operate a Vape-Jet? Contact our crew to request a live demo and see for yourself.

Vape-Jet Product Support

Creating an extensive, easily accessed online product support library has been, and remains, a main focus for the Vape-Jet team. With an abundance of resources for new Vape-Jet users and veterans alike, folks can easily find:

Frequently asked questions
Premium HelpDesk support
Troubleshooting and how-to articles
Equipment documents and manuals for the Vape-Jet, Jet Fueler, and Squish-o-Matic 1000

Joey emphasizes this comprehensive approach to product support as a key component of the success TNC has had with their machines. “Anytime we have an issue, I go online or send a support message, and they’re on it within a day. If it’s super time-sensitive,” Joey continues, “[Vape-Jet support] is right on it. Just the other day, we had an issue with the needle, and they got on within 30-45 minutes. Customer service is great.”

Operator Tips from Joey

For faster changeover between batches, make sure to purchase an extra reservoir for oil so you can have it ready as soon as your cleaning cycle ends. You can also get a DropTank Oil Preheater to perform hot swaps and save more time.
Try to run the same cannabis strain back-to-back so you don’t have to wait for the cleaning process.
Always be aware if the nitrogen is connected or disconnected to the oil reservoir (depending on the task at hand) because it can make a huge mess.

Why Vape-Jet?

Ease of use

“I really like the efficiency of your machine. You literally just put the brick in there, it fills the brick, and then you take the brick out. It’s that easy,” Joey explains. “Every other machine that we saw was a little bit more manual or had some other things that you had to do to them.”

Operation Consistency

“I also liked that the Vape-Jet was a single fill vs. filling 100 cartridges at one time because I’ve never seen that work correctly.”

Pricing

“The price is excellent. It’s probably 50-66% the cost of the machines that claim they can do a similar amount.” And that’s without getting into fill repeatability, where the Vape–Jet outpaces all competitors with a fill variability of ±0.25%. That’s more precise than a single drop of oil!

Look

“And,” Joey emphasizes, “it looks cool! It’s something that when someone is touring the facility, they look at it and they’re like ‘That looks pretty cool!’ instead of a big clunky machine just sitting there that we have to explain what it does.”

“10/10 Would Recommend”

Before we said goodbye, we asked Joey how likely he was to recommend our vape cartridge-filling machines to others: “10/10—would recommend,” Joey said. We can’t ask for a better score than that!

As they look to ramp up production soon (and possibly bring another Vape-Jet on board), we wish True North Collective the very best moving forward. We couldn’t be happier to watch their customer-centered focus on quality pay off. We also want to thank Joey Stutz for taking the time to speak with us and share his unique insights. It’s always a pleasure speaking with other folks who are passionate about cannabis and process development.

If you want to experience freedom from workflow, labor, and product quality constraints that Joey describes, contact our sales team and join the Vape-Jet Revolution!

Interested in learning more? Browse one of our other informational blogs:

Read more customer features (C3 Industries and Terrapin Care Station)
Automation investment considerations from a technical and non-technical perspective
Hardware sourcing information
Ideas for optimizing vape cartridge production

Tags blog, customer feature, jet fueler, news, true north collective, vape-jet

Vape Hardware Vape-Jet

What Vape Hardware Do We Fill Most?

Post author By VJ Crew
Post date July 11, 2022

One of the most common questions we receive is:

“So, what carts can I fill with a Vape-Jet?”

Although the simple answer—‘most of them!’—is not unacceptable, we realize it is important that consumers and cartridge-filling companies understand how Vape-Jet technology is contributing to our customers’ success in the field. While these stories of collaborative growth and 2x production boosts have been shared before, we know that compatible hardware information is crucial when making an investment decision.

So, without further ado, here are the five vape cartridge manufacturers that Vape-Jet and Jet Fueler operators are most commonly filling:

Cilicon
AVD
Jupiter Research
Babyton Tech / BBTank
Greentank

Headquarters: Shenzhen, Guangdong, China

Who is Cilicon?

Cilicon provides OBM/OEM/ODM hardware directly to cannabis companies or through its network of US-based partners. One of Cilicon’s core strengths is the comprehensive approach they take to industry chain management. From R&D and manufacturing to sales, Cilcon’s hardware quality is the result of precise control over their products.

Cilicon vape cartridges and disposables are some of our most frequently filled products.

Cilicon Product Categories

Cilicon offers a variety of competitive product solutions, including, but not limited to:

Review Cilicon’s complete product page for more information.

What Makes Cilicon Unique?

Cilicon is deeply invested in research and development, providing innovative products with unique design capabilities to a vast, diverse customer base. With 4 patented ceramic technologies and 40+ vape products on the market, Cilicon continues to craft solutions that drive industry trends.

Customized Options

Along with custom hardware styles, colors, and other options for end-users, Cilicon also develops tailored ODM products with fully-custom external aesthetics and innovative technologies (like, BioBaleen™ modules and Duair™ technology) for brands including Vessel, Kalibloom, and Bloom.

Headquarters: Seattle, Washington, USA

Who is AVD?

AVD prides themselves on reliability and flavor technology. Before starting AVD, they were growers, extractors, and processors, with decades of cannabis experience. AVD excels at manufacturing vape hardware grounded on engineered principles specifically tailored to cannabis and the nuanced interplay between absorption, heating, and vaporization. AVD’s Eazy-Press Glass and Eazy-Press Polyresin Cartridges represent some of the highest total quantity of cartridges filled by Vape-Jet because of their ease of filling and capping with one of, if not the lowest failure rate in the industry.

AVD Product Categories

AVD offers a variety of competitive product solutions, renowned for retaining true-to-strain flavors, based on their pioneering No-Burn Technology™, including:

You can review AVD’s complete product listing here for more information.

What Makes AVD Unique?

With budget and premium options, AVD is a go-to source for oil brands and processors. Manufacturing out of their own state-of-the-art factory with control over their raw material supply and in-country inventory, AVD quickly ships high-quality stock inventory in 1-3 days.

Customized Options

AVD’s Design House collaborates with their client partners to achieve standout customizations. From classic (custom Pantone colors, finishes printing, and compliancy engraving) to premium customizations (including one-of-a-kind unique mouthpiece covers and unique form factors).

Headquarters: Phoenix, Arizona, USA

Who is Jupiter Research?

Jupiter Research is the distributor of CCELL® cartridges, a specialty heating technology for natural plant-based extracts. Jupiter half and full gram carts are some of our most frequently filled products.

Jupiter Research Product Categories

Jupiter Research offers a variety of competitive product solutions, including, but not limited to:

A line of 510-threaded cartridges
Pod vaporizer platforms
Disposable all-in-one vape pens

Review Jupiter Research’s complete product listing for more information.

What Makes Jupiter Research Unique?

As one of four US-based distributors of CCELL® cartridges, Jupiter Research represents one of the original providers who sparked the mass production of vape cartridges nationwide.

Customized Options

Jupiter Research offers custom branding options for all their products, from colors and printing to customized vape specifications.

Headquarters: Dongguan, Guangdong, China

Who is BBTank?

BBTank provides vape hardware directly to cannabis companies, supporting its high-volume manufacturing facilities with a robust R&D department.

BBTank Product Categories

BBTank offers a variety of competitive product solutions, including, but not limited to:

501 cartridges, including full-glass and ceramic styles
Disposable vape pens
Pods

Review BBTank’s complete product listing for more information.

What Makes BBTank Unique?

By fostering direct relationships with cannabis companies, BBTank has shorter development times on new products. Also, with more than 2,500 workers, 20 workshops, and 100 production lines, BBTank can quickly scale to meet demand while investing resources in following the latest trends in the cannabis market.

Customized Options

BBTank supports many customized options from small-scale color finishes and mouthpieces to fully custom ODM hardware and custom packaging.

Headquarters: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Who is Greentank?

Working directly with cannabis companies, Greentank has successfully launched over 200 vape brands across the US and Canada.

Greentank Product Categories

Greentank offers a variety of competitive product solutions, including, but not limited to:

Review GreenTank’s complete product listing for more information.

What Makes Greentank Unique?

With locations in the US and Canada, Greentank’s products have a broad reach. Along with a plethora of customized options (which we will get to shortly), Greentank focuses on finding innovative solutions for its customers.

Customized Options

Stressing the importance of ‘bringing brands to life,’ Greentank supports a comprehensive library of finishes, mouthpieces, chargers, and packaging.

Other Brands

We’d be remiss if we didn’t include these fantastic companies below, who are not only developing exceptional products but using Vape-Jet technology to ensure quality cartridge control:

Learn More About Vape-Jet

As this list of vape cartridge manufacturers indicates, Vape-Jet and Jet Fueler cartridge-filling machines are at the center of a rapidly growing industry. With precision and quality being the most important similarity between these successful manufacturers, it has never been more essential to manage filling variables and handle your cartridges with consistency.

If you’re interested in learning more, browse one of our other informational blogs:

Automation investment considerations from a technical and non-technical perspective
In-depth customer features (from C3 Industries and Terrapin Care Station)
Hardware sourcing information
Ideas for optimizing vape cartridge production

If you want to experience the greatness of your own Vape-Jet, all you need to do is drop us a line. While you’re at it, don’t forget to sign up for our monthly Re:Fill newsletter to get early access to company updates, product releases, and other exciting announcements. Follow us on the essentials, too: Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

Tags blog, hardware, news

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