Pre-roll consumption is on the rise, with sales in the U.S. recently increasing by 13%. Pre-rolls are convenient, easy to enjoy, and effective. But it’s no secret that some pre-rolls have a “nectar of the Gods” quality and others… simply suck.
Which is why I decided to do something about it. At Sorting Robotics, we bring the world of robotics, computer vision, and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to the cannabis industry to help businesses drive cost reduction and enhance productivity.
Since Sorting Robotics’ inception, we’ve developed solutions that help businesses ensure high-quality infused and kief-coated pre-rolled joints—both a necessity to keeping today’s consumers satisfied. We do this via a few of our automated machines:
- Jiko, the first ever automated pre-roll infusion machine
- Stardust, the world’s first automated kief-coating robot
If you’d like to learn more about Sorting Robotics, how we got started, the problems our AI robots solve, and more, continue reading to jump into all the above, below.
A Brief History of Sorting Robotics
As a former NASA-JPL engineer, I worked on the MOXIE project; an instrument on the surface of Mars producing oxygen from the Martian atmosphere.
With my background in innovative robotics, and a passion for the cannabis community, in late 2019 I teamed up with Sorting Robotics’ co-founder and CTO, Cassio Dos Santos Jr, and a few additional colleagues to first create a research and design facility for cannabis. This ultimately led to us deciding to become a cannabis manufacturer to better understand the automation and robotics needs for cannabis businesses.
Early in our manufacturing endeavors, we recognized a major issue. We didn’t have the ability to customize pre-rolls with terpene infusions or with kief coatings. This lack of capabilities inspired Sorting Robotics’ line of automated machines for manufacturing customized pre-rolls in addition to other manufacturing machines for vape cartridges.
For over half a decade, our team has developed innovative robotic solutions for cannabis producers and addressed the automation shortcomings the cannabis sector faces, which negatively impacts a business’ value chain and profit margins.
Jiko, the first ever automated pre-roll infusion machine, is designed to infuse various sized pre-rolls. Utilizing both pressure and temperature to control the infusion process, the system enables operators to adjust settings to accommodate the type of concentrate being infused and the size and shape of the pre-roll.
Stardust, our most recent invention and the world’s first automated kief-coating robot, is engineered to cater to the growing demand for “fuzzy” style joints, blunts, and straight-tube pre-rolls. We’ll dive into Stardust, its capabilities, and use cases more in the next section.
Stardust: The World’s First Automated Kief-Coating Robot
It took only six months for us to develop and launch Stardust’s patent pending technology. In just four simple steps, Stardust seamlessly processes up to 1,200 joints per hour (the equivalent to the workload of five to ten people), ensuring that production never lags behind demand and saving operators thousands of dollars.
The first step requires the loading of pre-rolls into a “collet pod” which is essentially a pre-roll holder. From here, ten collet pods are placed into the “loading station.”
Next, a robotic arm spins each joint appropriately so that they can be inserted into a spray station. This is where an even coat of customizable distillate (fully decarbed concentrates, cigar glue, and simple water formulations, etc.) is applied to the pre-roll.
Once the pre-rolls are properly sprayed, the robot automatically brings them to the dipping station. Here is where the pre-rolls are coated in diverse options such as dry sift kief, bubble hash, crushed THCa diamonds, or powdered cannabis.
Finally, and now that the pre-rolls are well coated in kief (with the “fuzzy” consistency we all know and love), the robot sends the joints to the unloading station. The collet pods are then removed and reloaded with the next batch of pre-rolls ready to be coated.
The best part of Stardust, in my opinion, is that the single-operator design simplifies and speeds up production, but also mitigates labor costs. Instead of having a dozen or so operators coat each pre-roll by hand, Stardust (with one operator) spins out nearly 1,200 coated pre-rolls per hour, saving companies at least $10,000 per month.
Stardust’s Features & Benefits:
- The single operator design minimizes labor costs and streamlines operations with just one skilled human operator.
- Stardust is versatile and covers pre-rolls of all sizes including cones, straight tubes, or blunts.
- This system can handle a diverse range of coatings from distillate, including fully decarbed concentrates, cigar glue, and simple water formulations.
- Coating options include dry sift kief, bubble hash, crushed THCa diamonds, or powdered cannabis.
Final Thoughts
The cannabis industry has made strides in recent decades, but the one area in which cannabis can expand its horizons is automation. At Sorting Robotics, our mission is to help cannabis manufacturers and processors grow and scale their operations efficiently and profitably via our proprietary automation technology.
Stardust is just one example of how our combination of real-time production data analytics and modern IoT hardware helps break through the toughest bottlenecks cannabis brands and processors face. And we can’t wait to see where our next invention takes the cannabis community.
If you’d like to learn more about Stardust and Sorting Robotics, please visit www.sortingrobotics.com/.