Robots have improved and made manufacturing easier for many industries, including medical, packaging, food and beverage and even aerospace. However, robots have made their way into the cannabis industry.
One robot in particular that is enhancing the cannabis industry is the Jiko automated pre-roll infusion robot from Sorting Robotics. Jiko is made to infuse different types and sizes of pre-rolls. The robot uses pressure and temperature to control the infusion process. Also, the touchscreen interface allows the user to fix the settings to accommodate the concentrate being infused.
“First, the user places their joints in an infusion wheel that holds 20 joints,” said Nohtal Partansky, CEO of Sorting Robotics. “Then they place that wheel in the robot, and the Jiko uses a needle to inject joints with a column of concentrated material. Once the infusion is complete, the user can remove the joints and proceed to final packaging.”
The Jiko robot can infuse different types of cannabinoids, including THCO, Delta-8, CBD and live resin. Since the robot can infuse numerous cannabinoids in pre-rolls quickly, cannabis manufacturers and companies can benefit significantly from the machine.
“The Jiko robot is allowing companies to create a new SKU of product from their pre-rolls by adding one final infusion step to their manufacturing process,” said Partansky. “Instead of needing to create a whole new set of SOPs and hiring a completely new team, a manufacturer can just use a Jiko robot and a single operator to generate thousands of pre-rolls per day.”
Being able to make 800 pre-rolls in an hour allows cannabis companies to make a huge profit because they are able to get more products out faster to consumers.
“In general, we see our customers getting a return on investment within the first six months of owning the robot. We’re also seeing a significant number of co-packers build their whole infusion around the Jiko technology,” said Partansky.
Sorting Robotics is always looking for ways to improve the Jiko robot to continue helping enhance the cannabis industry. The company’s next edition to the robot will be a subsystem that will be used to perform quality control and package the final infused joints.
“I see the Jiko robot being a component in a fully automated pre-roll solution that we offer our customers,” said Partansky. “We will start at the pre-roll, then infusion, then quality control and then final packaging. The Jiko robot is a launching point for a fully automated pre-roll manufacturing line.”