APK-40B Automatic Effervescent Tablets Tube Filling Machine
Stepper indexing, 35 to 40 tubes a minute, 10 to 20 tablets per tube
Pneumatic stops drift as they wear, and that drift shows up as a tablet caught on the tube mouth. This machine indexes with a stepper motor and a mechanical dividing disk instead. Same speed and same footprint as the 40A — what you’re buying is position that holds as your tablet thickness varies.
1. Speed— 35 to 40 tubes a minute
2. Indexing— stepper motor with mechanical dividing disk
3. Tablets— Ø25 mm, up to 6 mm thick, 10 to 20 per tube
4. Power— 220 V, 1.5 kW
Is this the right machine for you?
✓ Yes, if…
- Your tablet thickness varies towards the ±0.2 mm limit
- You change products or tube sizes regularly
- You need 35 to 40 tubes a minute
- Your tube's inner diameter is at least 2 mm bigger than your tablet
✕ Buy something else if…
- Your tablet thickness is consistent and you run one product → the APK-40A does the same speed with pneumatic stops, for less
- You need more than 40 tubes a minute → the APK-60 runs 50 to 60
- Your tablet hardness is under 5 kg → tablets that soft chip in the track, whatever the machine
Stepper Indexing, Not Pneumatic Stops
Each station is positioned by a stepper motor turning a mechanical dividing disk. A pneumatic stop gets there by hitting a hard limit — reliable when everything is fresh, less so as the cylinder and the stop wear. A stepper goes to a number and stays there.
Screening Track Before the Tube
Tablets pass a screening section that drops out chips and broken pieces before they reach the row that goes into the tube. It also sets the two conditions your tablets have to meet: hardness above 5 kg, and thickness variation within ±0.2 mm. Outside those, no amount of indexing precision helps.
Siemens PLC and Touchscreen
Parameters are entered on screen and recalled, not set by feel. When you come back to a tablet you ran last month, you enter the same numbers rather than re-tuning the track.
No Tablet, No Tube, No Cap
Optical sensors check each station before it acts. If the count is short or a cap is missing, the capping cylinder is locked out for that tube and the tube is rejected. You don’t pay for a cap on a tube you’d have to open again.
Tubes Fed in One Direction
A swinging bucket arranges tubes and feeds them onto the track all facing the same way. Long, light tubes tumble easily, so this is the station that decides whether the rest of the machine gets a steady supply.
Same Speed as the 40A. Different Reason to Buy It
Both machines run 35 to 40 tubes a minute, weigh 420 kg and take the same floor. What you’re paying the difference for is position that holds when your tablet thickness moves inside its ±0.2 mm window — and when you change products often enough that the track gets reset regularly.
Technical specification
| Specification Parameter | APK-40B Technical Metrics |
| Model Designation | APK-40B |
| Primary Dosing Transmission Upgrades | Leadshine (Lei Sai) Stepper Motor + Gaoshida Indexing Structure |
| Production Line Running Throughput | 35–40 tubes / minute (Constant loop optimization) |
| Standard Target Tablet Matrix | Diameter: 25 mm | Thickness: ≤6 mm (Customized per client requirements) |
| Target Capsule Count Per Tube | Flexible range: Standard 10 to 20 pieces per bottle |
| Required Raw Tablet Characteristics | Hardness profile: above 5 kg | Thickness error: ≤0.2 mm |
| System Automation Control Layer | Siemens PLC + Panasonic & Lamboa Photoelectric Sensor Arrays |
| Electrical Voltage / Total Power Draw | 220V 50–60Hz / 1.5 kW Extended Motor Drive System |
| Purified Compressed Air Demands | Pressure: 0.5–0.6 MPa | Consumption: ≤0.28 m³/min |
| Machine Structural Scales (L × W × H) | 1600 × 1500 × 1600 mm Compact Cleanroom Layout |
| Net Equipment Dead Weight | Approximately 420 KG Heavy-Duty Base Frame |
| Material Metallurgy Grade | Table Canopy: SUS304 | Tablet Contact Lines: Pure SS316L |
Model comparison
Model | Indexing | Speed | Power | Weight |
APK-40A | Pneumatic | 35–40 tubes/min | 1.2 kW | 420 kg |
APK-40B | Stepper + indexing disk | 35–40 tubes/min | 1.5 kW | 420 kg |
APK-60 | Stepper, with short-count rejection | 50–60 tubes/min | 2 kW | 1,000 kg |
APKZL-60 | Tube labeller | 60 tubes/min | 0.8 kW | 320 kg |
The 40A and 40B run at the same speed and weigh the same. What differs is how each station is stopped — and that shows up when your tablet thickness varies.
Production Applications
What changing over involves
What changed | What you adjust | Roughly |
Same tablet, different count per tube | Track setting | 15-30mins |
Different tube diameter | Tube guides and cap vibrating disk | 15-30mins |
Different tablet diameter | Row alignment rails and track guides | 15-30mins |
Tablet thickness drifts within ±0.2 mm | Nothing — but that’s the limit | — |
Beyond ±0.2 mm of thickness variance, no adjustment fixes it. That’s what separates the 40A from the 40B.
What to check before you buy
Your tablet, before the machine
Hardness above 5 kg, thickness variance within ±0.2 mm, and a tube at least 2 mm wider inside than your tablet. Those three decide whether any tube filler runs cleanly on your product — ask any supplier to confirm them against your actual samples.
What happens to a short-count tube
Some machines lock out the cap. Others push the tube out of the line. Ask which, because one of them still leaves you a tube to find at the packing bench.
Installation and training
Ask what's included and what costs extra.
Why Choose AIPAK？
Factory-direct — You buy from the plant, not through a trading company.
We run your tablets first — Send us tablets and tubes and we run them before you order, so you see whether your hardness and thickness clear the track.
U.S. line, answered by us — +1 (213) 526-8644, 9am to 11pm Eastern, Monday to Friday. That’s 6am to 8pm Pacific.
Lead time — 1-3months. Confirmed in writing with your order.
Fully Expanded Technical FAQ for APK-40B
The APK-40B introduces a digital Leadshine stepper motor combined with a Gaoshida mechanical indexing disk structure. While traditional pure pneumatic setups experience positioning wear over long shifts, the stepper drive provides precision multi-station tracking. This guarantees smooth container positioning, eliminates bottle tipping, and boosts long-term accuracy across the sealing zones.
The machine is engineered around a horizontal vibratory sorting table and screening channels that arrange tablets into a single overlapping row. Tablets are systematically aligned flat before a gentle mechanical cylinder shuffles them into the tube mouth, entirely removing vertical drops and preserving raw tablet hardness.
To ensure reliable row counting and jam-free insertion, your raw formulation must maintain a minimum hardness threshold of above 5kg. Additionally, to prevent count variations from cumulative stacking errors, tablet thickness variance must remain within a tight tolerance of ±0.2 mm.
The line features a multi-point sensor verification array governed by the Siemens PLC. If a container displays an incorrect tablet count or experiences a capping failure, the system skips the sealing step to protect component integrity and automatically directs that specific uncapped tube into an integrated rejection chute.
The mechanical sorting rails naturally drop fine powder away from the primary pathways. To completely clear airborne dust from the encapsulation zone, the APK-40B includes an integrated 38 mm diameter vacuum suction port, designed for easy coupling to your cleanroom’s industrial dust extraction unit.
Yes. The APK-40B uses a modular changeover design across its key tracks. Cleanroom technicians can quickly adjust or swap the tube feeding rails, cap vibrating disks, and row-shuffling channels, minimizing line downtime during multi-recipe turnarounds
No. According to international packaging compliance and the physical properties of overlapping row insertion, the inner hole diameter of your bobbin bottle must be at least 2 mm larger than the maximum outer diameter of your tablet to ensure jam-free automated loading.
Customers Also Interested In...
APK-40A Tube Filling Machine
The simpler machine. If your tablet thickness is consistent and you run one product, it does the same job for less.
APK-60 Tube Filling Machine
The step up. Faster, and it rejects any tube that's a tablet short.
APKZL-60 Tube Labeling Machine
Downstream. Labels the finished tube horizontally with batch coding built in.
Send Us Tablets and Tubes
Three things decide whether any of these machines runs cleanly on your product, and speed isn’t one of them.
Your tablets need to be harder than 5 kg — softer than that and the edges chip in the track. Thickness has to stay inside ±0.2 mm, or the stack height drifts and the count goes wrong. And your tube’s inner diameter has to be at least 2 mm wider than your tablet, or it jams at the mouth.
Send us samples of both and we’ll check all three before we quote. If your tablet doesn’t clear one of them, we’d rather tell you now than after the machine ships.
- Reply within one business day
- Your tablets and tubes run on the machine before you order
- Your formula and specs stay with us
