With over ninety staff, the Production Team plays a vital role in ensuring that products are manufactured to the agreed specifications and in accordance with GMP. Production runs three shifts, twenty-four hours a day, five days a week with overtime as needed.
Blending and Granulating
Achieving a homogenous blend is essential to producing a quality product. Rhema has four stainless steel blenders validated for a wide range of natural health products and drugs. Through validation, we can demonstrate that a uniform blend is achieved each time. Our large ribbon blender has a maximum capacity of 80 cubic feet and can accommodate blends up to 1400kg (3080lb). Our medium blender has a maximum capacity of 28 cubic feet and can accommodate blends of 250 – 500kg (550 – 1100lb). For smaller blending jobs and pre-blends, we have two V-blenders. One has a maximum capacity of 12 cubic feet and can accommodate blends of 60 – 200kg (132 – 440lb) while the other has a maximum capacity of 5 cubic feet and can accommodate blends of 25 – 80kg (55 – 176lb).
At Rhema, we enthusiastically work on your most challenging formulas. By establishing sophisticated blending protocols and utilizing our specialized equipment, we can manufacture some of the most difficult formulas.
Rhema performs wet granulation using purified water without the use of any solvents. Once wet granulated, the material achieves a paste like composition and is dried in our drying oven. Each of the two fans of the oven perform their own unique function with one circulating the air and accurately maintaining the correct temperature and the other removing the humid air to increase drying efficiency and reduce drying times.
Rhema also uses chilsonation to increase the density of raw materials. Raw materials are put into the chilsonator's hopper and from there fed into a roller compaction device. The rollers have grooves in them into which the raw material is compacted under high pressure emerging after processing as thin strips. These strips (or sometimes pellets) are then milled through the appropriate mesh screen to produce a powder with the desired particle size. This densification process often allows us to fit a higher quantity of actives into the required size capsule or tablet or allows for the production of smaller capsules or tablets without a reduction in potency.
Rhema specializes in the manufacture of flavoured products. Our Product Development Team draws from a vast assortment of flavours and sweeteners to provide you with a powder blend of exceptional taste and mouth feel that will meet your requirements.
Powder Filling
Rhema can utilize two separate powder filling lines and a wide range of container sizes to accommodate our customers’ needs. The programmed fill weight and selected auger determine the flow of the powder into the vessel with exceptional accuracy. By utilizing augers of different sizes, higher speed of powder filling can be achieved enabling us to provide greater efficiency. Rhema can fill jars and soft plastic, resealable gusset bags
Encapsulation
Rhema has two high-speed fully automatic and four semi-automatic encapsulators. Our high speed encapsulators can produce up to 80,000 capsules per hour and the semi-automatic machines average 15,000 capsules per hour. The size of your order and the characteristics of the blended materials determine which type of equipment we use. Our range of equipment allows us to use capsules from size #3 to “00”. We encapsulate products using clear and coloured vegetable, gelatin and porcine capsules
Tabletting
Rhema currently has six tablet presses including a DD series Sentry 23, two higher speed Manesty Express 20’s and a BB3B. These presses are capable of manufacturing round, caplet and oblong shaped tablets. Round sizes vary between 1/4” to 7/8” in diameter ranging from 120mg to 2700mg. Large oblong tablets produced have a size of 7/8” by 3/8” and can range up to 2300mg. Our tablet presses can pre-compress materials which help to achieve the appropriate tablet hardness when running fluffy or non-directly compressible raw materials.
Rhema specializes in the manufacture of chewable flavoured products. Our Product Development Team draws from a vast assortment of flavours and sweeteners to provide you with chewable tablets of exceptional taste and mouth feel that will meet your requirements which can then be packaged and labelled.
Coating and Enteric Coating
Rhema has the capability to coat and enteric coat tablets. We have also developed the additional expertise of being able to enteric coat softgel capsules. Coated tablets have many benefits. A coated tablet is more stable chemically as the coating provides additional protection against air, light and moisture. Coated tablets are less odoriferous, more aesthetically pleasing, and facilitate easier swallowing. At Rhema, we offer standard coating (release within one hour) and delayed-release coating (release for up to a six hour period). We use only aqueous (water-based) coatings that are free from chemical solvents. We can apply clear or coloured coatings.
With sales of EFA`s continuing to be a strong growth category, enteric coated softgels give you an extra advantage when selling this dosage form. Enteric coated softgels eliminate the “repeat” of fish oils and other odoriferous or bad tasting compounds. Enteric coating also protects the core from disintegrating in the stomach, allowing the contents to release in the small intestine, the primary site of absorption for many nutrients. Rhema`s enteric coatings use only aqueous based GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe) materials and we can provide vegetarian coating options.
Packaging and Labelling
Our fully integrated and fully automatic high speed packaging line is used for packaging and labelling large orders of tablets and capsules. It includes a bottle descrambler, blower (to remove dust particles), automatic dessicant dispenser, filler, cottoner, capper, induction sealer, and neckband or full body sleeve roller. Additionally, an integrated bundler allows bottles to be shrink wrapped into the configuration of your choice ready for insertion into shipping cartons. The packaging line can produce up to sixty bottles per minute depending on the quantity per bottle
We demonstrate our flexibility for producing smaller orders by utilizing five additional filling heads which allow us to efficiently package a range of tablets, capsules and softgels in a wide range of bottle sizes. Once filled, these bottles are transferred to our secondary packaging line for labelling, sleeving and bundling. This packaging line is also used to label our powder products.
Our labeling lines allow us to seal bottles and jars using pressure sensitive or foil heat induction caps in a variety of styles and colours including child resistant and tear-away. Many of our customers have moved to vented caps to reduce the potential of implosion of their bottles in transit or on the shelf. Using roll stock, we can cut neckbands or full body sleeves to the appropriate length so the shrink over your bottle or jar fits perfectly. You can also choose to have horizontal and/or vertical perforations
Shipping
As a custom manufacturer, we recognize that every customer has unique shipping requirements. Our Sales and Warehouse Teams combine to assist you with shipping to multiple locations, different markets and different countries.