CLEANING: The Black Hole of Time and Money (Until Now)

Speed is EXCITING. The first question everyone asks about trimming or trimming machines: How fast can it trim?

That’s important. Certainly, one of the most important KPIs associated with automated trimming equipment. But, it’s not the only one! There’s another that is almost as critical to your operation as feed rate… How fast can you CLEAN it? How many work hours does it take to clean your equipment? How long does it take to get it cleaned, and back into operation?

It’s often overlooked. The reality is that most trimming machines available on the market are difficult and time-consuming to clean, especially if you are trying to maintain GMP standards at your facility. [Unfamiliar with Good Manufacturing Practices? check out our Ultimate Guide to Cannabis Trimming…]

That’s why when we designed the Mobius Trimmer M108, one of the pain points we solved was the issue of cleaning. We’ve heard horror stories for years where properly cleaning the trimming equipment took as long as the trim session itself.

We removed the cleaning pain points in the design of the Mobius Trimmer M108 in the following ways:

1. The entire machine can be disassembled for cleaning without any tools. Disassembly takes about five minutes. Same goes for reassembly – no tools required, and it takes about five minutes. If you’re an experienced M108 operator, you can do it even faster.

2. The components most susceptible to resin buildup, (the bedknives, tumbler, and helical blades) can be hot swapped during trim sessions. “Hot swapping” is changing parts mid trim session with almost zero downtime, but achieving 95% of the benefits of a full clean. A hot swap takes less than five minutes, and you can be back online, allowing you to double or triple (depending on how many swaps you’d like to do) the time between complete cleanings without reducing machine performance.
   
   
3. With an Integrated Separation System, we did away with hoses entirely. Cleaning hoses to GMP standards is very difficult and time consuming. Now you don’t have to use hoses at all, for anything, ever. You’re welcome!
   

4. No adjustments necessary. Part of the way we are able to make hot swapping work is by not needing any adjustments when putting new blade cartridges back in. We heard complaints about constantly needing to adjust and readjust, especially after breaking a machine down for cleaning. You don’t need to do that anymore, which is not only a big time-saver, but a huge bonus when you’re trying to enforce product consistency.

5. The internal surfaces of the M108 are smoothed metal, and power washable. Using smoothed surfaces makes a world of difference.

This all adds up to a massive reduction in time and effort that’s wasted on cleaning. In other words, the M108 can save you loads of money, and bring some sanity to your cleaning process. Cleaning is never going to be exciting, but at least it doesn’t have to be a pain point anymore.