Manual vs. Automatic: Which Capsule Filling Machine is Right for Your Needs?

Key Takeaways:

• Manual Capsule Fillers: The ideal small capsule filling machine for startups, smaller businesses, product development, or anyone producing fewer than 8,000 capsules per day. They are affordable and simple to use.
• Automatic Capsule Filling Machines: Essential for commercial businesses focused on scaling. They offer high speed and greater weight accuracy, but require a significant automatic capsule filling machine price investment and more space.

Read more: What Laboratory Equipment Suppliers in the US Provide

What is a Capsule Filling Machine?

A capsule filling machine (also called an encapsulator or capsule filler) is specialized equipment designed to fill empty capsules with powders, granules, pellets, or other materials. These machines are used in the pharmaceutical and nutraceutical industries to ensure accuracy, efficiency, and quality in the capsule production process.

Capsules are easy to swallow, mask the unpleasant taste and odor of ingredients, and protect them from light, moisture, and oxidation, making them a popular choice for delivering supplements, herbs, and medications.

The machines work with different capsule sizes (typically ranging from 00 to size 5) and can handle various materials, including gelatin, HPMC, and vegetarian capsules.

As per Future Market Insights, the pharmaceutical capsule filling machines market was valued at USD 1.8 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach USD 3.2 billion by 2035, demonstrating the critical role these machines play in manufacturing.

Understanding the Main Types of Capsule Filling Equipment

1. Manual Capsule Filling Machines: The Hands-On Option

• The process involves placing empty capsules onto a loading tray, pulling a locking lever forward, pushing down a long handle that lifts the caps off the bodies, and then filling the capsule bodies with pre-measured powder. After filling, you compress the powder with a tamper, replace the caps, and eject the finished capsules.
• Manual capsule filling machines typically have 100 holes, with 10 x 10 combinations or with 300 holes, with 25 x 12 combinations, and can fill capsule sizes #00 to #5. The most common models come with 100, 300, or 400 holes, determining how many capsules you can process in each cycle.

A. Benefits

• Lower upfront cost compared to large automatic machines.
• Smaller footprint and simpler installation/support equipment.
• Good flexibility for small batches, multiple capsule sizes, or custom formulations.
• Easier to clean/maintain when the scale is modest.

B. Limitations

• Throughput is limited, filling might be only a few hundred capsules per cycle or hour.
• More labor-intensive: operator time, manual loading, manual closing.
• Less consistency and precision compared to high-end automatic machines. For example, dosage variation may be higher.
• If you scale up, you may hit bottlenecks.

C. Typical applications

Manual capsule fillers are well-suited for:

• Start-ups making small batches (e.g., supplements)
• Research labs, pilot production.
• Niche or custom formulations where flexibility matters more than scale.
• U.S. operations where budget or space is constrained.

2. Automatic Capsule Filling Machines: The High-Volume Solution

Automatic capsule fillers automatically orient, open the empty hard gelatin capsule, properly fill the capsule with powder, and close the capsule. The entire process from capsule feeding to ejection happens automatically through computer-controlled systems.

Popular automatic capsule fillers in the market are named according to capacity per minute, such as NJP400, NJP800, NJP1200, with numbers indicating the machine can fill 24,000 to 450,000 capsules per hour.

A. Benefits

• High production capacity: good for large volume manufacturing.
• Repeatable accuracy: better consistency in dose, lower operator error.
• Reduced labor for the same output, so the cost per unit drops with volume.
• Better suited for regulated environments (GMP, pharmaceutical) with full automation and fewer manual steps.

B. Limitations

• Higher capital cost and total cost of ownership (maintenance, tooling, spare parts).
• Requires more floor space, utilities, and possibly more skilled staff.
• Less flexibility if you’re doing very small runs with frequent change-overs: the ROI may take time to reach.
• Setup, cleaning, and changeover time may be significant when you switch formulations or capsule sizes.

C. Typical applications

Automatic machines make sense when:

• You have high-volume needs (thousands to tens of thousands of capsules/hour).
• You’re in a pharmaceutical or large nutraceutical manufacturer where precision and regulatory compliance are critical.
• You want to scale up and achieve a lower cost per unit.

Manual vs. Automatic: Key Factors to Consider

When deciding between manual and automatic capsule filling equipment, evaluate these factors carefully:

Read more: Why Fluorescein Sodium Strips Are a Must in Eye Care

How to decide which is right for you

Here’s the thing: it’s not just “manual vs automatic”. The right choice depends on several factors.

1. Volume and throughput

Ask: how many capsules do I need to fill per run/day? Manual machines with 100-hole or 300-hole plates might fill hundreds or a few thousand per hour. Automatic machines could fill tens of thousands/hour. If your volume is low, a manual may suffice.

2. Budget and ROI

• Manual: lower upfront cost, lower maintenance overhead.
• Automatic: higher upfront cost, but lower labor cost over time, potential for better ROI with high volumes.

3. Flexibility vs standardization

If you’re going to fill many sizes (000 to 5), lots of formulations, frequent change-overs, and manual machines might give you more flexibility. If you’re doing high-volume production of the same product, automation makes more sense.

4. Quality/accuracy demands and regulatory environment

If your operation must meet strict pharmaceutical GMP standards, an automatic filler may provide the necessary controls and repeatability. If you’re doing supplements, custom small batches, or research, a manual machine may be acceptable.

5. Space, operator capability & training

Consider your facility’s floor space, utilities, the availability of skilled operators, and maintenance resources. An automatic machine may bring more complexity. Manual machines are simpler.

Where to Buy a Manual Capsule Filler Machine

If you’re based in the U.S. and working with small-batch capsule production, the 100-hole manual capsule filling machine offered at SciMed offers several practical merits. It’s made from 304-grade stainless steel, fits capsule sizes 00 through 5, and is built for operations like R&D labs or niche production.

Key Points:

• The output (up to 2,500 capsules per hour) meets your run size.
• Clear specifications on cleaning, capsule size change-parts, and material compatibility.
• It meets CGMP requirements & standards.
• Usage: Laboratory, Pharmaceutical, Nutritional, Biotech, Health Supplement, Food Product & Cosmetics
• Application: Filling Capsules with powder, pellets & granules.

Conclusion

Manual capsule filling machines keep costs low for starters, while automatic capsule filling machine prices reflect their growth potential. Assess your output: Small batches scream manual; big ones need auto. With the USA market heating up, the right choice now sets you up for smooth scaling. 

FAQs

1. What is a capsule filling machine called?

A capsule filling machine is often simply called a "capsule filler," an "encapsulator," or a capsule filling device. In industrial settings, the three primary classifications are manual, semi-automatic, and automatic fillers, distinguished by their operational mode and output capacity.

2. Do capsule fillers require special training?

Manual capsule fillers require minimal instruction and are very easy to operate, usually only needing simple Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). Automatic capsule-filling machines are far more complex and require skilled operators for setup, calibration, and technical maintenance due to the advanced automation and regulatory standards involved.

3. How do capsule filling machines work?

All capsule filling machine types follow the same basic mechanical steps: first, empty capsules are oriented and separated into their caps and bodies. Second, the capsule bodies are filled with powder, often using a tamping plate to compact the material. Finally, the cap is replaced onto the body, and the sealed capsule is ejected from the machine.

4. How to use a manual capsule filling machine?

To use a manual capsule filling machine, you load the capsule bodies into the tray, separate the caps, spread and tamp your filling material into the bodies, and then securely press the caps back into place. The process is entirely hand-operated and focuses on filling one batch at a time.

5. What are the typical capsule filling machine sizes?

The capsule filling machine sizes are usually defined in two ways: the size of the capsule they can handle (e.g., Size 00, 0, 1) and their production capacity, measured by the number of holes in the tray or the capsules produced per hour. Manual machines range from a 100-hole capsule filling machine to 800 holes, while automatic machines are measured in thousands of capsules per hour.