Technology continues to elevate the cannabis industry, both in packaging and the way products are made. One company just created the world’s first automated kief coating robot, ultimately taking out 95% of the labor needed for this type of production.
Launched by Sorting Robotics, Stardust is designed and engineered to bring automation and consistency to this specialized segment. It accommodates cones, straight tubes and blunts, coating them all with a fuzzy layer of kief. Offering diverse coating options such as Dry Sift Kief, Bubble Hash, crushed THCa Diamonds or powdered cannabis, Stardust offers innovation and flexibility to cannabis operators.
The Formation of Stardust
Nohtal Partansky, Co-founder and CEO of Sorting Robotics, says it took six months from the start of research and development (R&D) to fully launch Stardust.
“This was executed in a methodical R&D process developed by Sorting Robotics to allow us to iterate and quickly bring this product to market,” Partansky explains. “I brought in the whole technical team from Sorting Robotics and we also used a few contractors to get additional perspectives and accelerate our knowledge curve.”
According to Partansky, here’s exactly how Stardust works:
Step 1: The prerolls are loaded into a preroll holder system called the “collet pod” and then placed eight at a time in the “loading station.”
Step 2: The collet pods are grabbed by a robotic arm using a patent pending end effector system that spins each individual joint so that it can be inserted into the spray station where an even coat of distillate is applied on to the preroll.
Step 3: After spraying, the robotic arm moves the joints from the spray station to the dipping station where the joints are coated in kief, bubble hash or THCa diamonds.
Step 4: Once the joints are coated in kief, the robot brings it to the unloading station and the collet pods are removed and reloaded with fresh joints ready for coating.
A Variety of Robotics for Cannabis Production
Stardust is not Sorting Robotics’ only invention helping to streamline cannabis pre-roll production. Earlier this year, the company also rolled out the Jiko+ Donut Maker, a one-of-a-kind robotics device that automates the production process of the fan-favorite hash hole at scale.
The company also makes the Jiko, an automated pre-roll infusion robot; omni, a desktop vape cartridge filling machine; and mayweather, an automated pick and pack robotic arm.
Taking Out the Manual Labor
Stardust, along with these other robots, are helping to streamline the cannabis production process by taking out hours of manual labor and delivering a faster turnaround. The 0.5g kief dusted joint is the most popular SKU in North America, according to Partansky, and Stardust can take out 95% of the labor out of this production.
“The goal is that every customer of Stardust will save at least $10,000/month when using our machine after month one. If we can put an extra $10k to $30k in our customers’ pockets, hopefully that will increase the health of an industry that is deeply overregulated and restricted by high labor costs,” says Partansky.
Stardust is just one part of Sorting Robotics’ modular fully automated pre-roll system, MARS. In 2024, Partansky says business customers will be able to put ground flower and cones in one end and then receive rolled, live resin injected, kief coated joints placed in a 5-pack jar.
“That’s the goal of Sorting Robotics — sophisticating the cannabis industry one step at a time. Stardust is the final piece of that puzzle,” says Partansky.
