Manual Tablet Counter

1. What Is A Manual Tablet Counter?

A manual tablet counter is a tool used to count different kinds of medications which are either in capsule form or tablet form. This is a cost-effective, easy-to-use kind of tool, which is used in several sectors such as pharmaceutical, food, agriculture, cosmetics as well as research labs. Their use has been growing over the years and has become the go-to option for several industries and organizations to count tablets or capsules as quickly as possible.

2. What Is The Working Principle of Manual Tablet Counters?

The manual tablet counter working principle is simple. Each manual tablet counter is customizable, that is, each tablet counter specific for a specific kind of capsule. The holes in the counter are designed exactly like the shape of the given tablet. Also, there are a specific number of holes in the counter, each hole has the capacity to insert only one tablet.

The concerned tablets which need to be counted are inserted in the holes of the counter. When all the holes are filled with the tablets, you will immediately know the number of tablets it contains since the counter has a specific number of holes in it.

3. What Is The Structure Of Manual Tablet Counter?

Manual tablet counter is a very simple tool. It consists of a handle to hold the counter and a template that consists of holes. This template is customizable and can be designed in any shape or size depending on the shape of the tablet. The holes in it which are used to insert tablets are also specific in number and can be increased or decreased according to the client's wish.

Manual tablet counter is used to count the prescribed medications which can be found in different forms such as capsules or tablets. The use of manual counters makes it an easy and quick process for many industries or hospitals to count medicines.

4. What Are The Advantages Of Using Manual Tablet Counters?

The use of a manual tablet counter has many advantages. Let us discuss some of them below

Quick Results

One of the most important advantages of using a manual tablet counter is that the tablets can be counted in a matter of seconds due to the specific number of holes in it and beats the laborious method of counting the tablets one by one.

Accurate Counting

Their use gives accurate counting of the tablets which is very critical when prescribing medications to patients. Thus, it rules out the possibility of overdosing patients.

User Friendly

This tool is very user-friendly since the user only must hold the counter and fill all the holes with the tablets to find the total number of tablets.

Cost Effective

This tablet counter is one of the cheapest tools out there since its structure is quite simple and isn’t made of any expensive material.

Clean Use

The whole counting method is a very clean process since it does not involve any contact of the tablets with the hands or other contaminated substances. This ensures the purity of tablets remains intact.

5. What Are The Applications Of Manual Tablet Counters?

The use of manual tablet counters is quite common in research labs, food, cosmetic industry, and health sectors like hospitals. Let us discuss each of these sectors below

Hospital Pharmacy

Hospital pharmacies contain thousands of medicines and prescribe these medicines to patients each day. These pharmacies need to prescribe hundreds of medicines each day by giving an accurate number of tablets to the patients to prevent underdosing or overdosage of the medicine. So the use of a manual tablet counter can help them to count accurately.

Cosmetic Industry

The cosmetic industry deals with the production and selling of beauty products like creams, face serum capsules, vitamin capsules, etc. Thus they use manual tablet counters to count the vitamin tablets such as vitamin E tablets so that they can sell an accurate number of tablets to their customers.

Herbal Industry

The herbal industry deals with the production of medicines using natural herbs or plants.  These medicines which are taken from a plant source are turned into tablets or capsules. These tablets can be counted with the use of manual tablet counter.

Veterinary Industry

Veterinary industry provides medical, dental and surgical treatments for animals. They are also involved with the production of medicines for animals. These medicines are in tablet or capsules form. The use of manual tablet counter is extremely critical to measure accurate dosage for animals to avoid overdosing.

Research Labs

Research labs are workplaces where scientific research is taken place. These labs experiment with thousands of drugs and tablets to make them more efficient and cost-effective. The use of manual tablet counters is highly critical to these labs since they need an accurate number of tablets to use in their experiments for accurate results. Furthermore, a tablet counter user is a clean method to count tablets and prevents contamination of it. This ensures an error-free outcome of the experiment and maintains the efficacy of the tablets.

Food Industry

Many food industries make food supplements as an alternative to food as well as multi-vitamins to meet the requirements of vitamin daily intake. The tablet counter can accurately count these tablets which can then be packaged for shipping.

6. What Are The Drawback Of Manual Tablet Counters?

Even though these machines are quite handy, there are some drawbacks of manual tablet counters. Some of these limitations of these instruments are detailed below:

Need of Human Labors

A large number of working personnel are needed for counting big batch of tablets. This tedious process requires full attention of workforce and also increases your operational cost.

No Filling

Manual tablet counters are unable to carry out bottle filling. The operators have to manually fill the containers.

Human Error

There is high chance of human error in counting since every function of loading and filling is executed by humans.

Contamination

The tablets might get contaminated during packaging and handling because there are high chances of microbial infestation when processing by hands.

Time-Consuming

The packaging and counting process using manual tablet counters consumes a large amount of time and the counting efficiency of these machines is too low than their automatic counterparts hence these devices are useful in small pharmacies or clinics.

Over-Counting

These hand-held devices cannot identify broken tablets so there is a possibility of over-counting when fragmented tablets fall into separate holes.

7. Manual Tablet Counter VS Automatic Tablet Counter

Some differences in both these tablet counters are given for your understanding.

Human Intervention

In manual tablet counters, various functions such as loading of tablets and removal of tablets are performed by the operators. In the automatic tablet counter, every function is carried out by the machine itself.

Design

Manual tablet counters are simple in design without possessing advanced technologies. Automatic tablet counters are furbished with state-of-the-art technologies like vision cameras, HMI, digital systems, etc for counting tablets.

Tablet Count

The counting capacity of manual counters is considerably less than automatic ones which can count 500-800 tablets per minute.

Usage

Manual tablet counters are more suited for home-based pharmacies, laboratories, and clinics. High tablet production lines generally employ automatic tablet counters.

Cost

The purchase cost of manual tablet counters is considerably low compared to their automatic counterparts.

Cleaning and Maintenance

Since manual tablet counters are small-sized handheld machines composed of single parts so they are relatively easy to clean and maintain. Automatic tablet counters occupy more floor space and are comprised of numerous parts hence cleaning and maintaining them require more work.

8. What Are The Difference Between Manual Tablet Counter And Manual Capsule Counter?

Manual tablet counters and manual capsule counters are both types of tablet counters. Despite having the same functionality and ease of operation there are some minor differences between them for instance:

Number of Holes

The number of holes in the board of manual tablet counters is more than in manual capsule counters when same-sized boards are compared. This is because tablets are often smaller in size than capsules.

Shape

The plate holes of manual tablet counters are usually round or circular in shape while the board holes of manual capsule counters are oblong in shape.

Board Configuration

Manual capsule counters are available in different configurations depending upon sizes (0-5). There are no such configurations available for manual tablet counters.

Plate Type

Triangular tablet counters are specific for tablets while capsule counting trays are specific for counting capsules.

9. How To Count Capsules On Manual Tablet Counter?

It is virtually impossible to count capsules in manual tablet counters because tablets and capsules are dissimilar in their physical appearance.

Size

Most significantly, there are different sizes of capsules which are 000, 00, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and, 5. Depending upon size their length also varies. Usually, capsules have a length of about 11 to 25 mm. Although, tablets' diameter range from 1 mm to 25 mm, standard tablets generally have a diameter of 5 mm to 13 mm.

Shape

Secondly, there are strong differences in the shape of tablets and capsules. Tablets can have a shape such as rectangular, square, triangular, kidney, heart, etc. However typical tablets are round or oblong in shape. Conversely, capsules are mostly cylindrical in shape.

Manual tablet counters are designed keeping in mind the physical configuration of tablets so capsules do not fit inside these tablet counters.

10. What Different Types Of Manual Tablet Counters?

Although manual tablet counters are simple in design even then there are different versions of these instruments available in the market. You can choose any of these kinds depending upon your requirement.

There are three basic kinds of manual tablet counters based upon the design. For your convenience, these types are detailed below:

Tumatic Tablet Counters

This type of manual tablet counter is manufactured using Perspex material. This material aids in the visual inspection of the machine as well as easy cleaning. It is comprised of two parts-board and a lower plate. The board has holes in it and the tablets for counting are placed in these holes.

Traumatic tablet counters have different numbers of rows depending upon desired tablet counting. For convenient filling, slides are partially removed and about 5-10 tablets are dispensed inside bottles.

Lifting Leaf Tablet Counter

This counter is comprised of two components- a chute with holes and a detachable lower tray. It also has a handle for easy gripping.

For filling the tablets inside the chute holes, this tablet counter is simply inserted into a stack of tablets. The desired number of tablets drops in the holes and after that surplus amount is shaken off from the board.

After filling the holes, the counter chute is pushed upward by pressing the handle lever while the counted tablets are loaded inside the bottles.

Lifting leaf counters can be customized according to the needs of customers.

Triangular Tablet Counter

As the name indicate these manual tablet counters have a triangle shape and are specially designed for counting round-shaped pills. Triangular tablet counters are available in two sizes which are 7 or 10 inches.

Operators have to align tablets in rows on triangular trays. Information about the number of tablets present in each row is written on the top of the triangular board.

11. How To Assemble Manual Tablet Counter?

Assembling manual tablet counters is quite easy. There is no need for specialized training for operating and assembling these machines.

Triangular tablet counters consist of a tray part only for counting tablets. Tumatic and lifting leaf tablet counters have two parts. The upper part is a plate or board having a different number of holes and the lower part is a tray or bottom plate.

Lifting leaf tablets counters are not dismantled while you can lift the top portion of Tumatic tablet counters. For assembling two parts of Tumatic tablet counters simply place the board with a hole on the top of the tray and slightly press it, this will result in the assembly of both parts.

12. How Manual Tablet Counters Are Superior To Hand Counting?

Before the invention of manual tablet counters, pharmacists and researchers have to count tablets using old-fashioned trays and spatulas. This task is totally monotonous and requires the full concentration of the working staff. Moreover, this hand counting of pills uses an extensive amount of time.

• With the development of manual tablet counters the counting process became much faster. It has been found that the typical hand-counting technique is 42.3% slow than manual tablet counters.
• Besides this, humans get tired while counting tablets and make sloppy mistakes. The error rate of hand counting is about 12.6% which is much more than 4.8% error rate in manual tablet counters.
• These errors in hand counting significantly affect inventory and can result in overspending on drugs or drug shortages in pharmacies. This in turn leads to longer waits for patients to get medication

13. Manual Tablet Counter Features

These equipment are straightforward and lightweight. Some useful features of manual tablet counters are discussed below for your understanding.

Use

These machines are used for counting various shaped pills whether round or oval. Furthermore, they can accommodate tablets varying in dimensions such as minitablets or large-sized tablets having a diameter of 21 to 25 mm.

These devices are used for counting film-coated, enteric-coated as well as sugar coated tablets. Moreover, these machines can accurately count non-coated tablets as well.

ISO Certified

Disposable manual tablet counters are made up of FDA-approved food-grade polystyrene materials in ISO certified clean rooms.

Stainless Steel Construction

Non-disposable manual tablet counters are manufactured using 316L or 304 stainless steel, aluminum and polycarbonate materials.

Durable

Manual tablet counters are durable and robust composed of trays that are made with non-reactive materials.

Free of TSE Risk

Trays of manual tablet counters having 304 stainless steel assemblies are electro-polished for preventing the risk of TSE. These electro-polishing chemicals are free of animal fats.

Spatula for Handling Tablets

They are designed for easy handling and sometimes come with a spatula for tablet loading. The tray of these machines has a docking slot for placing spatula provided with manual tablet counters.

Conclusion

When it comes to filling and counting tablets or capsules in bottles, pouches, or containers, Allpack is a reliable and best solution. They offer a manual tablet counter that can be used for counting with safety because it can completely avoid human contact with your product, thus meeting 100% hygiene requirements. Would like to know details about the product? We’re here to welcome You to Our User's Manuals and Free Consultation Any Time You Need! Happy Shopping.