By Harrison Bard, CEO and Co-Founder Custom Cones USA and DaySavers

The two slowest parts of the pre-roll production process are the beginning and the end. 

Closing pre-rolls is always the top pain point for manufacturers, which makers of the Fill N’ Fold cone-filling machine addressed with the creation of the tamping and folding tool they include with each machine.

But loading cones into a machine one-by-one at the beginning of every cycle is still also a consistent speed bump that limits throughput. And like with the tamping and closing tool, Fill N’ Fold has once again created a solution: The Fill N’ Fold Cone Dispenser, capable of holding towers of pre-rolled cones and dropping 121 at a time into a work tray.

It’s a pretty handy device and one of the smartest additions we’ve seen to the pre-roll machine market in a while. And with just a little practice, it can drastically increase your speed, reduce employee time spent on tedious, repetitive tasks and improve your overall pre-roll production numbers.

“Pre-Roll Machines have slowly been improving to address the needs of producers,” said Harrison Bard, CEO and co-founder of Custom Cones USA, a leading provider of pre-roll supplies and machines for the cannabis industry. “Loading cones is always one of the slow points in the line we hear complaints about and it’s exciting to see innovations like the Cone Dispenser to speed things up.”

What is the Fill N’ Fold?

The Fill N’ Fold cone-filling machine is a small, tabletop pre-roll machine that uses a vibrating motor to pack pre-rolled cones loaded into one of a series of work trays related to cone size. 

With space for 121 cones per cycle and time-saving additions like specially designed metering trays and the unique tamping/folding tool to close a full row of 11 pre-rolls at once, the machine is a trusted and easy way to launch or scale a pre-roll line. 

It also came out ahead in our Battle of the Pre-Roll Machines, outpacing a handful of other cone-fillers, mainly on the back end, where the tamping tool saved tons of time.

Until now though, individual empty cones had to be dropped into each cone slot by hand.

The Fill N’ Fold Cone Dispenser

The Fill N’ Fold Cone Dispenser solves the reload problem by using a unique latch mechanism that can hold a single cone in place by the filter without damaging it. 

The full system consists of two boxes (with an extension for larger cones) that fit directly on top of the machine’s work trays. Each box has a set of the latches that when closed, hold cones in place but when released let them slide through.

Producers can then load full tower-box stacks of cones into each slot of the top box and use the two-box system to drop a full run of 121 single cones into the lower box at once. Then the latches are re-engaged and the boxes are placed on top of the machine’s work tray and the top box is removed before the lower box’s latches are used to drop the cones directly into a work tray where they are ready to be filled. 

Then, they simply repeat the process for the next run. 

Used right, it can save a ton of employee time and drastically increase your pre-roll throughput.

Final Thoughts

The Fill N’ Fold Cone Dispenser comes with a stand to hold the machine and helps protect your un-filled cones from crushing while they wait to be loaded. 

It works with all major sizes of pre-rolled cones, including 70mm dogwalkers, 84mm half-grams, ¾-gram 98mm cones and full-gram 109mm cones, as long as the cone has a standard 26mm filter. 

Plus, it’s made with the same high-density plastic as the work trays and metering trays, so it’s easy to clean and store when not in use.

The Fill N’ Fold is already a great tabletop cone filling machine that won our Battle of the Cone-Filling Machines speed and output test thanks to innovative thinking to speed up the back half of production.

The addition of the Cone Loader to the Fill N’ Fold accessories arsenal only gives it another potential leg up on the competition when it comes to speeding up your pre-roll production line.