Extensive updates to hardware and software give cannabis extractors more control over process and end-product.
Portland, Oregon – (March 30, 2021) — Originally posted at Business Wire (here).
Luna Technologies, a Portland-based manufacturer of hydrocarbon extraction equipment, announced the next generation of its flagship product, the IO Extractor, which is used in enterprise level cannabis product manufacturing. The fully automated IO 2.0 machine features greatly expanded software capabilities and significant hardware advancements that create an even safer, easier user experience. Its debut represents the single biggest advancement of the company’s product line since the introduction of the original IO Extractor in 2017.
Expanded on-board data functionality will aid both process troubleshooting and regulatory compliance. By allowing extractors to see exacting second-by-second changes in metrics like time, temperature, and pressure, they can now conduct in-depth analysis on process fluctuations in real time. New maintenance modes provide users with predictive capabilities that can prevent lengthy or unexpected work stoppages. Daily logging features also bring process transparency to new levels, achieving GMP compliance standards that may soon become an industry standard. Processors currently operating on the original IO Extractor units will be offered software updates, allowing previous customers to gain the full benefits and features of the new system’s enhanced capability.
“We founded Luna to create an elegant engineering solution to a fundamental problem in cannabis extraction,” said Jack Naito, President and cofounder of Luna. “Manually operated equipment, pieced together from other industries, was costing cannabis processors money in terms of high labor costs, inefficient processing, and lost product. We helped solve many of those challenges with the original IO Extractor design. Now, after absorbing three years of customer feedback and observing tens of thousands of hours of equipment operation, we can share what we’ve learned with IO 2.0.”
The overhauled software suite built into IO 2.0 units will allow extractors an unprecedented degree of flexibility and control. Evolving past the utility of prefab settings, the IO’s new OS grants a wider range of recipe parameters that an extractor can modify, which leads to expanded control over custom processes. The robust array of extract outputs includes: batter, budder, crumble, diamonds, live resin, RSO, sauce, shatter, sugar, and wax. The new functionality provides an elegant response to customer feedback expressing the average extractor’s preference for greater freedom to extract the way that makes sense for their business.
The IO 2.0 hardware has also undergone a makeover focused on enhanced ease of use and a safer lab environment. A redesign of the extraction skid geometry allows for increased maintenance access and easier cleaning. Upgraded instrumentation systems both detect and protect the equipment from problems before they arise. Like its predecessor, the next-gen extractor was designed to adhere to UL 1389, the Standard for Safety for Plant Oil Extraction Equipment for Installation and Use in Ordinary (Unclassified) Locations and Hazardous (Classified) Locations.
Luna’s flagship IO Extractor was introduced in 2017 as a fully-automated, closed-loop THC extraction machine that used hydrocarbon solvent to remove cannabis plant matter and impurities. This produces a resin full of cannabis compounds, which then undergoes a final vacuum purge under low temperatures to remove all the residual solvent. The upgraded functionality of the IO 2.0 positions Luna at the cutting edge of a cannabis extract market that’s expected to be valued at USD 28.5 billion by 2027, according to a 2020 report published by Grand View Research, Inc.
Luna expects that the IO Extractor 2.0 will be commercially available by Q2 2021.
