Centrifugal Filling vs. Vibratory Filling: Why the Future of Preroll Manufacturing Is About More Than Speed
Introduction: How Many Per Hour?
One of the most common questions we get at Hummingbird is, “How many prerolls per hour does your machine produce?”
In the early days, I probably spent more time answering that question than I ever wanted to. Today, my answer is usually, “Thousands per hour.” Not because I don’t want to answer it, but because I think it’s the wrong place to start. A good workflow in any process can results in 1000s per hour.
It’s the equipment equivalent of a consumer walking into a dispensary and asking, “How much THC is in this preroll?” As an industry, we’ve spent years trying to educate consumers that there is more to cannabis than THC. We talk about terpene profiles, harvest dates, curing, COAs, genetics, and the overall experience because we know those things matter more.
Our industry is going through a similar shift when it comes to manufacturing equipment.
As cannabis operators become more experienced, the conversations are changing. Instead of focusing only on cones per hour and spreadsheet ROI, manufacturers are asking questions about airflow, density, compaction, waste, consistency, workflow, difference between vibratory and2 centrifugal filling. Those are the conversations that ultimately determine whether a preroll machine helps your business scale or simply becomes another piece of equipment that requires constant attention.
For years, the cannabis industry has measured preroll machines by a handful of familiar metrics: hourly output, labor savings, and return on investment. Those numbers matter, but they don’t tell the entire story. Behind every preroll machine is a philosophy for how cannabis flower moves from a hopper into a cone, and that philosophy has a direct impact on product consistency, burn quality, workflow, waste, and long-term manufacturing flexibility.
The “licensed legacy” operators we’ve visited throughout California, Michigan, and other early cannabis markets are some of the most resourceful manufacturers in the industry. Many built entire production ecosystems around early vibratory filling systems. They became masters of improvisation, creating custom fixtures, homemade modifications, and incredibly detailed SOPs just to keep production running efficiently. In true cannabis fashion, they MacGyvered the hell out of their equipment because there simply weren’t many alternatives.
That’s an important part of cannabis history.
Shaking flower into cones has been part of preroll production since the coffee shops of Amsterdam, and vibration became the foundation for many of the first commercial preroll machines. Companies like Knockbox generated tremendous excitement around automated filling, while King Kone created an affordable entry point for many aspiring entrepreneurs. Together, they helped introduce thousands of operators to commercial preroll production and moved the industry well beyond hand packing.
But the idea of centrifugal filling isn’t new either.
The concept also traces its roots back to Amsterdam, where the original Mach 6 introduced centrifugal filling to the Dutch market more than 25 years ago. While the technology never became the dominant approach, it demonstrated that there was another way to think about moving cannabis flower through the filling process.
Fast forward to 2026, and the cannabis market looks nothing like it did ten years ago. Manufacturers are no longer producing only traditional cones. They’re making infused prerolls, blunt tubes, glass-tip products, mini joints, and an expanding list of specialty formats that demand far greater flexibility from production equipment than ever before.
At Hummingbird, we believe the conversation has shifted. The question is no longer simply how many prerolls a machine can produce in an hour. The better question is whether the filling philosophy behind that machine is designed for where the cannabis industry is going. That’s why centrifugal filling—and equally important, an efficient workflow for closing finished prerolls—has become such a central part of how we think about modern preroll manufacturing.
1,000 Per Hour? Apples to Potatoes.
One of the reasons we don’t get overly excited about “prerolls per hour” is because it’s often an apples-to-potatoes comparison.
If you’re consistently producing 800 or more prerolls per hour per technician using a KnockBox, King Kone, or Pre Roll Press, your sell-through is healthy, and your team has developed an efficient workflow over several years, keep doing what you’re doing.
Likewise, if you have a three-to-six-person production team using vibratory equipment that’s reliably producing 8,000 to 15,000 prerolls every day while meeting your quality standards, you don’t necessarily have a production problem. You’ve built an operation that works.
Many of the best licensed legacy operators in California, Michigan, and other early cannabis markets spent years refining those workflows, writing SOPs, modifying equipment, training employees, and figuring out shortcuts that only come from running production every single day.
That’s not something to dismiss. It’s something to respect.
Where the conversation changes is when people compare those mature, highly optimized workflows to a brand-new piece of equipment by looking only at “prerolls per hour.” Those numbers ignore years of process development, operator experience, and institutional knowledge that made those production rates possible in the first place.
At Hummingbird, we don’t obsess over “per hour.” We think in terms of production per shift. Our belief is that one person should comfortably produce 3,000 to 5,000 prerolls in an 8 hour shift, depending on the product, material, and workflow and operator expectations. Add two more people, and a three-person team, the Hummingbird Workflow should realistically produce 10,000 to 15,000 prerolls per shift. That’s the metric we care about because that’s how operators schedule labor, plan production, and run a business.
The Hummingbird Workflow was designed with a different goal. We wanted to create a manufacturing system that could be deployed in virtually any legal market with minimal training while delivering consistent results across a wide variety of products—from standard prerolls to heavily infused products, blunt tubes, and glass-tip formats. Instead of requiring years of tribal knowledge to achieve predictable output, we focused on making repeatability part of the equipment itself.
That’s why comparing hourly production alone misses the point. The better comparison is how quickly a new operator can become productive, how consistently different technicians produce the same results, how easily the workflow adapts to new product formats, and how much time is spent making adjustments when the flower inevitably changes.
Those are the metrics that determine whether a manufacturing process truly scales.
What Is Vibratory Filling?
Vibratory filling is based on a relatively simple principle. Cannabis flower is placed above a set of cones, and controlled vibration encourages the material to settle downward under the influence of gravity. As the flower continues to vibrate, particles gradually find their way into the cones until they reach the desired fill level.
The process works because vibration reduces friction between particles, allowing gravity to move the material more efficiently. For many years, this approach represented the most practical solution for automating preroll production.
The Vibratory methods can still be seen in, more modern versions of the bump box. From 500 Knockbox style prerolls to the Rocketbox, the Preroller 200, or the Hefestus, all shaking material pack material down a cone.
However, vibration is still fundamentally dependent on repeated agitation. It relies on flower gradually settling into place through thousands of tiny movements. When production conditions are ideal, this approach can perform very well. But cannabis production rarely operates under ideal conditions for long.
Different cultivars behave differently. Moisture levels fluctuate. Grind consistency changes. Resin content varies. Infused products introduce additional complexity. These variables influence how flower responds to vibration, requiring operators to constantly monitor and adjust their workflows.
What Is Centrifugal Filling?
Centrifugal filling approaches the same manufacturing challenge from an entirely different perspective. Instead of depending primarily on vibration to encourage flower to settle through gravity, centrifugal systems use controlled rotational force to move material throughout the filling process.
As the filling assembly rotates, centrifugal force distributes flower in a controlled and repeatable manner. Rather than repeatedly shaking material until it eventually reaches the cone, the process actively guides flower using predictable physical principles that have been employed across manufacturing industries for decades.
The concept itself is hardly experimental. Pharmaceutical companies, food manufacturers, chemical processors, and countless other industries have long relied on centrifugal force because it provides an efficient and repeatable method for moving materials. Hummingbird recognized that these same engineering principles could be adapted to solve many of the challenges unique to cannabis preroll production.
The result is not simply another preroll machine. It represents a different philosophy for how cannabis should move during manufacturing.
Why Cannabis Presents Unique Manufacturing Challenges
One of the biggest misconceptions in equipment design is treating cannabis like a uniform manufacturing material. It isn’t.
Every production batch introduces new variables. Flower harvested from the same cultivar can behave differently depending on moisture content, curing practices, storage conditions, or grinding techniques. Particle size may vary throughout a shift. Resin-rich flower flows differently than dry material. Infused products coated with oil or kief create entirely different manufacturing conditions.
Experienced operators understand this because they encounter it every day. They know that production is rarely as predictable as a trade show demonstration.
At Hummingbird, our engineering philosophy was shaped by those realities. Before designing equipment, we spent years manufacturing prerolls ourselves in Oakland, California. We experienced the frustrations of inconsistent material, changing production conditions, and workflows that required constant attention. That firsthand experience became the foundation for how we approached automation.
Rather than designing a machine for perfect flower or a material ground to 1MM, we wanted to design a workflow for real cannabis, any grind, any material.
Why Hummingbird Chose Centrifugal Filling
When we began developing the Hummingbird Workflow, we weren’t interested in building another version of equipment that already existed. We asked a much more fundamental question: was vibration still the best approach for modern cannabis manufacturing?
\We weren’t looking for another cosmetic improvement or a faster version of the same technology. We wanted to rethink the underlying mechanics altogether.
The Hummingbird Workflow is our interpretation of what centrifugal filling can become when it is designed as part of a complete manufacturing system rather than just another filling method. Combined with the Hummingbird Finisher 2.0, it creates a seamless workflow from filling to closing that is built for today’s cannabis manufacturers—not yesterday’s production methods.
By using controlled rotational force, we were able to build a workflow designed around adaptability instead of rigid production assumptions. The system supports traditional cones while also accommodating blunt tubes, mini joints, glass-tip products, and additional formats as customer demand evolves.
Our objective was never simply to increase speed. Our objective was to build equipment that could evolve alongside the cannabis industry.
Looking Beyond Throughput
Many buyers begin their equipment search by asking how many prerolls a machine can produce per hour. While throughput is certainly important, experienced manufacturers eventually begin asking different questions.
How much flower is lost during production?
How much cleanup is required?
How quickly can operators change between product formats?
How well does the equipment handle different cultivars?
How adaptable is the system when new SKUs are introduced?
Those questions often determine the true cost of ownership far more than hourly output alone.
Change Part Monthly Budget – change parts for any current manufacturing system.
Equipment that performs well across changing production conditions can have a far greater impact on profitability than equipment optimized solely for peak throughput under ideal circumstances.
That broader view of manufacturing has always guided Hummingbird’s product development.
The Future of Preroll Manufacturing
Cannabis manufacturing continues to evolve at an extraordinary pace. New product categories appear every year, consumer preferences shift rapidly, and producers are constantly searching for ways to differentiate themselves in an increasingly competitive marketplace.
Equipment manufacturers must evolve as well.
The next generation of preroll automation will not be defined solely by speed. It will be defined by flexibility, repeatability, adaptability, and intelligent workflow design. Manufacturers need systems capable of handling today’s products while remaining ready for tomorrow’s innovations.
We believe centrifugal filling represents an important step in that evolution. Rather than relying exclusively on manufacturing principles developed during the industry’s early years, it embraces a different way of thinking about how cannabis should move through the production process.
Conclusion
Vibratory filling helped build the modern preroll industry, and its contribution should not be overlooked. It enabled manufacturers to move beyond manual production and demonstrated that cannabis automation could scale successfully. But industries evolve, and manufacturing technology must evolve with them.
At Hummingbird, we believe centrifugal filling reflects that next stage of progress. Built by operators who spent years manufacturing prerolls before becoming equipment designers, the Hummingbird Workflow was created to address the realities of modern cannabis production rather than the assumptions of the past.
From our roots in Oakland to our commitment to continuous innovation, our goal has always been the same: build equipment that helps cannabis manufacturers produce better prerolls with greater flexibility and confidence.
The future of preroll manufacturing is not simply about filling more cones per hour. It is about creating smarter workflows, embracing better engineering, and giving operators the tools they need to succeed as the industry continues to evolve.
