Enter your dose and your powder's bulk and tapped densities, and its slugged density if you have measured it. The calculator returns the fill density every capsule size would need, how hard each would have to be pressed, and the smallest size that works for the way you fill.
| Size | Volume (ml) | Required fill density (g/ml) | Share of tapped | Share of slugged | Fill weight this size can take (mg) | Where it sits | Band |
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Below bulk. A hand plate and a bench-top fill the bodies full at bulk density, so a required density below bulk means the size is too big for the dose. A dosator meters a column of powder and can part fill, at the cost of weight variation. A tamping-pin machine has to form a slug, so below the slug floor it is too loose to slug. The ceiling. Every filler has a densest fill it can make. On a tamping-pin machine the pins form a slug, so the ceiling is the slugged density. On a hand plate, a bench-top, or a dosator the powder is pressed by a tamper, an auger, or a piston; this calculator labels that ceiling compressed density. A dosator can also form a powder plug, depending on the blend and machine settings. Same arithmetic, heaviest fill in mg divided by the size's volume in ml and then by 1,000 to give g/ml, measured on the filler and not in a cylinder. Columns. Share of tapped and share of the ceiling are the required density as a percentage of each. A fill above tapped means share of tapped is over 100% and share of the ceiling is under 100%. Fill weight this size can take is the ceiling times the volume, in mg; on a tamping-pin machine it is a range from the floor up, because with a standard dosing disc that machine fills the body full every time. With no ceiling entered the top is shown as tapped with a plus sign, meaning higher, unmeasured. The bar runs from bulk (B) through tapped (T) to the ceiling (S or C), with the dot at the required density; on a tamping-pin machine a red tick marks the slug floor. Bands. Too big for the dose means that even filled loosely this size holds more than the dose, and this filler fills full. Part fill is the dosator's version, where the machine meters less than a full body at the cost of more weight variation. Too loose to slug is the tamping-pin version. A thinner dosing disc can make a short slug and a part-filled capsule, but the pellet often breaks up in dedusting and packing, so it is a last resort rather than a band here. Light tamping is between bulk and tapped, reachable by hand. Compressed fill, or machine tamping on a tamping-pin machine, is between tapped and the ceiling. Above the ceiling the dose will not fit. If no ceiling is entered, anything above tapped is marked as needing that measurement, because a cylinder cannot tell you where the ceiling is. Volumes are nominal figures published by capsule makers; Capsules.com's measured table will replace them.
Confirm any recommendation by filling a small batch and weighing it. Nothing here is advice about what a capsule's contents do for a person.