In the rapidly growing vaping industry, TPK Ceramics has emerged as a leader in innovation. The company was founded in 2019 by Trey Kavooras, who saw a need for safer, healthier vape cartridges. TPK Ceramics’ products are made with medical-grade ceramic, which is free of heavy metals and other harmful substances. The company also performs rigorous third-party testing to ensure the quality and safety of its products.
In this Q&A, Kavooras discusses the benefits of ceramic vape cartridges, the importance of health and safety in the vaping industry, and his thoughts on the FDA’s recent introduction of the Disposable ENDS Enforcement Act.
TPK has grown incredibly quickly and innovated the cannabis industry along the way — you invented ceramics in vapes. What was the motivation to incorporate ceramics into vaporizers?
Several factors went into ceramic incorporation. First, states were developing more stringent heavy metals testing, and there was a need to develop a cannabis cartridge that contained little to no metal at all in order for operators to pass third-party testing. Second, there was an open market space to create a cleaner, healthier alternative with elevated aesthetics for concentrate consumers.
How can you maintain the pace of growth and innovation while producing some of the highest-quality products on the cannabis market? Do the two factors contribute to each other?
This is something we stay extremely cognizant of at TPK. We have had opportunities to increase sales at a more rapid rate but have chosen to make sure we grow slowly and methodically. Increasing production is not an issue, but doing it in a way where quality is not jeopardized most definitely is. We want to continue our pace of innovation while maintaining quality. With all new innovations, even extremely subtle changes, we go through rigorous third-party stability testing to ensure we meet the failure requirements that we hold ourselves accountable to.
Do you work with other companies to refine your manufacturing, packaging or distribution processes, such as by using automation? What are your priorities there?
Absolutely. We firmly believe in having as many “friends” as possible in the space. We don’t know what we don’t know, and if we can gain knowledge by communicating with automated filling companies such as Thompson Duke Industrial or Xylem, other wholesale partners or even other hardware manufacturers, then we will most certainly learn from them as much as possible.
What health and safety concerns do consumers need to know about the cannabis vape hardware they use? How does TPK Ceramics address these issues?
The bottom line is that nearly all vape hardware products come from the same part of the world. With this sector being such a fast-growing space, there are many people looking to capitalize quickly in any way possible, leading to a lack of integrity. Unfortunately, there are products being made with harmful materials, unclean work environments and many other issues. It’s extremely important to know who is manufacturing the products. We have taken that responsibility on by performing third-party audits, regularly visiting our international production centers and continuing to test our batches to ensure our stringent guidelines are met.
What are your thoughts on the FDA’s recent introduction of the Disposable ENDS Enforcement Act?
I think the Disposable ENDS Enforcement Act is extremely vague. To classify any and all vape devices as electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) is simply incorrect. There are thousands of Americans who rely on this form of consumption for their medical needs; This act is preventing access and making it more difficult and expensive to do so.
At TPK Ceramics, stringent health and safety standards are central to the mission. To learn more about how TPK Ceramics is revolutionizing the cannabis concentrate space, click here.