Local dust filters can be safely better than large systems

The Brunitec system of local dust filters and extractors is being introduced into the UK, bringing its advantages of small size and improved plant safety in comparison to central ducted extractors to a variety of industries.

Individual units weighing only about 125kg and needing just 500mm headroom are easily installed at required plant locations. By eliminating the heavier dust concentrations found in the large filter installations they can replace, these local filter systems significantly reduce the associated risk of fire and explosion.

They are also said to be more cost-effective in most instances and easier to maintain than ducted systems, reducing pressure and high air velocities which lowers the dust load on the sleeves and the concentration of dust within the filter to increase sleeve life.

Installed horizontally, vertically or at a sloping angle and needing no support structure, units are available in a choice of materials and with various filter media to suit individual conditions. Each unit is complete with a reverse air pressure filter sleeve cleaning mechanism and is controlled by its own automatic sequencer

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Fluid-bed dryers prove the best at bringing home the cheese

When cheese company Castle Importing of California faced the problem that its traditional cheese drying system prevented a required increase in output, a Ventilex continuous fluid bed dryer provided the complete solution by transforming production rates while giving the drying process control needed to maintain quality.

In fact the Ventilex dryer, available in the UK from Orthos, is reported to be processing the entire previous weekly limit of some 2000kg of cheese in just an hour. A reduction in manual handling has also allowed labour to be redeployed with a consequent gain in productivity as well as output.

For 50 years the company had dried cheese by spreading it onto trays placed in a dehydrating room, and any change had to guarantee their high quality standards. Criteria included the initial moisture content the new method could handle, drying characteristics and hygiene as well as ease of use and production capacity.

The Ventilex continuous fluid bed dryer not only proved the most suitable of the different methods investigated, but its installation also greatly reduced the risks to hygiene and losses caused by accidents which were previously inevitable.

The first trial it passed was with mozzarella, which is an extreme case because of its high fat and moisture content. If drying temperature gets too high, fat drains from cheese of this type and it does not dry properly. The Ventilex dryer proved itself able to make a dehydrated product from the mozzarella without any departure from established quality standards.

Cheeses with moisture contents of up to 50% are now routinely processed in the Ventilex dryer. They are fed in frozen at -8?C, with an initial dryer air temperature of 38 to 40?C, and have thawed and begun drying when a third of the way through.

Full drying takes place in the middle section of the machine, where precise control of temperature and humidity ensures proper drying without fat separation. The cheese temperature is monitored remotely and held between 22.0 and 23.0?C while relative humidity of the air is controlled between the limits of 15% and 18%.

The third and final section of the dryer operates as a cooler using an air temperature of 6.0?C. Product leaves the dryer with a moisture content of about 27% and no loss of fat. It is then refrozen and subsequently milled for sale.

Residence time of Castle’s dryer is adjustable from 15sec to 2hr, allowing a variety of cheeses with different characteristics to be handled. A computerised control system with a graphical interface allows the drying process to be checked and corrected, if necessary, at any time.

Even and consistent processing to ensure very uniform product quality is provided by the unique Ventilex low-frequency fixed stroke shaker conveying mechanism, which gives near-perfect plug flow. This means that the residence times of individual particles are held within very tight limits. The mechanism also eliminates stress cracking frequently associated with higher speed vibrating machines

So it is no surprise that Castle Importing is now said to be smiling even more broadly than ever before when they say cheese.

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Powder flow technology solves tabletting problems in Ireland

Problems in feeding tabletting presses at Wyeth Medica in Eire that had defeated previous attempts to find a completely satisfactory solution were overcome by the application of the Diamondback hopper and feeder interface system now available across Europe from Orthos.

Component segregation causing inconsistencies in the active ingredients of various tablets resulted from the powders being fed to the presses via a 15ft drop through a 6in diameter vertical tube. This was clearly unacceptable and resulted in too great a rejection rate in Wyeth’s concern for maintaining a consistent high quality of product.

Diamondback technology founder Dr Jerry Johanson visited the Co Kildare plant of Wyeth, the largest producer of tabletted pharmaceutical formulations in the Republic, and designed a mutually acceptable user-friendly system, which amongst other things promotes controlled flow and inhibits segregation.

Orthos, who recently took control of manufacturing the unique Diamondback system locally, produced the project’s feed hoppers and tote bins. Within five months of the installation Wyeth’s in-house validation of some 40 formulations, involving 10,800 samples, had validated 60% of the samples representing about 90% of total output.

Wyeth’s management confirms that an enhanced yield of within-specification tablets has been obtained now, and that the plant modifications achieving the desired result without any problems having been experienced.

Each of nine tabletting presses is fitted with three Diamondback hoppers and has a top hopper that meters and feeds powder onto a sloping surface inclined at 10o, allowing air to flow out of the system over the sliding powder.

Two feed points on each press splits the powder into two streams that then flow into a 1-litre hopper before being fed to the press. All the fabrication work was to pharmaceutical grade with a mirror polished finish.

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Debut for gentle but thorough low-speed mixer

The Inotec 'ViscoJet' range of mixers will be seen for the first time on stand 3091 at Total Processing & Packaging Show, demonstrated by the UK agent Orthos Engineering. The patented low-speed machines provide high efficiency with very low energy usage and exceptionally gentle but thorough mixing of virtually any kind of aqueous medium up to 100,000 mPas viscosity.

A 'unique' cone-shaped impeller gives prolonged flow and turbulence at low circumferential speed to ensure rapid mixing while eliminating shearing action that can break up or damage heat-sensitive or fragile products. Foaming is also avoided, as air is not entrained during mixing.

Needing just one impeller regardless of tank height, the units are suitable for the widest range of mixing, homogenising, suspending, heat-exchange and de-aeration applications. Particular advantages are also offered for IBC mixing with a novel collapsible impeller that may pass through a standard 150mm diameter opening and then open out to 650mm by centrifugal force.

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Gentle blenders prove the perfect ‘mix’ in baby food preparation

A world-wide baby foods group has installed Lindor ‘gentle mixing’ blenders in several factories manufacturing formulations based on milk powder after extensive testing established their special advantages in ensuring product quality.

The total lack of mechanical shear forces and low energy consumption of the Lindor machines, available in the UK from Orthos, means that virtually no damaging friction-induced heat is introduced into the product.

Absence of applied shear forces in mixing also ensures that the free fat content does not increase during processing and that agglomerates are not degraded, so that product solubility is not adversely affected. A further consideration influencing the decision is that traces of vitamins and minerals are added to the foods and must be dispersed uniformly and efficiently without any loss of nutritional quality.

Lindor’s ‘unique’ horizontal drum has integral tapered scoops running the full length of its inner surface which induce a thorough non-degrading mixing motion evenly to the entire mix of material. The machines have no mixing blades or impellers which inevitably damage product by applying shear forces and heating through friction.

The blenders are available in 12 production sizes ranging from 70 to 14,000 litres plus a 10 litre laboratory unit. Mixing times are short at typically just one to three minutes.

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10-litre 'gentle blender' gives reproducible trial batches and specials

The new Lindor 10-litre 'gentle-touch' blender from Orthos is a table-top mixing machine with the same internal blending drum design as full-size Lindor machines of 70 to 14,000 litres, so that it gives mixing results which can be extrapolated and applied to the larger units.

This makes it an ideal pilot plant and laboratory machine for producing small, trial batches and special orders as well as performing experimental work, particularly in the food and pharmaceutical industries.

The ‘unique’ horizontally-mounted rotating drum design is entirely free of separately moving parts, such as mixing blades and impellers that apply shear forces to the product and cause deterioration both mechanically and as a result of friction-induced heating.

Blending is achieved instead by tapered scoops that are an integral part of the inner surface of the drum. Running the full length of the drum, these scoops induce a non-degrading, 3-dimensional figure-of-eight flow pattern in the product.

The mixing drum is absolutely free of 'dead' spaces, so that all material is equally blended, and the machines are self-emptying with virtually 100% discharge. Mixing times are typically between just 1 and 4 minutes, which also protects the product. Energy savings on all Lindor machines apply because of no external mixing mechanisms being required. A video showing the working operation can be seen on www.lindor.nl

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Orthos takes over UK agency for Ventilex dryers and coolers

Orthos has been appointed the new UK agent for Ventilex, the Dutch specialist in fluid bed dryers and coolers, replacing Fosplant which has announced its closure due to retirement.

With an established strength in machines for drying sand in the production of dry mortar mixes for the building industry and drying silica sand in the minerals processing sector, Ventilex is also well known for tailor-made installations in the food, pharmaceuticals, chemical and waste product treatment markets.

A main feature of Ventilex dryers and coolers is a reciprocating action to aerate the process material and transport it through the machine. A seal between the fluid bed and the dryer sides is ensured by the whole machine, rather than just the fluid bed, being subjected to this movement.

The drive unit is an eccentric rotary mechanism working via a positive arm coupling, with the stroke remaining constant and the frequency varied for the required transport speed. The dryer is supported by rubber bellows, which are kept at the correct spring rate by means of compressed air. All installations are individually designed to meet the user’s specific process and environmental requirements.

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Fluid bed dryers save fuel in dry silo mortar production

Ventilex fluid bed dryers from Orthos have been developed to bring improved fuel economy and other operational benefits in sand processing to the expanding dry silo mortar market being adopted by major companies including RMC, CPI and Tarmac.

Compared to traditional rotary drum plant, the fluid bed dryer/cooler reduces moisture content and offers large throughputs over relatively small bed areas so that machines can be smaller and less expensive for a given granular mineral drying capacity.

The Ventilex plant dries between 50 and 60 tonnes/hr of sand containing 6 to 15% moisture and achieves a final moisture content of less than 0.5% with a plant exit temperature of approximately 50oC.

Efficiency is enhanced by the ability to heat the drying air to 550oC and by the plug-flow and sub-fluidisation behaviour generated in the bed of product. Smaller plant size also allows installation inside a building, away from the effects of changing weather conditions. Operational versatility is ensured by the ease with which fluidisation and speed of product movement through the plant can be adjusted as required.

Evaporative cooling is another benefit, giving more rapid cooling and removing 1 to 2% of moisture in the cooler. This means that the dryer can operate at increased capacity, as the target moisture content does not need to be achieved solely in that section.

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Rotating drum mixer proves gentle on energy as well as blending

While the total absence of internal paddles or blades on the Lindor horizontally rotating drum mixer has made its ‘gentle touch’ approach to blending and mixing a widely applied concept in the food, pharmaceutical and chemical industries, the machine's lower energy consumption compared to others, as highlighted in a recent application, has gained equal recognition.

This typical case study in the UK involved a common low density starch, with a

7000 litre batch having a mean bulk density of 0.5 and weighing 3500kg. Lindor would normally install two 11kW motors to run a blender of size capacity, but in this case just 12kW of installed power sufficed due to the low batch weight and the mixer’s special handling capabilities.

A satisfactory batch time from filling through to discharge for the Lindor mixer in this application is 6min, giving a maximum energy consumption per batch of 1.2kW-hr. Like-for-like mixing duty comparisons conducted between different mixer types showed the level of savings this represents.

A typical 7000 litre batch capacity ribbon-blade, plough-share or paddle mixer would dispose of 60 to 80kW of installed power, so that a 6min mixing cycle involving the same materials and batch weight in such machines would clearly consume considerably more energy than is required by the Lindor machine.

Apart from this significant fuel economy, the question arises as to what happens to the extra energy dissipated in the process. Some is used moving a heavier machine and handling greater machine friction, but a significant proportion of the energy is expended in overcoming friction within the mix.

Undesirable consequences of this are that the product may become mechanically damaged by the shear forces applied and that it will certainly become warmer. Such a temperature increase can result in chemical changes within the product or may encourage dangerous bacteriological growth.

This is particularly the case at the ‘hot spot’ locations, which typically arise in all positive action mixing machines. The changes cannot be tolerated in a wide range of mixing applications involving foodstuffs, pharmaceuticals and fine chemicals.

A further pertinent factor affecting operational flexibility is the fact that the Lindor machine can mix efficiently with a batch filling of as little as 7 to 10% of the maximum, which in the case of the 7000 litre model is 500 litres.

Positive, paddle or plough action mixers on the other hand require a batch filling of 70% of the maximum in order to be able to achieve efficient mixing. The Lindor mixer is therefore said to be comparably very adaptable in operation in the face of changes in production requirements.

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Fluid-bed dryers and coolers give extended residence times

Ventilex fluid-bed dryers and coolers from Orthos include a unique drive system that tightly controls residence times to guarantee processing uniformity for many products. The availability of a rotary weir is particularly beneficial to the production of food items such as breadcrumbs where coloration by ‘toasting’ a proportion of the product is desired.

The drive system’s use of a high-amplitude, low-frequency agitation, ensures that the product bed is subjected to sub-fluidisation, so that it does not depend fully on air or gas flows for its aerated state.

Benefits of this are lower air/gas circulation rates, which reduces energy consumption, and smaller peripheral equipment as well as the control of residence time within very tight limits. Processing uniformity is ensured by there being very little if any variance in residence times of individual particles within the bed.

To enhance the drying process further, a rotary weir can be installed to control the rate of discharge of the processed material. It is an open segmented wheel similar to a rotary air lock and rotates continuously at slow speed moving upwards against the end of the product bed.

This action ensures that product is removed evenly from the bed’s entire cross-section rather than preferentially from the top, as is the case with static weirs, and also avoids causing turbulence within the bed.

The rotary weir allows increasing the depth of the bed and therefore the residence time within the dryer. Plug flow is maintained at all times and closely controllable bed depths in the range 5cm to 60cm and residence times up to two hours are achievable.

Another option being offered is installing a weir across just part of the dryer’s width combined with a longitudinal divider plate. This allows part of the product flow to have an extended residence time and become ‘toasted’ while the rest flows through more quickly and is simply dried. In the case of breadcrumbs, the two product streams can then be mixed to produce the required colouration.

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Lindor mixers in thermoplastic elastomer manufacture boosts efficiency

Higher mixing efficiency, lower energy consumption and the elimination of any product degradation were major benefits that the Dutch company Wittenburg gained by installing a Lindor 4000-litre mixer on a new production line for its Cawiton range of thermoplastic elastomer coating compounds in place of the plant’s previously used ribbon blenders.

Being used to carry out the homogenisation and remixing of recycled elastomer granules, the Lindor machines also gave the advantages of a self-emptying facility and compact dimensions. The TPE compounds are widely used to provide a tough soft-touch coating on implements such as surgical instruments, razor handles and binocular bodies.

Available in the UK from Orthos, Lindor machines are entirely free of internal moving parts such as mixing ploughs or agitators which often cause product degradation either mechanically or as a result of friction-induced heating. Their unique design introduces only a very small amount of energy into the mix.

The mixing effect is derived from specially designed tapered scoops that run the whole length of the horizontally-arranged mixing drum and are an integral part of its inner surface. They induce a gentle but thorough 3-dimensional, figure-of-eight motion in the components of the entire mix, completely eliminating any ‘dead’ spaces and ensuring virtually 100% product discharge.

A further consideration of relevance to the chemical industry and others where gases or atmospheres laden with dust or solvent vapours pose an explosion risk is EU Directive ATEX 95, which came into force in July 2003. The Lindor mixer possesses an inherent advantage in relation to this thanks to the absence of independently moving parts within the mixing space. Metal-to-metal contact and its attendant risk of spark generation are completely avoided.

Additionally, a correctly operated Lindor mixer releases no dust into the surrounding atmosphere and thus avoids generating a potentially explosive external dust/air mixture.

Units fitted with explosion-proof motors, approved cabling and control gear and a nitrogen purge system are now working on such hazardous materials as powdered metals, starch powders and actual powdered explosives.

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