Drying Technology Center Expands Capabilities

For immediate release-February 12, 1999

Columbia, MD-Niro Inc., a GEA Company, announced today that a newly revamped Drying Technology Center has opened for customer product testing. Many of the test units in the facility have been replaced with state-of-the-art equipment. Niro spray dryers are used in chemical, pharmaceutical, polymer, food processing, and catalyst production.

The Niro Drying Technology Center performs two types of tests: feasibility studies to evaluate drying parameters of wet feedstocks, and pilot tests to provide design information for fabrication of commercial drying equipment. Feed materials may consist of dilute solutions of solids in water, liquid slurries of suspended solids, colloidal suspensions, gels, pastes, or heavy cakes of wet solids. All are dried to free-flowing powders, agglomerates, or granules.

Testing produces a range of data, including the optimum drying temperature for maximum thermal efficiency and minimum degradation, the relationship between the drying temperature and product moisture content, atomization requirements, and product particle size distribution. The Technology Center contains a complete analytical laboratory for testing dried product particle size, bulk density, residual volatiles/ moisture, flowability, and hygroscopicity. The Center also develops criteria and operating parameters for drying new products in existing equipment.

The upgraded Technology Center enables us to get better results and more accurate design information for our customers, said Fred V. Shaw, Chemical Division Manager at Niro. Whatever the product, we now have more advanced capabilities in drying and granulation.

New equipment includes a 30-in diameter laboratory-size spray dryer (Mobile Minor™) and a 4-ft diameter pilot-scale spray dryer (Production Minor™). A large,9-ft diameter (S-28) spray dryer and a Fluidized Spray Dryer (FSD™-16) have been completely rebuilt, and the FSD™ has been updated with a new, more efficient burner. Other equipment in the Center includes a TALL FORM DRYER™ with pressure nozzles and a large-scale closed-cycle spray dryer. In all, the Drying Technology Center contains seven spray dryers, four fluid bed dryers, a conventional flash dryer, two agitated flash dryers (Swirl Fluidizer™), and a fluid bed spray granulator. A second phase of the modification, planned for 1999, will incorporate state-of-the-art PC-based process control systems on the larger dryers.

The Drying Technology Center is located at Niro's Columbia, MD, headquarters. Niro Inc. is an international company specializing in the development, design, and engineering of liquid and powder processing equipment for the manufacture of products in liquid, powder, granulate, or agglomerate form. Niro products include spray dryers and coolers, fluid bed systems, evaporators, packaging equipment, homogenizers, membrane filtration systems, coaters, agglomerators, and granulators.

Drying Technology Data Sheet

For further information:
Phone : 410-997-8700
Fax : 410-997-5021
Email : gea.pe.na@geagroup.com