Conditioning apparatus

Conditioning apparatus for conditioning a leaf vegetable material of a fibrous nature, which apparatus comprises a perforate bed whereby gaseous conditioning medium may be supplied through the perforations to establish a conditioning zone immediately above the bed whereby, in use, the material can be maintained effectively in a fluidized state, the bed being supported above a plenum chamber arranged to be supplied with conditioning medium,

• the conditioning medium being supplied from means comprising an inlet duct for conditioning medium under pressure, said inlet duct communicating with a first and a second duct each communicating with said plenum chamber, heating means provided in said first duct;
• bleed-off means associated with at least one of said first and second ducts whereby the relative proportions of heated and unheated conditioning medium entering the plenum chamber can be adjusted;
• the bed being supported in a frame in a manner which permits adjustment of the configuration of the bed relative to the frame at least in a direction of feed of the material to be conditioned, and in which the bleed-off means is controlled automatically to respond to a measurement of a condition of the gaseous conditioning medium.