Fluid-bed drying unit, particularly for drying tobacco
AssigneeGarbuio S.p.A.
InventorMansueto Favaro
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A fluid-bed drying unit, particularly but not exclusively used in the field of tobacco drying comprising a drying chamber having a loading inlet and an outlet for discharging the product and provided with openings for the passage of a drying medium. The drying chamber has a substantially tubular shape extending along a longitudinal axis and a substantially triangular vertical cross-sectional shape; the longitudinal axis is substantially inclined with respect to a horizontal axis and means are provided to inject a drying fluid substantially at right angles to the longitudinal axis.
Claims9
A fluid-bed drying unit, for drying a product, including a drying chamber for the product to be dried, said chamber comprising:
- an inlet for loading said product;
- an outlet for discharging said product;
- openings for passage of a drying fluid, and fluid injection means for injecting the drying fluid substantially upwardly, at right angles to a longitudinal axis, and wherein said drying chamber is tubular, extends along said longitudinal axis, and has a triangular vertical cross-sectional shape, with inclined walls at a product processing region of said chamber, said longitudinal axis being inclined with respect to a horizontal axis, said drying fluid acting both as a drying and conveyance medium for said product from said inlet to said outlet of the drying chamber, along said longitudinal axis.
A fluid-bed drying method for drying a product, comprising:
- introducing the product in an inlet region of a drying chamber which has an upwardly diverging triangular cross-sectional shape;
- injecting into a lower zone of said chamber a drying fluid with an inflow speed which is provided so as to be higher than an outflow speed;
- providing an inclined direction of the drying fluid flow with respect to the vertical and orientating said flow in a direction being opposite with respect to a direction of the force of gravity to which particles of the product are subjected;
- wherein each particle of the product subsequently undergoes a thrust in a direction of the fluid flow and a subsequent fall in the direction of the force of gravity, so that due to the inclined direction of the fluid flow the product particles perform a sawtooth oscillation.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.