‘Sounds’ Like The Perfect Spray Dryer

OK because I am Irish I am an ardent tea drinker, not that I do not like coffee. Did you know that spray dried coffee was invented in 1901, in Chicago by a Japanese scientist called Satori Kato? Since then spray drying of a wide range of ingredients has now become possible with advances in spray dryer design and operation. Today spray dryers in various design formats are used to dry such materials as milk powder, spices, flavourings, pigments, ceramic materials, enzymes and catalyst supports.

Spray drying involves evaporation of the moisture from the atomised liquid or slurry by spraying this material into a drying medium, usually hot air. There are three basic techniques employed for such rapid drying.

Co-Current – in which the material is sprayed in the same direction as the flow of hot air through the vertical vessel.

Counter-Current – in which the material is sprayed in the opposite direction as the hot air flow. The hot air flows upwards and the product falls through increasingly hot air to the base of the vessel.

Combined Current – in which the advantages of both types of drying are combined. The product is sprayed upwards and only remains in the hot zone for a short time to remove the residual moisture. Gravity then allows the product to fall into the cooler zone.

In all cases the exiting dry materials (which in some cases can have an extremely small particle size) exit the cone base of the dryer and are then passed into either a cyclone or bag filter to separate the material from the air stream.

However these spray drying systems are not without their problems which mainly centre around:-

• Material building up on the vertical side walls of the dryer, then falling off in lumps, so blocking the outlet


• Material building up and blocking over the base outlet


• Fine particles blocking the filter bags and also the filter discharge hopper. These serious problems which used to cause major and costly down time can easily and economically be eliminated with the installation of suitable models of Primasonics Acoustic Cleaners.

Should you wish to enquire about a particular spray dryer application just click on the following link and complete our Spray Dryer Questionnaire

Photo left:

Acoustic cleaner installed to prevent spray dryer material build-up.

Jazz It Up

You will know from my previous acoustic cleaning blog posts that I am a big band fan and take every opportunity to get to live performances. I have two more lined up for 2010 – Chris Dean’s Syd Lawrence Orchestra at Barrow in January and an excellent singer from the North West – Jason Isaacs with the Greg Francis Orchestra in Newcastle in March.

However, I have recently taken a liking for modern jazz after listening to the Back to Basi Orchestra and the very talented saxophonist Karen Sharpe. The last time I heard Karen play was at the excellent Rawtenstall Jazz Club in Rossendale, Lancs. I recently re-visited this vibrant club to listen to the fabulous Northern Jazz Orchestra. This 17 piece band literally ‘blew’ me away with their red-hot horn music. Their leader and drummer, Paul Rigby, leads this talented band superbly well and is a great drummer in his own right. I was talking with his father Alan who told me that Paul’s greatest disappointment was that he never met his idle Buddy Rich, although Buddy’s magic certainly lives on within the NJO.

It somewhat reminds me of our company’s ‘red-hot horns’ our innovative range of Acoustic Cleaners which provide superb ‘performances’ in over 45 countries worldwide - and in a wide range of plant applications.

Acoustics In Art

There are many ways in which acoustics are used in everyday life - from acoustic cleaners that help many industries maintain material flow through to the world of music and beyond. I am always keen to read news stories relating to acoustics so I thought I would share with you two that I encountered recently.

The first is an interesting product called Acoustic Art Panels. The makers claim they have a unique facing which makes them suited to a 'limitless range of applications'. They cite private homes, conference rooms, boats, bars and restaurants as examples. I have not seen any of these panels in person nor do I know anyone (yet) who has purchased and used them so I am sitting on the fence as to whether these panels carry any real 'acoustic' value but they certainly sound interesting.

The second is a documentary film entitled 'Visual Acoustics' which celebrates the life of Julius Shulam who died this summer aged 98. Shulam is viewed by many as the world's greatest ever architectural photographer who was able to capture virtually every modern architect's work since the 1930s including Frank Lloyd Wright and Frank Gehry. I have yet to see the film but the review I chanced upon along with a youtube video of the trailer has whet my appetite and I will be on the lookout for the first opportunity to see it.

It never ceases to amaze me how much we like to use the word acoustic - it must count for something special!

Life Is A Circus!

As I have mentioned in the dim and distant past, I was born in a small County Down, Northern Ireland town called Dromore. Indeed I have mentioned in a previous blog about my grandfather Joseph Magill who originally was a boot maker. In this link (a snapshot from 1910) you can see his name mentioned within a summary of Dromore.

During my childhood days and early teens, there were few cars, little television and certainly meagre amounts of pocket money which was usually completely spent within the hour in the many little sweet shops which existed at that time. However there were times when I did save my pocket money for a few annual special occasions:-

Christmas – Summer Holidays – Halloween – and … the Touring Circus

A couple of weeks ahead of the arrival of the circus, posters would be pasted up in glorious bright red, yellow and blue announcing the arrival date for a touring circus – what excitement that caused!

There was one particular field on the outskirts of my small town called the pinnacle meadow, where the circus pitched camp. There were two Irish circuses which visited Dromore and both are still going strong today. They were Duffy’s Circus and Fossett’s Circus, one of which, even today, features a fantastic tiger act! As kids we would sit and watch the canvas big top being erected, the various animals being housed and all the circus paraphernalia being unloaded. If we were lucky (or cheeky) enough, a few of us would be offered a free admission ticket in return for helping do the more mundane jobs necessary within routine circus life.

Eventually it was ‘Showtime’ and we eagerly entered through the multi-illuminated entrance and took our seats on the hard wooded, tiered seating at the back of the tent. For those two hours we sat spellbound watching all the acts. When not performing, many of the acts climbed up on top of a lorry into the ‘orchestra pit’ to play various musical instruments.

OK so I have not talked about our innovative Acoustic Cleaners today – instead I just indulged myself in a little bit of reminiscing!

Technical Director's Post

I recently visited Liverpool University's Acoustic Research Unit to test a new product in their large facilities. Visiting universities is something I do on a reasonably regular basis as Primasonics has good relations both with Liverpool and Salford University acoustic departments. Whilst there I was working with Gary Seiffert, a very knowledgeable and, incidentally, funny chap who mentioned some other projects he had heard about in the University. One of these really captured my imagination - within the engineering department staff and students are working with Ford to replace spark plugs in engines with lasers.

Now if you are reading this acoustic cleaning blog you are probably an engineer of some sort and would agree that in our world it is a truth universally acknowledged that lasers are fascinating. Not only do the lasers have less electrical demand than conventional spark plugs but they can be split and focused into numerous beams which produce multiple ignition points within the cylinder. These multiple ignition points make the engines more efficient, especially when starting from cold which means the same power for less fuel helping to reduce a vehicles carbon footprint. What made this fascinating to me was they have working engines right now in the lab - this is no pipe dream. It also made me wonder if this technology could change the shape of engines; valves don't have to stay out of the way of a spark plug any more. Indeed this may be the small trigger that ignites, if you will pardon the pun, the viability of some of the more radical engines we have seen such as the “Round Engine”.

We at Primasonics have got a lot out of working with Universities both in terms of practical advice from a single department and in terms of inspiration regarding different departments and disciplines coming together to make something great. It is also surprising how simple is the help that we as engineers and professionals can give back to these institutions - sometimes the difference between a young researcher getting a grant to allow them to study or not is a simple letter to say that the work may be useful in the industrial sector.
..... Alex Bergus

Step Back To The Beat!

Have you ever actually stepped back in time – really stepped back in time – well I have!

40 plus years ago I used to be a drummer and could also write drum music. A few weeks ago I visited a friend of mine who as well as being an excellent guitar player runs a company which organises events, especially musical events and he knows many of the current UK jazz greats.

His name is Alan Armstrong and in his ‘front room’ he has a kind of studio with a drum kit slap bang in the middle of it. He was under strict instructions to ‘get rid’ so I bought it from him and it is now sitting proudly in my garage! Right now I am learning to both play again and to read drum music. I can tell you that 40 years makes a hell of a big difference as to how my hands, arms, feet and legs now move! However it is totally therapeutic for me if not for my neighbours.

Alan, being a life time musician had the drum kit wired up to around six microphones linked to an amplifier which enabled him to balance the entire various different drum and cymbal sounds without any one sound predominating – I am not as lucky as I can not afford this ‘balancing’ luxury. So when friends call at the house when I am playing the drum kit, they first of all hear is the base drum beat and they can not hear the ‘hi-hat’ cymbals until they are outside my garage door. Why is that?

Well, it is exactly the same reason why our range of Primasonics Acoustic Cleaners is effective over such a wide range of process, power generation and bulk storage applications and plant sizes. Basically the lower the sound – the longer is the sound wavelength and the further it travels (base drum or PAS-60). The higher the sound – the shorter the sound wavelength and so it travels over a much shorter distance (cymbal or PAS-420). Look at the explanation in this link

By the way, I don’t think that my drumming ‘skills’ in any way match those of 7 year old Jacob Armen – but I really do try!

Bless My Sole!

OK so it’s part of the opening line of the Elvis hit ‘I’m All Shook Up’ but I am talking ‘Fish’ here.

You should know by now that I like to cook, I find it therapeutic, perhaps because it is such a vastly different activity to acoustic cleaning technology.

Whilst at my local excellent fishmonger The Fish Cellar in Penrith, Cumbria I had a look at Neil’s wide selection of flat fish. I never quite realised that there were so many different types. Here are a few of the 400+ species:-

Sole – Turbot – Plaice – Halibut – Brill – Dab – Flounder – Megrim

The most obvious characteristic of the flatfish family is their asymmetry, with both eyes being on the same side of their head. Another typical characteristic is the top skin is pigmented, often to serve as camouflage. Perhaps the two species which I buy to cook with are the Halibut and my favourite, the Dover Sole. The Halibut has a dark brownish skin, forked tail and a lateral stripe. It is usually between 500 mm – 1400 mm, weighing between 5 kg – 70 kg.

The Dover Sole is a much smaller, grey brown in colour with dark spots and grows to between 200 mm – 460 mm. To me it is the Queen of flat fish and is renowned for its delicate flavour. That is why I always cook it in a simple manner, either on the bone (which I prefer) of off the bone as fillets (which everyone else seems to prefer).

So this time Mark at the Fish Cellar kindly skinned and filleted the Dover Soles for me. If you would like to try this task for yourself follow this video link.

Start by melting some butter (with a little vegetable oil to stop the butter from burning) in a large frying pan to a reasonably hot temperature, dip the dried fillets in flour, shaking off the excess. Fry gently with some lemon rind, say two minutes max on each side, place on a plate, splash on some lemon juice, sprinkle with a little chopped parsley and serve with buttered whole baby potatoes and French beans.

Simple but very effective – just like our Primasonics Acoustic Cleaners!