Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1355344
40 / April 2021 powderbulk.com to a spray dryer, which allows the process to operate nonstop while maintaining safety and efficiency during feed line swaps. Food and dairy dryers often operate continuously by using mul- tiple feed systems, which typically consist of two or more feed lines upstream from a spray dryer. San- itizing these feed lines commonly requires a 2- to 4-hour daily clean- ing process to ensure safety and prevent bacterial growth, but the new patented system's high-pres- sure operation atomizes and purges the remaining material in the feed lines to the spray dryer to prevent loss of the concentrated feed prod- uct. This process also prevents an equipment operator from manually removing a spray nozzle that isn't properly emptied, which can lead to a serious safety issue if the mate- rial drips into the spray dryer or deposits onto the spray nozzle posi- tioned in the air dispenser's hot air zone as it could potentially cause a fire or explosion. AZO partners with AddUp to offer automated powder management AZO Inc., a powder handling solutions company based in Ger- many, has teamed up with AddUp, a supplier of laser beam powder bed fusion equipment based in France, to launch an autonomous powder module system. The sys- tem is compatible with all metal powder types, including cohesive or reactive, and handles small to medium particle sizes. The system's flexibility offers uninter- rupted production with continuous sieving and drying, resulting in even powder properties. The sys- tem also prevents facility personnel from coming in contact with pow- ders, providing additional safety to equipment operators. "We're humbled to play a role in delivering the COVID-19 vaccine to millions of Americans. With lives on the line, the Material Transfer team worked tirelessly to design and build these discharging sys- tems in record time," says Scott Nyhof, president. To see the discharging system, go to https://tinyurl.com/7vhu9wjv. GEA receives patent for food spray dryers GEA, a technology supplier for the food processing industry based in Düsseldorf, Germany, has received a patent for its GEA Clean Purge system for food and dairy spray dryers. The patent covers the pro- cess of purging feed nozzles while swapping feed systems to ensure a continuous flow of feed material pellet-sized consistency, meter the dry ice evenly to protect each vac- cine vial, monitor the ice that was discharged during packaging, and automate the process. To answer the urgent call to get vaccines safely distributed, MTS created a customized discharging system within 8 weeks that can meter doses of dry ice into tem- perature-controlled containers that hold from 1,000 to 5,000 doses. The discharging system includes an insulated surge hopper, a custom- ized crusher, an electromagnetic feeder, and a scale system that mon- itors the weight of the dry ice being dosed. A touch-screen control inter- face monitors the size, amount, and consistency of the dry ice and can provide diagnostic reports to the vaccine manufacturer.