™ Infrared and UV-C
in one rotary drum
The Roast-O-Dry™ drum with a UV-C stage added alongside the infrared. The two stages run continuously and in synchronisation. No chemicals, no fumigants and no water.
Why a drum rather than a flat bed
This is the whole argument for the machine, and it is a matter of geometry rather than of biology.
UV-C travels in straight lines and does not turn corners. On a flat bed conveyor the product lies still: the surface facing the lamps is exposed, and whatever is turned away from them, or shaded by the piece beside it, is not. Nuts, seeds and spices are irregular and opaque, so a static bed shades itself. Treating the other side means a second pass, a turning device, or a longer machine.
A drum turns the material continuously. Every particle is lifted, carried and dropped, so each surface comes round to face the field instead of only the layer on top being exposed.
| Flat bed conveyor | Rotary drum | |
|---|---|---|
| Presentation to the lamps | One face, whichever is uppermost | Every face, repeatedly |
| Self-shading | Pieces shade one another in a static bed | Material is re-presented continuously |
| Flow | Continuous | Continuous, first-in first-out |
| Floor area | Length set by dwell time | Length wrapped into the drum |
This describes exposure, which is mechanical and can be observed. What that exposure achieves in your product is a separate question, and it is dealt with below.
Construction
- Combined shortwave infrared and UV-C in one machine — continuous and synchronised
- Rotary drum, first-in first-out
- PLC control with recipe storage per product
- Interlocked guarding — lamps cut when a door is opened
- Food-grade stainless steel contact surfaces
- Castor mounted with levelling feet — no civil foundation
- No chemicals, no fumigants, no water
- 415 V, three phase, 50 Hz
Sizes
| Drum internal diameter | Drum length | Connected load |
|---|---|---|
| 750 mm | 1500 mm | 25 kW |
| 1000 mm | 1500 mm | 30 kW |
| 1200 mm | 1800 mm | 60 kW |
Specifications are varied to suit the application.
Nothing passes a failed lamp
Lamp condition is monitored continuously. A failed or broken lamp stops the feed, the drum, the heating and the lamps together, so no further material passes through the machine.
A UV-C lamp is a glass envelope. If one breaks, the machine stops before further material passes it, so anything that has entered the product is confined to the charge in the drum at that moment and does not carry into what follows.
Lamp life is monitored, and an alarm is raised at the rated replacement interval.
The last of those matters more than it appears. A lamp that has broken is obvious. One still running but down to three-quarters of its rated output is not — and that is the failure a processor cannot see.
Whose job the validation is
We do not publish log-reduction figures, shelf-life claims or microbial data for this machine.
Published figures for UV-C almost all come from juice, liquids or flat surfaces — optically simple targets. Nuts, seeds and spices are none of those. They are dry, opaque and irregular, and the result depends on the product, the load depth, the moisture and the starting condition. A figure measured on somebody else's material tells you nothing about yours.
Process validation belongs to the food business operator, under his own HACCP plan. Our part is to supply the machine, its parameters and its records so that validation can be carried out against something solid.
A supplier who quotes you a log reduction has measured it on his product, not yours.
Trials are run on your own machine
We do not keep a demonstration machine. Every machine is built against an order. When yours is complete and before it leaves our works, we run your material through it, to your parameters, and you take the product away for your own laboratory testing. What you validate is the machine you are buying — not a demonstration unit that differs from it in size or configuration.
The process is yours to validate. The machine, its parameters and its records are ours to supply.
A.B. Plastech · Modern Industrial Estate, Bahadurgarh, Haryana
+91 94160 55854 · info@abplastech.co.in