Fluid Bed Drier (FBD)
Fluid Bed Driers (FBD) are designed to dry products as they float on a cushion of air or gas. The process air is supplied to the bed through a special perforated distributor plate and flows through the bed of solids at a velocity sufficient to support the weight of particles in a fluidized state. Bubbles form and collapse within the fluidized bed of material, promoting intense particle movement. In this state, the solids behave like a free flowing boiling liquid. Very high heat and mass transfer values are obtained as a result of the intimate contact with the solids and the differential velocities between individual particles and the fluidized gas. Often products are required in agglomerate or granular form to achieve good instant properties and so fluid bed dryers may be combined with spray drying, agglomeration, or granulation systems.
A fluidized bed is formed when a quantity of a solid particulate substance (usually present in a holding vessel) is placed under appropriate conditions to cause the solid/fluid mixture to behave as a fluid. This is usually achieved by the introduction of pressurized fluid through the particulate medium. This results in the medium then having many properties and characteristics of normal fluids; such as the ability to free-flow under gravity, or to be pumped using fluid type technologies.
ACE Indutries, inc.
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