Production of fine and compact granulate using the novel Glatt technology

The Glatt group of companies has been a developer and supplier of fluid-bed equipment and systems for spray granulation, powder agglomeration, encapsulation, drying and coating of particles for many decades. The range comprises systems for batch production and for continuous operation.

Glatt Ingenieurtechnik GmbH has developed a new technology especially for the safe handling of difficult fluidizable materials, for example very fine particles, products with a very wide particle size distribution, irregular shaped particles or sticky products. As a complementary method, the new technology expands the conventional range of fluid bed applications and provides additional options for customized application.

The advantages of the new technology are most obvious in spray granulation processes when very fine particles of homogeneous structure and uniform surface must be produced.

Further, coating processes involving the application of very high amounts of coating material can be carried out because fine and also much larger particles together can be fluidized more easily in this machine than with the conventional fluidizing process.

Typical for the new technology is the special design of the process air distribution and the processing chamber. The patented design without air distribution plate, results in equipment insensitive to clogging, In addition the specific air flow pattern inside the machine provides new possibilities of process control. Advantages compared to known fluid-bed equipment include the substantially smaller filling volume (bed mass) in the processing chamber, which improves the quality especially of heat-sensitive materials. In addition the flow of process air in the machine results in a controlled movement of particles which provides very good conditions for the injection of liquids during granulation and coating processes.

There is no need to mention that the new method comes with all the options that the standard fluid-bed systems from Glatt also have. This includes the design solution suiting the intended use, for example, in the chemical, food, feed or pharmaceutical industries, or for peripheral equipment such as process air treatment, dust collection, explosion protection, WIP/CIP systems, provision of raw material or product handling.