Starch cooling in confectionery line
22 February 2011 – °Celsius from The Netherlands has recently delivered a large screw heat exchanger to Astra Sweets in Turnhout, Belgium. They are making this screw heat exchanger operational to cool starch in the production of confectionery.
At Astra Sweets, ingredients are combined, dissolved and boiled. Then colorings and flavorings are added to the recipe before it goes to the pouring department. The liquid product from the factory kitchen is poured into trays with powdered starch. Small shapes are pressed into the powdered starch and these are used as a mould for the sweets. When the trays are full, these are piled on pallets. The sweets are then conditioned in a cooling/drying room before being given a lovely glossy finish in a drum, or being covered in sugar.
The starch in which the small shapes are pressed to form a mold is constantly re-used. For this reason the starch needs to be constantly re-dried and re-cooled. Celsius has designed and produced a cooling screw for Astra Sweets that, with a capacity of 10,000 kg/hour, can cool from 55 °C to 42 °C. Water at 10 °C is used as the coolant.
The Celsius cooling screw is a double screw measuring at least 10 meters long by 1.60 meters tall; it weighs 7000 kg and ensures there is always a sufficient supply of starch to make the mould trays.
The cooling screw supplied is a replacement in an existing pouring line, but with increased capacity. Celsius delivered the screw heat exchanger to Jongerius Technology in Kapellen, Belgium, for the Astra Sweets production line. Jongerius Technology designs, delivers, installs and maintains systems for the storage and transshipment of dried goods and liquids.
They supply parts as well as complete turn-key installations. For Astra Sweets Jongerius Technology supplied the full process to reduce the moisture content of the starch by means of drying and cooling. The Celsius cooling screw is contained within the drying installation.
