Hebeler Process Solutions, LLC

Cooling Drum Flakers

Cooling Drum Flakers

Cooling Drum Flakers are the most compact and efficient method to cool an incoming molten product to a solid flaked product utilizing thin film continuous cooling via conductive heat transfer. Cooling Drum Flakers are utilized in food, chemical, environmental, and pharmaceutical applications for products such as acetic acid, calcium chloride, caustic soda, edible oils, fatty acids, polyethylene glycol, steric acid, waxes and zinc stearate.

Consisting of a rotating drum with a cooling liquid sprayed on the inside and a product specific application method for applying the molten product to the drum surface, standard applications methods are a dip feed pan usually used for low viscosity products, applicator roll usually used for heat sensitive products or agitator roll usually used for super-cooling products. The solidified product is 100% removed from the drum surface by ridged knife bar assembly.

The cooling drum requires precision construction and machining to assure uniform efficient heat transfer and eliminate production fines. Standard drum materials of construction can range from cast-iron, to hastelloy and are built to comply with ASME and PED Pressure Codes or other national design and construction codes.

Due to current environmental and health safety requirements, cooling drum flakers are usually enclosed in a number of specially designed enclosures specifically suited for dust containment or toxic vapor containment and/or provide an inert gas operating environment for oxygen-sensitive products.

Due to the hundreds of various types of products and operating environments, almost all aspects of a drum flaker's mechanical design, operating components and ancillary equipment are customizable to meet individual application needs.

The vast majority of Buflovak cooling drum flakers are installed on a production-guaranteed basis because the specific process (chemistry) design was tested and then pilot-run in the Buflovak laboratory, which provided reliable scale-up data for correct dryer configuration and drum surface area to meet each individual process design application. 

The following chart is an example of the flexible cooling drum flaker surface area range to meet your specific flaked production rate. The drum length of any given cooling drum diameter can be adjusted for exact cooling surface area requirements to meet and balance upstream (molten liquid) process and downstream (flaked solid) capacity design.