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Vacuum coater on trials: Capacity up for aquafeed production? Lu Mingshang, FAMSUN Field trials using several PTZL5000 vacuum coaters have proven their effectiveness and have shown many product quality benefits in large-scale high-end aquafeed production.
Coating is an industrial process that uniformly applies either a liquid or a powder on to the surface of a product of any possible shape or size to create new functional properties. The introduction of vacuum coating systems into the aquafeed industry provided greater flexibility for feed manufacturers to overcome product quality challenges that a typical ambient coating system could not do, such as achieving homogenous coverage at low-fat inclusion levels, maximizing fat inclusion levels and ensuring sufficient fat penetration that avoids leaching of oils into the ponds. Vacuum coating technology creates a subatmospheric pressure within a mixing chamber. An atomized or even a molecular condensable vapor is injected into the chamber to encapsulate each pellet with a thin film. Vacuum coating allows the application of oil, fat, pigments, flavors, attractants, vitamins and other liquid ingredients in this manner. After a short mix cycle, the chamber pressure is brought back up to ambient levels. When applicable, the dry ingredients can then be introduced. This is an important sequence, as the oily film is often the adhesive that holds the dry powders into feed pellets. Vacuum coating brings improved coverage, palatability and functionality to most feed products.
FAMSUN vacuum coaters While making continuous improvements, FAMSUN has developed a series of vacuum coaters with the latest innovations to meet the demanding requirements of
Figure 1. FAMSUN PTZL5000 vacuum coater.
the fast-growing aquafeed market. The PTZL vacuum coater (Table 1), with excellent sealing performance, creates and maintains a strong vacuum at a range from -950 mbar to 0 mbar and can achieve liquid addition levels up to 36%.
Aquafeed: Advances in Processing & Formulation Vol 12 Issue 2 2020
