Discover the best conveyors for powdered and loose-leaf tea designed to tackle the unique challenges of processing this material. From preserving flavor and quality to ensuring safety and efficiency, this guide delves into the optimal conveyor solutions. Whether you’re dealing with powdered blends or delicate loose-leaf varieties, find the insights and expert recommendations you need to enhance your tea production line.
How to Choose the Best Conveyors for Powdered & Loose Leaf Tea?
Choosing the best conveyor solutions for powdered and loose-leaf tea involves considering several key factors to ensure quality and safety. Firstly, opt for industrial conveyor systems that offer gentle handling to prevent degradation and preserve the integrity of the tea. Systems like flexible screw conveyors are ideal for their versatility and gentle conveyance.
Secondly, prioritize dust containment and safety features, particularly for powdered tea, to minimize explosion risks. Enclosed systems with dust control mechanisms are crucial. Lastly, consider conveyor belt systems that allow quick cleaning and minimal downtime between flavor changes, ensuring efficiency in operations.
Before packaging, the tea undergoes processing either as loose leaf or in powdered form. Each type presents unique obstacles that can be addressed through the design of conveyor technologies, aiming to maintain the consistency of the product’s taste and quality. That’s why specialists from Spiroflow have explored the difficulties associated with transporting tea and evaluated the mechanical conveyor options best suited for this task.
Be Aware of All Tea Conveying Challenges
Being fully aware of the conveying challenges is key to maintaining the delicate balance between quality and operational efficiency. This being said, let’s explore the hurdles that come with handling both loose-leaf and powdered teas.
- Breakage
Tea products, especially those that are brittle, are susceptible to breakage, leading to unwanted changes in taste. A conveyor system designed for gentle handling can safeguard the product, preventing damage to the tea leaves. Furthermore, significant breakage can lead to a product that is too powdery, complicating the processes of separation and mixing.
- Dust and Safety Concerns
The movement of tea during conveyance can generate a large amount of fine, flammable dust. Without proper management, this poses a serious safety hazard due to the potential for static electricity to trigger explosions. Choosing a fully enclosed conveyor system equipped with dust control mechanisms is crucial to mitigate these risks.
- Abrasion
Tea in leaf form is somewhat abrasive and can lead to higher rates of wear and tear, so selecting a conveyor that will stand up to the job and from a manufacturer that can quickly deliver spare parts will be important.
- Fast Turnaround During Flavor Changes
Lastly, conveyor manufacturers producing flavored teas, both in instant and in leaves, may run multiple blends in a single day on the same equipment. Having a conveyor with quick cleaning features is key to preventing residual flavor transfer between batches while also minimizing downtime.
Flexible Screw Conveyors
Ideal for: Tea blends & flavored teas
A flexible screw conveyor consists of a singular moving component – a spiral housed within a tube. This simplicity renders it an exceptionally versatile and economical option for conveyance. Such systems are perfectly suited for transporting tea blends or flavored teas, thanks to their efficiency and adaptability.
Key Features
Besides all the benefits mentioned above, flexible screw conveyors have more to offer. Here are some other key benefits this conveying system has:
- Fast cleaning and turnaround between flavored tea batches to prevent residual flavor transfer when running multiple blends in a day (via easy clean-release flanges),
- Maintained batch integrity (via constant remixing of the blend via the screw conveyor’s helical motion),
- The innovative inline twin screw (ITS) continuous proportional blender is at the forefront of blending technology, specializing in thorough mixing over a compact material flow path.
Aero Mechanical Conveyors
Ideal for: Loose leaf & instant
The aero mechanical conveyor operates by generating an airflow that propels the product through tubes, accompanied by rapid discs and a rope. It stands out as an excellent option for the transportation of both instant and loose-leaf tea. Among its advantages, this conveyor type features a quiet operation and low energy consumption.
Key Benefits
Aero mechanicals are expertly designed to safeguard the quality and integrity of your tea. Here are some of the key features of these systems:
- Total dust containment (via airtight operation),
- Reduced risk of explosion (caused by static build-up of combustible dust),
- Gentle handling of friable tea leaves (air pockets in airstream support with gentle conveying).
Cable Drag Conveyors
Ideal for: Loose leaf & instant, where layout versatility is a requirement
Similar to the aero mechanical conveyor, a cable drag conveyor operates using evenly spaced discs connected by a rope. However, it drags the products along the cable and disc assembly gently at reduced speeds rather than moving them quickly via very fast-moving airstream, vacuum, or air blasts. Additionally, cable drag conveyors offer to convey in multiple planes and with multiple inlets and outlets while also operating at reduced clearances – for maximum layout versatility.
Key Benefits
Discover how a cable drag conveyor can help you safely handle your delicate product. Here are the benefits you need to be aware of:
- Best choice for minimal product degradation of tea leaves due to extremely gentle handling (no vacuums, fast-moving air blasts, belts, or buckets that can potentially cause damage),
- Total dust containment (via contamination free totally-enclosed system),
- Minimize waste through gentle handling of delicate materials and maintaining the integrity of blends.
Select the Ideal Conveyor System for Your Tea Processing Needs With Spiroflow
The careful selection of conveyor systems plays a crucial role in the tea processing industry, ensuring the preservation of tea quality, safety, and efficiency. That’s where Spiroflow comes into play. As one of the top conveyor systems manufacturers, we can help you evaluate the best conveyor and bulk material handling system solution for your tea application.Our team can replicate your on-site conditions in our professional test lab and, with our broad range of conveying equipment, help you determine the best conveyor for your tea product. Contact us today for a consultation with one of our engineers.
