Thickner
Thickening agents are understood to be swelling agents which swell as they absorb liquid, finally transforming into viscous or colloid solutions. Thickening agents are used in the manufacture of many technical, cosmetic, pharmaceutical or dietary preparations such as creams, detergents, sizing agents, adhesives, paints, puddings and slim-line foods to name just a few. Dependent on their origin, they can be broken down as follows:
Algae: agar-agar, alginate, carrageenan
Vegetable: guar flour, konjac, gum arabic, pectin, carob seed grain, soy protein, cellulose, modified starch
Animal: gelatin, caseinate, whey
Microbiological: xanthan gum, gellan gum
Process
Gelatin
Our systems are typically used for the coarse and fine grinding of dry gelatin obtained from extruded material. The coarse, dust-free and free-flowing qualities are produced with a granulator, whereas the higher fineness values are achieved with a fine impact mill UPZ. Depending on the required steepness of the particle size distribution, the ground gelatin is fractionated even further with a screening machine.
Carrageenan, pectin
To permit replacing thickening agents of animal origin, products such as carrageenan and pectin are still on the increase throughout the world. The typical fineness values here are in the < 250 µm range and finer, which is why it is predominantly the ACM classifying mill that has established itself for the grinding step.
The advantages of this type of mill are in the cooling and in a steep particle size distribution with a sharp top-size limitation effected by the dynamic classifying principle. Adjusting the classifying wheel allows requirements in terms of different reproducible product qualities to be realized.
For the application of drying and grinding extracted alginate, gelatine and caseinate, Drymeister DMR-H is suited for single-process production.
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