Enhancing Sugar Processing Efficiency with Carrier’s Advanced Technologies

How Sugar is Processed Efficiently with Carrier Equipment 

Carrier Vibrating Equipment makes equipment used in sugar processing and is known globally for its vibratory machinery. Carrier’s industrial machinery contributes to the production of this additive that’s become a global staple. According to the International Sugar Organization based in London, international sugar production in 2022 was just under 179 million tons, while in the same year world markets saw record trading of nearly 70 million tons of sugar. Processing sugar has become increasingly lucrative, and not just because each American eats about 150 pounds (about 68 kg) of sugar annually.

Sugar processing is used now for much more than flavoring food, including for: 

• Biofuel  
• Bioplastics  
• Cosmetics  
• Distillation and fermentation processes
• Food preservative
• Leather tanning
• Medicines

Carrier’s equipment for the sugar industry includes conveyors, screeners, and vibrating fluid bed dryers used widely in sugar processing. Carrier technology has played an outsized role in how sugar is processed in the 21st century, enhancing efficiency in sugar processing plants worldwide. With specific designs for the sugar sector, Carrier equipment provides solutions for gently conveying raw sugar from cane and beets, along with precision cooling and drying equipment in sugar processing operations.

Carrier Vibrating Fluid Bed Dryers for Sugar Processing

Carrier’s advanced vibratory equipment for sugar processing includes a vibrating fluid bed dryer. Like more conventional fluid bed dryers, these dryers use process gas that passes directly through the raw sugar, using a perforated plate or other fluidizing media to encourage more effortless material flow. Vibration helps fluidize sugar to assist with its conveying while also preventing localized hot spots and burnt or wet product. By enabling one machine to execute multiple tasks during sugar processing, manufacturers can optimize the efficiency of their operations.

Carrier vibrating fluid bed dryers offer benefits and features that include: 

• Consistency in output with first-in, first-out pug flow.
• Designs with smaller footprints that maximize efficiency and handle high temperatures well.
• Easy to clean, service, maintain, and repair.  
• Fire suppression and clean-in-place (CIP) can be incorporated into the dryer.
• High and low-vibration designs allow for various types of sugar processing.
• Lessened velocities during fluidization to make the system more energy efficient.
• Models available with closed-loop systems that recirculate gas to improve efficiency and recover solvents.
• One of Carrier’s patented designs, Delta-Phase® Drive, is an option that allows precise control over retention time and on-line angle adjustments.
• Sanitary design of Carrier’s vibrating fluid bed dryer is approved by the USDA (US Department of Agriculture).

Along with the above features, Carrier can also custom-design vibratory equipment for sugar processing operations of all sizes, catering to the needs of all sugar processing facilities.

Carrier Vibrating Screeners for Sugar Processing

Used to dewater, scalp, screen, or separate raw sugar, processing machinery like Carrier’s vibrating screeners work for either wet or dry screening, with capabilities that enable it to handle 1500 tons per hour. These screeners optimize efficiency by offering various deck designs and different types of screening media. These vibratory screeners are customizable in configuration and construction, depending on a customer’s sugar processing needs.

Design options for vibratory screeners used for sugar processing applications include: 

• Allows options for either adjustable or fixed flowrate models.
• Can be constructed to a length of as much as 200 feet (60.96 m).
• Constructed from carbon steel with options for various metal alloys.
• Designs can be made with triple, double or single decks.
• Optional bearing lubrication system that uses either oil or grease.
• Vibratory screener can accommodate as many as five decks per machine.  
• Wide variance in widths available, from a half-foot to ten feet (15.24 cm to 3.048 m).
• Discharges
• Available with side, end, intermediate, straight, or bias discharges.

Other options for sugar processing applications include arrangements for overhead drives, dust-tight coverings, explosion-proof models, and liners. Additionally, the vibrating screener can be suspended from above with a soft steel coil or supported from below, while optional rubber isolation springs reduce effects on any surrounding infrastructure. Discharging during sugar processing can be customized with a bias, end, intermediate, side, or straight configuration.  

Different vibratory design options, including two-mass, tuned, natural frequency, and brute force, are available. Two-mass type vibratory screeners use one part of the machine – the drive or exciter – to cause the trough or body of the machine to vibrate. Tuned vibratory screeners use a TVA (tuned vibration absorber) to suppress unwanted vibrations or reduce structural vibrations at a specific frequency. Natural frequency refers to the mechanical vibrations that inherently occur in a mechanical system when no outside force is applied. Featuring what’s known as a single mass drive, brute force designs have motors mounted directly on the trough, with all the vibratory action resulting from an uneven wheel force.

Various benefits and features of Carrier’s vibratory screeners include: 

• Cost-effective operation and reasonable upfront expenses.  
• Designs provide the best potential for screening efficiency.
• Easy to install and maintain.
• Low maintenance design ensures optimum uptime.
• Ranges in capacities of up to 1500 tons hourly.
• Revolving motion of vibratory screener with a two-bearing design increases efficiency.
• Suitable for dry or wet screening.

Difficulties screening during sugar processing operations can be resolved with elliptical motion drives, another option for Carrier vibratory screeners. This type of motion provides the feed end with a high travel rate, offering both a thinner material bed and quicker layering, which allows separation from the stream of the finer particles of sugar. Processing capacities for Carrier’s vibratory screeners range to as much as 500 tons hourly.

Carrier Vibrating Conveyors for Sugar Processing

For bulk solids like sugar, processing with Carrier’s vibrating conveyors enables manufacturers to move anything from raw to superfine sugars cost-effectively and efficiently. Capable of handling a wide range of processes, Carrier’s vibrating conveyors can be used for conveying, cooling, dewatering, dispensing, drying, quenching, positioning, scalping, screening, separating, and storing sugar.

Carrier’s vibrating conveyors work well for sticky and clumpy materials like sugar. Processing with a natural frequency, they utilize a dedicated drive that features a weight system supported by springs. This allows most of the drive energy to be stored and released via the springs. This natural frequency allows the conveyor to stay constantly in motion while the uniform spacing between springs more evenly distributes the driving force once loaded. This design is very reliable and efficient, enabling conveyors longer than 300 feet (91.44 m) to run on only one drive.

Carrier’s vibrating conveyors offer benefits and features that include: 

• Few moving components means lower maintenance requirements.
• Leaf spring construction for the lighter and medium duty conveyors for areas with little clearance.
• Liners and other wear surfaces are readily replaceable.
• Longer lifespan due to natural frequency vibrating conveyor design that reduces stress.
• Multiple balancing types for specialized sugar processing conditions.
• Robustly constructed coil spring featuring rocker arm stabilizers for heavy-duty designs.
• Surfaces designed for easy cleaning with optional clean-in-place (CIP) systems.
• Uninterrupted steel base structure spanning the whole extent of the conveyor.  
• Very large troughs that are leakproof to prevent contamination, spillage and waste.

Additionally, Carrier’s vibrating conveyors function more quietly and with lower operational costs while offering greater energy efficiency than competing models. These conveyors can be fitted with other custom options, which include automatic or manual bypass gates, conveying in two directions, dust-tight construction to curtail product degradation, jackets for cooling and heating, product screens, and various construction materials.

Carrier for Your Sugar Processing Needs

Founded in 1950, Carrier Vibrating Equipment is an internationally known and respected manufacturer of sugar processing equipment, including vibrating fluid bed dryers, screeners, and conveyers. Our machinery is engineered for efficiency, offering sugar manufacturers reliable equipment to meet the most demanding of our customers’ specifications. If you have any questions about how sugar is processed with our demanding sugar processing sector equipment, we invite you to contact us at Carrier Vibrating Equipment.