Posted on May 27th, 2025 by Carrier Vibrating
Thermal processing is essential for preserving food and enhancing its shelf life. Canning involves sealing food items like jams, pickles, and sauces in airtight containers, using heat to create a vacuum seal and destroy harmful microbes. Retort processing, designed for low-acid foods such as canned meats, fish, and vegetables, uses high pressure and temperature to ensure sterility.
Beyond food preservation, thermal processing equipment is widely used in other industries. In metallurgy, annealing, hardening, and tempering modify metals’ and alloys’ mechanical and physical properties. Chemical processing facilities rely on heat treatments to activate catalysts used in petrochemical refining. Similarly, thermal processing is integral to pharmaceutical manufacturing, helping to coat, granulate, and sterilize raw materials to eliminate bacteria, viruses, and pathogens.
Thermal processing is also key in waste management and advanced material production. Incineration reduces waste volume and neutralizes harmful substances, while gasification and pyrolysis convert waste into synthetic fuels. Aerospace and automotive sectors use thermal processing equipment for curing composite materials, integrating carbon or glass fibers into resin matrices to enhance strength and durability. Additionally, components for aircraft and spacecraft engines undergo thermal treatments to achieve heat-resistant properties critical for high-performance environments.
From food preservation to industrial applications, thermal processing delivers reliable, efficient, and specialized solutions that meet the demands of diverse industries.
Thermal Processing Machinery Applications
Thermal processing machinery is crucial in optimizing material performance across various industries. Designed for cooling, curing, drying, and heating applications, this equipment utilizes precise temperature control to transform materials effectively. By maintaining quality standards and improving the functionality and durability of products, thermal processing solutions enhance operational efficiency and ensure reliable performance.
Thermal processing machinery is used in industrial sectors that include:
- Automotive: Thermal processing machinery operates at high temperatures to cure protective coatings and paints on newly manufactured vehicles.
- Bioenergy: Converting organic waste to energy often requires heat treatments.
- Chemical processing: Precisely applying heat to facilitate chemical reactions and using high temperatures to break down chemicals both use thermal processing machinery.
- Electronics: Thermal processing equipment attaches components to circuit boards and builds insulating layers for semiconductors.
- Environmental: A process known as thermal desorption involves heating soil or waste to a specific temperature to remove contaminants.
- Food processing: Besides pasteurization and sterilization, which eliminate bacteria in dairy products, canned foods, and dairy products, thermal processing equipment is also used to bake and roast to enhance flavoring as well as dehydrate and dry fruits, grains, vegetables, and other foods to prolong shelf life.
- Metal processing: Annealing and hardening heat treatments augment the durability and strength of metals and their alloys, while sintering is used to fuse powdered metal particles together.
- Pharmaceutical: In drug manufacturing, thermal processing equipment dries and evaporates ingredients for medicines to remove solvents.
Thermal processing machinery helps ensure the safety, quality, and effectiveness of numerous products, assisting industries in complying with regulations and ensuring proper product performance.
Carrier Thermal Processing Equipment
Carrier Vibrating Equipment designs and manufactures a variety of material-handling machinery, including for indirect thermal processing. Equipment for heating and cooling made by Carrier includes:
- Heating and cooling exchangers: These utilize gravity feed to bring material between their thermal plates, where it is cooled, dried, or heated.
- Spiral elevators: These are used to raise smaller or mid-sized products. Their compact footprint allows them to handle various products, heating, cooling, conditioning, or drying as needed.
- Vibrating heaters and coolers Heat or cool materials indirectly through the use of liquid media, with tubes immersed in a vibratory bed containing the product to eliminate the need for ducts, dust collection devices, or fans.
To learn more about Carrier’s thermal processing machinery and other products, contact Carrier Vibrating Equipment today.
