Long-Retention Thermal Conditioner
Engineer Josef Barbi, President of E.S.E. & Intec, presents a fully jacketed stainless-steel thermal conditioner, enabling full pre-cooking before extrusion.
I have a few questions and concerns regarding the ESE preconditioner:
Is the shaft solid, or does it have intermediate supports? Older models failed because the shaft would break or bend due to the lack of a support bushing in the middle. This was the case with equipment I supervised in Mexico and other countries... a few years ago.
We also want to know if the shaft is tubular or solid.
Are the blades adjustable? Are they bolted or welded?
How is the retention time adjusted?
Overexposure of starches to moisture and heat will eventually gelatinize a large percentage of them, but it could also alter them and even degrade the proteins and some vitamins in the mixture... So, would this overexposure be appropriate before extrusion, for example, in certain types of pet foods? Could excessive heat exposure affect the expansion of some products?
Could you specify what application this thermoconditioner is designed for? Or is it a miraculous “one-size-fits-all” machine? ...which seems somewhat uncommon nowadays, since with each passing day, we are manufacturing more sophisticated products that require equally sophisticated and specific application equipment.
