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Heater and Blower
Husamka
Hi All,

I am building a Fluid Bed roaster with Coleman glass diameter 123mm for capacity of 450-500 gr with Arduino and TC4. I am looking for your advice to specify and sourcing the below elements to be run with 240V.

1- Blower type and power. considering not too loud. Jacuzzi tub pump or vacuum
cleaner .
2- Heater, Plastic welding element 3400w or others.
3- Probe Thermocouple , 3mm reading is faster than 5mm.
Edited by Husamka on 06/03/2018 2:34 AM
 
CharcoalRoaster
Why do you want to use 240v? Is it easily accessible where you will be roasting? The only reason I ask is because I am able to roast 550g easily with only 120v access -- however that is with reclaiming heat...

I use this Ametek vacuum motor in a rubber spa boot and I can easily hear 1st crack.
https://www.amazo...&psc=1
 
Husamka
CharcoalRoaster, Thank you for the information. I am living between two countries 240 and 120V.
Which is better Ametek or Jacuzzi pump ?
What about the heater and the pipe which hold the heater ?
 
Brewin_Bruin
The blower charcoalroaster mentioned is an Ametek. "Better" is a little hard to pin down, it amounts to something that works fine for you. Ameteks do come in 220V, any of their two-stage units will be adequate, so go for cheaper. I prefer the tangential discharge models, no need for a rubber boot and easier to connect. I detail using firebricks instead of pipe to hold the heating element; see the thread "Bake-a-round with heat recovery" Obviously, there are many other options out there, such as using a steel drainpipe. I like using something which is a good electrical and thermal insulator. Bricks made for ceramic kilns are also very soft and easy to shape.

You should also consider how you're going to control the blower, you won't need anything like its full power on this size of roast. Turning down the blower makes it quieter, I have no trouble hearing first crack with a two-stage Ametek (enclosed in a wood box). I like the KBIC DC controllers that oldgearhead pointed out; the Ametek motors are universal, they work on AC or DC. The KBIC-240DS would be plenty adequate and works on both 120 and 240V, it outputs a maximum of 90V so you can get an Ametek built for 110V (at about $50-60 US vs. more than twice that for 220V versions). You still won't damage the motor with the controller plugged into 240V because of the max 90V DC output (plenty adequate!). A DC controller like the KBIC is also cheaper and smaller than a Variac; using AC speed controllers sold for power tools mostly doesn't work so well at the lower speed end, which is where you'll be. This unit also allows you options to settle on either supply voltage.

Thermocouples: don't worry about speed, you don't want or need response times of one second in this application, several seconds is fine and a larger thermocouple will generally be more rugged. You want some thermal averaging anyway, this tends to be a noisy readout because the bean contact keeps changing. Type K is the most common variety (hence, cheapest) and there's no reason to use other types. For example the acccuracy gain a Type T could get you (1 degree C uncertainty vs 1.5) just isn't worth it because there's more error associated with placement of the thermocouple than with the actual measurement. In the end, the accuracy of the number isn't so important, you figure out what reading on YOUR setup gets the results you like. Go with something easy for you to install.

I agree with charcoalroaster, the power you're considering is overkill for 450-500 g, I get away with 1600 W at 500 g using heat recycling. As the saying might go, "Less is less", especially on the electric bill.
Edited by Brewin_Bruin on 06/03/2018 7:01 PM
 
Husamka
Brewin_Bruin, Thank you for the clarifications. I am using TC4 and as you know that by SSR it can control AC blower and no need for speed controller.
I think I will follow your advice and use Ametek 220v two-stage, tangential discharge model. but what about the heat resistance of Ametek regarding the recycled hot air or whats the percentage of hot air you are using which will not effect the blower.

For the heater power, and from my experience background with Heat gun that 2000w is sufficient for 450gr considering the ambient temperature about 22c. But many expert here with Fluid bed building recommend 3400 to 4000w like BenKieth, greencardigan, Will2, Allen and others. so I am confused.
 
allenb

Quote

Husamka wrote:

For the heater power, and from my experience background with Heat gun that 2000w is sufficient for 450gr considering the ambient temperature about 22c. But many expert here with Fluid bed building recommend 3400 to 4000w like BenKieth, greencardigan, Will2, Allen and others. so I am confused.


If one pays special attention to these areas, 2kw will most likely roast 450 grams in 10 - 12 minutes:

-Optimized roast chamber design requiring minimal cfm to efficiently fluidize the bed
-Keep ambient inlet air at no lower than 75 F (24 C)

The recommended higher kw allows for variations in intake air temp and for roast chambers requiring higher cfm for adequate bean circulation.

Allen
1/2 lb and 1 lb drum, Siemens Sirocco fluidbed, presspot, chemex, cajun biggin brewer from the backwoods of Louisiana
 
Husamka
Thanks Allen, Which type of heater and blower do you recommend for me?
 
allenb
I agree with Tim's suggestions in post #4. Being able to operate a vacuum blower at a much slower rpm than it normally runs is key to not being run out of the shop by excessive noise.

Which type of heater? Which ever meets your wattage needs and is easiest to incorporate into your design.

Allen
1/2 lb and 1 lb drum, Siemens Sirocco fluidbed, presspot, chemex, cajun biggin brewer from the backwoods of Louisiana
 
Brewin_Bruin
In response to the question, "what about the heat resistance of Ametek regarding the recycled hot air or whats the percentage of hot air you are using which will not effect the blower."

Ameteks come in a few varieties. You can get "bypass" units (I used model 116392, which is tangential bypass, the blower exhaust is tangential to the motor axis) in which the motor is cooled by an independent air intake with its own fan; oldgearhead used a non-bypass unit in which the motor is cooled by the same airstream as what's going through the roast chamber, likely because it was something he already had as a leftover unit. Independent cooling means that only the impellers (fan blades) are exposed to the hot air, which is far less problematic than trying to cool a motor with hot air. Also, I use a 4 inch diameter sheet metal duct for the return air, not plastic, it doesn't emit potentially nasty volatile species on heating like PVC can and is readily available in the building supply stores. Hence, I have up to 90C air entering the intake on the blower, and it doesn't seem to be bothering anything yet: my vacuum filter paper has turned a toasty tan color, but hasn't seemed to be a problem. (I filter the return air before entering the blower). Hence I am using very nearly 100% air recycling; the duct does not form a seal around the top of the RC so some external air is being taken in, I can't readily quantify that.
One extra bonus of this return air setup is chaff separation. I do it at the "dead" end of a wye connector near the vacuum intake, see the photo labeled 4 on my build thread. The chaff all flies up into the recirculation duct, but the return air takes a turn through a screen into the bent arm of the "Y" to go the the intake, the chaff keeps going straight and piles up at the bottom end of the duct, which has a gate valve. I open that after roasting and it all dumps out neatly. There's no vacuuming off the chaff after a roast, the unit does that naturally all by itself.

Using an SSR for speed control has its limits, motors begin to perform poorly at lower duty cycles. Hence many favor Variacs, which perform very well. I went the DC controller route because it was smaller, lighter, cheaper, and I wanted to try it out. You might find that venting some of the blower flow before the RC using a tee and a valve allows you to run the blower at higher speeds where the SSR setup performs better, this will however be noisier and wouldn't be necessary if the TC4 control setup performs adequately.

With heat recirc, I'm hitting first crack in 8-9 min with 450-475 g of beans and 1650 W (measured with a clamp-on ammeter prior to the SSR heater control), I've posted several profiles on my build thread.
Edited by Brewin_Bruin on 06/07/2018 2:31 PM
 
Husamka
Thank you Tim for detailed informations. Definitely I will take your advice to add KBIC-240DS. Do you think I will be able to use it with TC4-SSR control for the low speed .
what you think about model 116420-13 below ?

https://www.amazo...ypass+240v

also about this heater as attached photos.
Husamka attached the following image:
s-l500.jpg

Edited by JackH on 06/12/2018 7:30 PM
 
Brewin_Bruin
Husamka wrote " Definitely I will take your advice to add KBIC-240DS. Do you think I will be able to use it with TC4-SSR control for the low speed .
what you think about model 116420-13 below ?"

As regards the Ametek model, that's a tangential discharge bypass, which is what I favor, and the CFM and pressure specs will be more than adequate, as are all the 2-stages. However, that's perhaps not the best choice with the KBIC-240DS, since it only outputs 90VDC. You can go with a KBIC-240D which outputs up to 180VDC, or go with a blowers rated for 120VAC, and power it with the DS. The latter choice has the advantage in that there are a number of cheaper Lamb-Ametek blowers with more than adequate performance (basically any 2-stage tangential discharge bypass will do) but it means you can't plug in into 220V directly. You have to decide if that works well for you.

The KBIC can be controlled using a variable resistor, manually. It can be controlled by a 0-10V signal, typically supplied by a DAC, but other approaches exist, depending on your fluency with electronics. I have never used the TC4 so I simply can't answer the question of whether it can control it. The more basic question, however, is, "SHOULD it control the blower?".

In fluidbed roasting, a lot of posts have commented that using a PID is not worthwhile (see oldgearhead's discourse on this under "Brewer to Roaster"), and so you have to ask what your requirement are for the TC4. Do you want it for PID control, or logging, or some of its other features? I simply control my roast manually, as do many others, adjusting the heater power and the air flow, generally very, very little. I get quite reasonable roasting profiles because the fluidized bed setup, particularly with hot air recirculation, gets that desired heating curve naturally based on the thermal characteristics of the beans and the roaster themselves. As I get better at this, I simply set my heater amps (using an SSR controller and a clamp-on ammeter to monitor) for the bean size, load the beans and adjust the air until I have good circulation, and then turn down the air very slightly as the roast progresses due to the decrease in density of the beans. You learn how much current for your bean load via practice. I really question what control parameters the TC4 could use that would fine tweak the air sensitively enough, it's me eyeballing the dance of the beans in the RC, something electronics has difficulty with. Time and temperature data alone just won't do it well enough, I very strongly suspect. Consequently, instead of a TC4 controlling things, I just use a rather simple setup for temperature, RoR (rate of rise) and datalogging ("Simple Arduino-based datalogger" under the datalogging thread). Certainly you can do that with less hassle using a TC4 as well, but you might not need to plan on having it do the controlling of the air.

I can't comment on the heater in your image, except that it looks like it might work provided it has suitable power rating. I use a 1740 W rated element (Master HAS 043K, the 220V version is the HAS 016K, available on Amazon), it's sufficient for up to ~500g beans with heat recirculation, maybe only 300g without.

Another long-winded answer, I hope it helps.
 
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