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renatoa
03/25/2024 12:38 PM
coffee drink, Ramper?

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03/24/2024 12:10 PM
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03/23/2024 3:02 PM
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5 Lbs Pseudo-Industrial Fluidbed
Airhan
Howdy, I haven't posted here since I used a Poppery as a roaster, but now my friends and I have combined our knowledge (and paychecks) to build a 5lbs fluidbed roaster. I work as a automation and controls engineer, and one of my friends works as an electrician at industrial locations and we were able to source a lot of surplus parts.

live.staticflickr.com/65535/50105278218_16c94eac81_k.jpg

Most notably we have the following parts:
1) A Schneider PLC and 10.4" touchscreen HMI
2) Regenerative blower (120CFM 120"H20) (Controoled with a VFD)
3) Process Air Heater 10KW (controlled via SSR Phase Angle Cutoff)
4) Air compressor
5) 3 pneumatic 1.5" ball values
6) a 1" eductor to automatically feed beans into the roast chamber
7) a 6" diameter TC sight glass and roast chamber
8) a onboard cyclone

Pneumatic bean dump mechanism:
Aaron
"Grind it like it did you some great injustice!"D.L.Clark
 
allenb
Hi Aaron, long time since cupping coffee with you in Westminster! That is a beautiful roaster! I love the automated dump mechanism. You've come a long way since the automation of your poppery to say the least.

Will you guys be selling coffee in local shops or will you be running your own shop?

You've got to shoot photos/videos of this thing in action when you get a chance so we can see it in action.
1/2 lb and 1 lb drum, Siemens Sirocco fluidbed, presspot, chemex, cajun biggin brewer from the backwoods of Louisiana
 
Airhan
live.staticflickr.com/65535/50105847326_42bfa251da_k.jpg
South Side - If you look closely you can see the weight of the stainless steel and other parts warping the plastic cart...

live.staticflickr.com/65535/50106085667_cfb345935d_k.jpg
South Side a little closer - You can see the cyclone, air system, heater, and the valve that isolates the heater when we're using the eductor

live.staticflickr.com/65535/50105278868_90d2683674_k.jpg
Northside - Here is the blower, eductor, isolation valves, and a pressure transmitter connected to the blower discharge (I want to try automating the speed of the blower based on pressure [it's just a theory])

live.staticflickr.com/65535/50105847806_dfbb2d62c0_k.jpg
Eductor - This clever little "pump" takes advantage of Bernoulli's principle and uses high pressure air to create low pressure and high velocity. We're using this so that we don't have to get a stepladder to pour bean into the top of the roaster. It's really fun to watch the beans get sucked into their funnel and spat out into the roast chamber. I've attached the best description of eductor pumps that I was able to find.

live.staticflickr.com/65535/50105848026_67d2e18596_k.jpg
Controls - I can connect artisan to this PLC to monitor and plot roasts, but the HMI touchscreen is the only way to actually control the roaster. There are manual controls and a automatic roast mode, but the PID doesn't work quite right for the automatic mode.

live.staticflickr.com/65535/50105848146_d2f206f55a_k.jpg
Cabinet - I use these Schnider PLCs (the m340 variety) everyday at work, you can do anything with them, this one has a thermocouple input module and well as plenty of discrete and analog I/O. We have a TECO/Westing house VFD (Variable Frequency Drive) that converts our single phase 240V the 3-phase 240V for the blower. The SSR in the top right does phase angle cutoff proportional to a 4-20ma signal from the PLC to control the 240V 10KW heater.

live.staticflickr.com/65535/50105848261_693144e899_k.jpg
Top down - From this view you can see the top of the roaster isn't going anywhere. The smaller pipe is the discharge from the eductor (the small funnel in the middle) and the larger pipe is the hot air discharge that feeds the cyclone.

live.staticflickr.com/65535/50105371523_4e942e4409_k.jpg
From the prototyping stage you can see the 6" TC to 2" TC cone reducer that makes up the bottom of our roast chamber.
Airhan attached the following file:
eductor-pumps.zip [1.65MB / 548 Downloads]

Aaron
"Grind it like it did you some great injustice!"D.L.Clark
 
Airhan
Good to hear from you Allen! It'a easy to make a beautiful roaster when it's 50% stainless steel!

Quote

allenb wrote:
Will you guys be selling coffee in local shops or will you be running your own shop?

I like your assumption that we had a plan for this roaster... Right now we do two roasts per week: (1) 5lbs batch to make a keg of nitro cold brew, and (1) 5lbs roast to divide up 5 ways: 1 lbs for my espresso machine, 1 lbs for my friend's pour over setup, and 3lbs to bag up and giveaway/sell.

Quote

allenb wrote:
You've got to shoot photos/videos of this thing in action when you get a chance so we can see it in action.

I hope get some "action" shots soon! hopefully in the next week or two.
Aaron
"Grind it like it did you some great injustice!"D.L.Clark
 
CharcoalRoaster
*drool*

cool
 
oldgrumpus
I'm puzzled about your use of "pseudo" in your thread title! There's nothing about this being pseudo! Very nice work indeed! I love your control panel and the "guts" inside. This is serious business. Can't wait to see the video when you get it done!
Clever Coffee Dripper
Grinder: Macap M4
Roaster: Completed drum roaster project photos shown here:
Photos https://goo.gl/ph...Da6K4wfqw5
Videos https://www.youtu...Bd1NrdpSUH
 
pjvdl
Very nice! That control panel is next level!

x2 on seeing a vidoe of it in action.
-- Paul

ECM Rocket espresso
Eureka Mignon grinder
500g BBQ rotisserie roaster
1kg drum roaster
 
CoffeeInterest
Westminster... CO? You've got to be kidding me (I live there too). I'm an avid FB builder and have been roasting on my own 7kg for over a year now.
 
Airhan
Wow, a 7kg FB is huge! I think that's why I call mine "pusedo" Industrial, it's not large enough! In theory though, all the TC parts can be replaced with to make a larger diameter RR. At that point though, my blower and heater would be insufficient.
Aaron
"Grind it like it did you some great injustice!"D.L.Clark
 
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