Leaf vegetable centrifuge with inclined belt

Vezet is one of the largest fruit and vegetable processing businesses in the Netherlands and leads the market in freshly sliced, ready-to-cook vegetables. The company has recently expanded its machinery park with three, large-type SC-940 centrifuges from Sormac and a smaller SC-740.

In a leaf vegetable centrifuge with a vertical drum, the leaves move upwards as the drum revolves. The leaves bunch together, which can cause bruising. With a horizontal drum it’s difficult to distribute the leaves evenly, so the leaves end up in an uneven layer with a lot of damage as the result.

However, the Sormac centrifuge SC-940 has an inclined, completely smooth drum, without a central shaft or other protruding parts that could damage the leaves. This drum is suspended in a magnetic field, so it is kept in place and rotates evenly and smoothly. The centrifuge is loaded while the drum is slowly rotating, to achieve a uniform distribution of leaves over the inside of the drum. Thanks to the drum’s size, the leaves form a very thin layer. As the drum revolves faster, only slight, even pressure is exerted on the leaves, which keeps the risk of damage to the product in the drum to a minimum. At the end of the cycle the drum slows and, helped by the incline, the product gently glides onto the out-feed belt.

The rotational speed of the centrifuge is settable, so it can be set to the optimal speed for various types of leaf vegetable. Although the machine processes in batches, a constant product flow to and from the centrifuge is possible as the in-feed belt for the following batch is loaded while the previous batch is bring dried.