Custom Powders Ltd - Food Agglomeration - Contract Milling

We work closely with all of our customers to ensure we achieve their quality expectations every time.

Our minimum standard is ISO 9001:2008. However, we also routinely operate Good Manufacturing Practise (GMP), Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) and ISO 22000 (Food Hygiene Standards).

With over 30 years of experience in processing powders for the food industry, food production makes up typically 50% of our business. Isolated process units with dedicated warehouses and stringent controls on cleandown and the materials we process, enables us to deliver high quality and even sensitive food materials for our customers.

We also manufacture our own brand food product, Microfine Salt. This is an ultrafine salt with a range of anticaking agents typically used in:

• Dairy processing (butter, cheese)
• Spices, flavours and baking
• Specialist industrial applications

Our milling technology ranges from coarse breaking and nibbling through to fine air classified milling and ultrafine micronizing and air jet milling.

Within the milling units, we offer specialist processes such as co-milling with additives and cryogenic or inert milling.

There are many ways of blending powder and powder with liquid and we offer most of them including:

• High shear or low shear batch blending
• Continuous blending
• Blending granules with and without liquid addition
• Coating granules and powders

Roll compaction is a method of agglomeration without liquid addition. It offers many benefits including increasing particle size, increasing powder density, improving flow properties, de-dusting and combining powders to prevent segregation.

In addition to seven roll compaction production units, we also offer:

• Briquetting
• Pelletisation
  

Batch

Batch wet agglomeration is carried out at the UK site. It is based primarily on fluid bed agglomeration on a scale ranging from 200 to 2000 litre batches. However there is also the possibility of wet agglomeration in a batch high shear mixer followed by drying if required in one of the fluid bed units. Both food and industrial products can be processed on these units.

Continuous

Continuous agglomeration is based at the Dutch site. This can accommodate Schugi Flexomix, Loedige, twin screw extrusion and pelletisation into a continuous process incorporating drying, sieving and oversize reduction. A large proportion of the agglomeration work on these processes is on food grade products.

Many wet powders and even pastes can be dried using the continuous flash drying technology, offered at both UK and Dutch sites. This process can handle materials which would not dry in a fluid bed system by virtue of the mechanical agitation applied during drying. 

Drying Batch

The Batch fluid bed technology identified above for wet agglomeration is also highly successful at drying both granules and powders. In particular the 2000 litre fluid bed system has proved particularly successful at drying fragile materials e.g. water treatment resin beads and very high value materials where limitation of loss is critical.

Drying Continuous

The continuous fluid bed drier based at the Dutch site is principally designed for drying granules and coarse powders. The design is such that the system will separate fine material, normally discharged as a separate stream.

Sieving

With technology ranging from larger scale oscillating or vibratory sieves through to smaller air swept sieves, we offer processes from scalping oversize (1 to 10mm) through to high precision fine sieving (less than 45 microns).

 In addition, when significant volumes of powdered product is to be separated, we offer air classification. This process is capable of splitting even cohesive powders into two streams at a far higher rate than possible with sieving. The disadvantage is the process can only achieve two streams with the cut typically lying between two and 100 microns.