Roaster with built in chaff fire supression

[bigMoose]

I recently heard that some manufacturers may be including chaff fire detection and supression systems in roasters with internal chaff collectors.

If this is true, does anyone know the technology used to detect the chaff fire? Also is the supression system simply a water spray nozzle or some other device?

My interest is we are looking at a roaster that has had multiple chaff fires, and would like to be proactive and retrofit a detection and supression system that is above and beyond reasonable cleaning intervals.

 

[delimacoffee]

I don't think you'd want to have a water spray device in there would you? We have water sprayers in the quench process on our roaster, but do not have a chaff fire detector in our collectors. We do have chaff fires from time to time.

 

[topher]

One of the places I roasted for had spray heads inside the chaff collectors..its nice when you have a fire..puts it out quick. You can do it yourself for pretty cheap. Technology wise not sure how they detect it. I usually use my nose. Delima...you must have the quenching on your larger roaster...not on your micro roaster. I am not really a fan of quenching but I guess when you kick out a few bags per batch you need to.

 

[sae]

I have a US Roaster Corp roaster with a fire suppression nozzle in the chaff collector. If the temperature in the chaff collector exceeds a certain value then it sprays water in there.

It also has a nozzle in the drum for bean quenching but I don't use that.

 

[bigMoose]

Thank you for this info!

 

[delimacoffee]

One of the places I roasted for had spray heads inside the chaff collectors..its nice when you have a fire..puts it out quick. You can do it yourself for pretty cheap. Technology wise not sure how they detect it. I usually use my nose. Delima...you must have the quenching on your larger roaster...not on your micro roaster. I am not really a fan of quenching but I guess when you kick out a few bags per batch you need to.

Yes, on our two roasters. We don't have any fire prevention on either our 50lb roaster or our micro roasters. Passing SQF audits is easier without water.

 

[topher]

Saw this at the last SCAA show. They do not make them for larger machines....pretty cool concept. Anyone using one of these?
Flushing Cyclone Collector | CCUBE KOREA

 

[DirtyDave]

Hope I'm not tempting fate here...........
I've roasted well in excess of one million pounds of coffee, and I've never had a roaster (or chaff) fire.
Keep 'em clean, run lots of air during your roasts and never exceed 290 degs C for your inlet air temperature.