41119_Niro jubilaeumsbog_blok_uk - GEA Niro

Small department, great success
Niro’s Small Scale Plants department,
which sells laboratory-sized spray
drying plants, has sold more than
3,000 of the two most popular plants
since 1968.
PRODUCTION MINOR spray dryer, one of Niro’s best-selling pilot plants.
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November 14, 2002 was a big day for the Small Scale Plants
department (SSP) at Niro. This was the day the department
could celebrate the sale of MOBILE MINOR plant No.
2,000, which was sold to an English company. The plant was
placed in Niro’s reception area on January 6, 2003, and the
next morning it was handed over to the customer.
MOBILE MINOR, which is a laboratory-sized spray drying
plant on wheels, was first introduced in 1948 and is actually
older than its department, SSP. SSP is a continuation of the
original department, the PM department, which was established
in 1968 when the sales, order and service functions
for small drying plants were unified. SSP delivers plants to
all the industries that Niro covers, and its primary customers
are educational institutions and development departments
in companies. The plants are used to develop new products,
for small-scale production, and to manufacture product
samples for the companies’ own clients.
The MOBILE MINOR spray dryer and the PRODUCTION
MINOR spray dryer are SSP’s greatest successes. In a
spray drying context, both plants are capable of producing
only relatively small amounts of end product. The MOBILE
MINOR spray dryer is able to dry a few kilos of product
per hour, while the PRODUCTION MINOR has the capacity
to produce up to 32 kilos. In comparison, a number of the
big milk and coffee spray drying plants produce several
tons per hour. The latter is from the end of the 1950s, and
more than 1,000 PRODUCTION MINOR spray dryers have
been sold. Niro’s Pharma Division originally began as part
of the SSP department about 20 years ago, and at that time
was only a small part of SSP. Later, sales to the pharmaceutical
industry became so significant that an independent Pharma
Division (the H-Division) was established. But that’s another
story.