Loring Smart Roasting is a company that was created in 2003 by Mark Loring Ludwig and is currently located in Northern California. During these years they have endeavoured to study, design and develop a model of coffee roaster different from what was known as ‘traditional’ roasters and have opted to use new materials, advanced technology and very precise applications of heat to the bean.
Some of the main features of the new coffee roaster are:
- Recirculation of heat: The Loring uses an air recirculation system achieving a much higher energy efficiency than other machinery. Air recirculation systems are nothing new in the industry, but the design and application of the heat is totally innovative: No residual heat is given off, which allows us to have a very precise control of the heat applied by convection. In this way, it is estimated that 90% of the roasting is carried out by hot air. Thanks to this, we avoid possible roasting defects caused by scorched beans, known as Tipping or Scorching.
I know what you are thinking! No, coffee beans do not absorb the smoke from air recirculation, I’ll explain below.
- Combustion chamber: The burner is located vertically at the top of the chaff container and in the centre of the cyclone. This is where a combustion chamber is created at an extremely high temperature, around 800 Cº, which is responsible for completely burning all the smoke particles and residues that are generated during roasting, leaving air free of impurities, which is what will enter the drum again. To prevent possible surprises, they have a patented safety system called Purge Gate, which, by means of a valve, closes or opens the air circulation circuit.
- Control and precision: Having a completely closed circuit allows us to have a precise control of the changes in the roasting profiles, in addition, it has 4 thermocouple probes of 1.5 mm and a pressure gauge that allow us to monitor what is happening inside the roaster.
On the other hand, we have the monitor that allows us to toast in three ways:
- Manual roasting. You have full control of the burner range (20%-100%).
- Toasting by burner profile. Burner changes are generated in advance and reproduced by the machine.
- Automatic profile roasting by PID. The roaster reproduces the profile of the bean using a system that predicts the thermal changes in the profile. If used correctly it can give truly amazing results.
All this is complemented by a software created by Loring called Roast Architect, where you can plan and generate roast profiles, create predictions, create profile libraries. Smart Roasting was no nonsense.
- Energy efficiency and sustainability: As I mentioned earlier, its combustion system is the key to efficiency and sustainability. A single burner roasts the beans and burns the smoke, avoiding the use of an afterburner. This translates into less fuel, less waste and less environmental impact.
According to an ECRE article, it calculates the gas consumption generated between a Probat P25 (21kg batch) + smoke particle afterburner and a Loring S70 roaster (70 kg). It concludes that the Loring S70 is four times more efficient in terms of gas consumption, excluding heating protocols and time between roasts.
https://ecre-coffee.medium.com/probat-vs-loring-which-is-more-efficient-725257f99e3 d
These are the most relevant features offered by this type of machinery.
Text by Oriol Coll “Head Roaster” de CEM