The drying system had to be installed directly in the production line. This line is used for several types and sizes of products. That’s why the biggest challenge was to design a system that could dry the varied product sizes consistently.
This installation was custom designed and has some special features:
- Drying of multiple product types using a reactive system
- Automatic height control by means of servo motor and chain system
- Noise reduction using an acoustic enclosure
- SIEMENS safety PLC for control and monitoring of dryer
- Automatic stop via door contacts
The installation we developed for this purpose is equipped with three units: the dryer unit, the blower unit and the electrical unit.
- The dryer unit consists of an upper and lower conveyor. The upper conveyor is automatically adjustable in height by means of a chain system and a servo motor. Each conveyor has eight strings that can easily be replaced using a cantilever system.
The top and bottom of the products are dried by means of a drying box fitted with plastic panels with grooves. The sides are blown dry using nozzles. - The blower unit consists of a maintenance-free blower with a power of 22kW. The blower has two replaceable filters. Both the dryer and blower modules are equipped with a complete enclosure with acoustic sound panels in order to meet the noise requirement of 80dB(A).
- The electric unit consists of a main cabinet and a control box. The electric main cabinet has one frequency control for the blower, one for the height control and two for the conveyor. The control and monitoring of the dryer is carried out by a SIEMENS safety PLC. The process visualisation is displayed on the control box by means of an operator panel with touch screen.
Depending on the signal sent by the customer, the type of product will change. During a product change, the corresponding parameters will be automatically adjusted to pre-set values.
To increase safety, each door of the dryer box is equipped with a door contact to generate an automatic stop when one of these doors is opened without authorisation.
