MATERIALS PREPARATION | TECHNOLOGY
The drying process generates a significant amount of data, making it suitable for improvements that can now be provided by Industry 4.0 developments. Mark Holmes finds out more
Drying systems benefit from new connectivity
Drying and preparing materials ideally for the injection moulding process is essential for high production efficiency, while also ensuring costs are kept to a minimum. Alan Landers, Drying Product Manager at Conair, believes that there are actually two significant trends coming together today in resin drying. “One – the drive for increased efficien- cy, productivity and cost control – has been around for most of a decade and these issues are still of critical importance to processors,” he says. “The other trend is the focus on connectivity, Internet of Things and Industry 4.0. Dryers, as a class of equipment, generate a lot of data on temperatures, air flow and dew point, for example.” Conair dryers, he says, are equipped with the company’s Drying Monitor and the latest controls. The Drying Monitor measures temperatures at the air inlet and outlets, and other locations outside of the drying hopper, and also registers the tempera- ture of the resin at several different points in the column of material in the hopper. Landers says: “Tracking these readings over time, identifying trends that can indicate problems or changes in operating conditions, allows the user to adjust parameters for maximum drying performance and efficiency. Some of those adjustments can even be made automatically, but now control and commu-
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nications technology – under the Industry 4.0 umbrella – allows all that information to be col- lected and analysed on a plant-wide, company- wide and even industry-wide basis. Sophisticated algorithms now make it possible to recognise potential equipment problems – a heater failure, for instance – days or even weeks in advance. This same intelligence can even make it possible to compare individual dryer performance against standards and recommend changes to operating conditions that can increase efficiency and quality levels to a greater extent than possible when dryers operated in relative isolation.” At the same time, Conair is launching new small- and mid-size desiccant dryers. The Carousel Plus X Series portable dryers and dX Series mobile drying/conveying systems are claimed to offer superior resin-drying performance together with advanced yet easy-to-use controls, high reliability and energy efficiency, and an innovative new air-to-air aftercooling option. The official debut of the new dryers will be at NPE 2018. The company says that the new dryers are a
redesign of its Carousel Plus desiccant dryer architecture affecting portable dryers and mobile drying/conveying systems (the former W Series and MDCW Series) sized from 15-400 lbs/h
March 2018 | INJECTION WORLD 41
Main image: LHD from Labotek is a hot air hopper dryer used for drying the surface of free-flowing plastic granules, in particular hygroscopic materials
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