Basic Principles for Choosing the Proper Drying Equipment

Basic Principles for Choosing the Proper Drying Equipment

Each drying device has its specific application scope, and each material can find several drying devices that can meet basic requirements, but it should be only one is suitable.

If the selection is not appropriate, users not only have to bear unnecessary one-time high procurement costs, but also have to pay a heavy price throughout the entire usage period, such as low efficiency, high energy consumption, high operating costs, poor product quality, and even the device cannot operate normally.

The following are the general principles for selecting a right drying device. It is difficult to say which one or several items are important. The ideal selection must focus on one's own conditions, and sometimes compromise is necessary.

1. Applicability - The drying device must first be suitable for specific materials and meet the basic usage requirements for material drying, including the ability to handle materials well (feeding, conveying, fluidization, dispersion, heat transfer, discharge, etc.), and meet the basic requirements for processing capacity, dehydration amount, product quality, etc.

2. High drying  efficiency - From the perspective of drying rate alone, during convective drying, the material is highly dispersed in hot air, with a low critical moisture content and fast drying speed. Additionally, different drying methods also result in different critical moisture content, resulting in different drying rates.

3. Low energy consumption - Different drying methods have different energy consumption indicators. Generally, the thermal efficiency of conductive drying can theoretically reach 100%, while convective drying can only be around 70%.

4. Cost Saving investment - Drying devices that perform the same function may have significantly different costs, so the lower one should be chosen.

5. Low Running costs - equipment depreciation, energy consumption, labor costs, maintenance costs, spare parts costs The operating costs should be as low as possible.

6. Priority should be given to selecting drying devices with simple structure, sufficient supply of spare parts, high reliability, and long service life.

7. Meet environmental requirements, have good working conditions, and high safety.

It is best to conduct drying experiments on materials before selection, and gain a deep understanding of the drying devices (advantages and disadvantages) that have already been used for similar materials, which often helps with appropriate selection.

9. Do not completely rely on past experience, focus on absorbing new technologies, and listen more to the reasonable opinions of professional manufacturers.