Drying Tunnel Re-Design
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Date
2013-12-02
Authors
Schmidtke, Derek
Bzovey, Chris
Schulz, Simon
Neufeldt, Michael
Mak, Ka Tsun
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Abstract
The Duha Group, a global manufacturer of colour marketing tools, has been experiencing interruptions in production. This is due to limitations in web size acceptance for one of its paint drying tunnels. There are currently three drying tunnels in operation at Duha Color Services located in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Two of these tunnels are capable of drying painted rolls of paper up to 40 inches wide, while the smaller tunnel is only capable of drying painted rolls of paper up to 29 inches wide. The goal of this project was to re-design the internal components of the smaller tunnel to allow for the accommodation of a 40 inch web while maintaining or increasing drying quality. The re-design of the tunnel was broken down into 3 sections: the supply system, exhaust system, and roller systems. All three of these systems were designed to permit the acceptance of a larger web. The supply and exhaust systems were re-designed to provide a similar or higher quality level of drying, while the roller system was re- designed according to specific requirements provided by Duha Color Services.
Specific requirements that Duha had requested be done to the roller system include the minimization of lateral movement as the web travels through the tunnel. To accomplish this, a roller arcing path was implemented that allowed for the paper to move along an arcing path creating tension to the web as it travelled through the tunnel. This roller arcing path method has been proven effective and is currently being used by Duha.
The final design for the supply system utilizes a widened version of the current top supply header to vent air through nozzles that are directed perpendicular to the surface of the web. The supply nozzles have been made adjustable so that the velocity of the air produced can be varied. The jet stream created by the nozzles will decay as it travels toward the web creating complicated flow patterns. These patterns have been estimated, which allowed for calculation of the supply nozzle areas that change throughout the tunnel. The calculated supply nozzle areas allows for maximum drying [...]