Design of an Energy-Efficient Heated Dryer

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Date
2021-12-08
Authors
Gill, Sukhpreet
Kujanpaa, Mason
Patel, Kush
Whidden, Devon
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MacDon Industries is an agriculture equipment manufacturer, based in Winnipeg, MB. They manufacture harvesting equipment, primarily using steel. To ensure that the steel parts do not corrode, they must be painted to a high-quality standard. To properly paint the parts, they first must be washed in a chemical bath and then rinsed thoroughly with water. After being rinsed, the parts are dried in a dehumidification chamber which consists of fans blowing room temperature air onto the parts. Currently, the dehumidification chamber that dries the parts following the chemical bath station is not able to sufficiently dry complex parts. To improve the ability of the dehumidification chamber to dry all the parts that MacDon paints, MacDon has proposed to use the exhaust from the curing oven to heat the dehumidification chamber. The final design to heat the dehumidification chamber will use an air-to-air cross-flow heat exchanger to reclaim the heat from the curing oven exhaust. The dehumidification chamber will have its internal temperature maintained at 250°F using the cross-flow heat exchanger. To maintain the internal temperature of 250°F, air from the dehumidification chamber will be recirculated through the heat exchanger at an airflow of 15,000 CFM. An AX-80-400-0625 fan was selected for this purpose. To evaporate water off of the parts, 155.5 kJ of heat is required. Heating the dehumidification chamber will allow 1618.7 kJ of heat to be absorbed by the sample part that MacDon specified. This heat will be able to sufficiently evaporate water off of the part. The sample part will exit the dehumidification chamber at 114.9°F. Between the dehumidification chamber and the paint booth, the part temperature will decrease to 23.7°C, which is well below the 100°F maximum allowable part temperature for painting. To keep the heat inside the dehumidification chamber, the chamber must be insulated. R-100 insulation will be required to maintain the internal temperature of 250°F. Thermafiber FireSpan 90 stone wool insulation was selected. 2” calcium silicate insulation will be wrapped around all ducts to minimize heat loss. To prevent air from escaping out of the entrance and exit of the dehumidification chamber, air curtains will be installed on both openings. Additionally, rubber strips will be installed along the opening for the monorail at the top of the dehumidification chamber. A CUBE-200 rooftop exhaust fan was selected to exhaust the hot air from the dehumidification chamber. It will only be used when personnel need to enter the dehumidification chamber. The total cost for the selected equipment is $88,784.77 USD.

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Mechanical Engineering
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