Drying Basics

Drying is the removal of a solvent from a product. This term is sometimes used interchangeably with heating or curing. Heating is simply raising the temperature of a product while curing is holding a product at a temperature for a given time to complete a reaction. Methods of heat transfer used in ovens and dryers are conduction, convection, and infrared/radiant. Radio frequency is the transfer of energy to create heat. Each method has a list of benefits and challenges for manufacturing processes. As a result, it is common to design combination ovens to utilize the benefits of two technologies together. For example, an oven utilizing both radiant/infrared and convection improves the process by having the high rate of heat transfer of radiant/infrared with the uniform heating of convection.

Drying requires heat transfer and mass transfer. Heat transfer heats the solvent while mass transfer removes the solvent from the product. Higher temperatures mean faster drying and higher mass transfer also means faster drying. Mass transfer is the difference between the partial pressures in the air and coating.

Litzler knows that no single heating technology is perfect for every process, which is why they offer convection, radiant/infrared and radio frequency heating technologies, or a combination of them.

Industries Served
Oven Technologies