About Total Drying
Industrial drying technology is an area which demands an innovative approach to produce solutions which satisfy customers demands.
The problems will not be solved by anything less than a dynamic partnership betweenscientists, technologists and manufacturers.
How can low energy methods be incorporated into the drying process?
How can low noise techniques be applied to high speed flow impact?
How can total moisture removal be achieved on fast moving containers?
How can condensation on cold surfaces be stopped?
How can bacteria spread by air-born moisture droplets be removed?
The project that is currently in place as a Knowledge Transfer Partnership between Secomak Ltd and the University of Hertfordshire addresses these problems.
If you would like to be involved in any aspect of this work or would like to contribute your views on drying processes and problems please contact us via this blog.
This Partnership received financial support from the Knowledge Transfer Partnerships programme (KTP). KTP aims to help businesses to improve their competitiveness and productivity through the better use of knowledge, technology and skills that reside within the UK Knowledge Base. KTP is funded by the Technology Strategy Board along with the other government funding organisations.

Sunday 14 September 2008

Innovations Report Article

UK's Most Energy Efficient Dryer
29.08.2008
A total drying solution for the manufacturing industry which will make significant energy savings is being developed by a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) between the University of Hertfordshire and Secomak.

The University, which is the UK's leading business facing university, has built strong links with Secomak, the industry leader in air movement technologies and one of the outcomes of this collaboration is a total drying solution. (See KTP Blog www.totaldrying.com).

The solution is the result of a government funded KTP to which University of Hertfordshire graduate in Aerospace Systems, David Palmer has brought his skills in Computational Fluid Dynamics, project management and project planning to deliver a drying process which is modelled on the energy expenditure of a hybrid car and can realise up to 50 percent energy savings.


At the moment, the total drying solution is used primarily to dry bottles or cans, and the system can be customised to dry any container and also has potential to dry sheet metal or plastic extrusions.


'The big advantage of this system is that the machine is equipped with sensors which sense when product needs to be dried, rather than the dryer working all the time,' said David. 'This works in a similar way to energy saving systems in hybrid vehicles and means that the energy consumption of our machine is directly proportional to the throughput of the product.'


Secomak currently has three other University connected staff. David Dell, who works part-time as a Senior Lecturer at the University's School of AADE and the rest of the time at Secomak as a Product Development Manager; Kim Whiteford, a third year University student in Human Resources who is on a twelve month placement in Human Resources at Secomak and James Reed, a third year University student in Marketing who is on a twelve month placement in Marketing with the company.


Helene Murphy Source: alphagalileo

Further information: www.herts.ac.uk

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