A DRIER FOR A WEB OF MATERIAL

Abstract: A drier for a web of material (4) in particular for an offset printing machine, consisting of an housing (1) with an inlet slot (2) and an outlet slot (3) for the web of material. Said housing being provided with air nozzles (9, 9a; 10, 10a) which are fed via one or more fans (11, 11a; 12, 12a) with the atmosphere in the housing. Said housing also having at least one heating appliance provided with a combustion unit (14, 16, 18) for treating the atmosphere inside the housing. The interior of the housing is divided by a partition (5) in a heating section (6) and an evaporating section (7). The heating appliance being provided with an incinerating portion (16, 18) and part of the combustion gases is via an opening (17) discharged to the heating section (6), while the remaining combustion gases are discharged into the outside air, and the atmosphere of the evaporating section (7) is used as combustion air for the burner (14) of the combustion unit.

Description: The present invention relates to a drier according to the preamble of claim 1. Such a drier is known from US-A-4 140 467. In the known drier the interior of the housing is divided into three zones which are not separated from one another. A heating appliance is provided for each zone. The intake for combustion air of the heating appliance for the first zone is in communication with the third zone, while the intakes of the heat appliances of the second and third zones are in communication with a point midway between the first and second zones. The first zone comprises the lower temperature zone and the second and third zones will be at higher temperatures. This known drier has a number of disadvantages, relating to the complex and expensive design. Besides, the heat exchanger takes up a large amount of space. An object of the present invention is to provide a drier having a compact design and a high efficiency. Another object of the invention is to provide a drier in which the exhaust gases can be discharged to the outside air without any problem. These objects are achieved by means of the characterizing features of claim 1. The web of material arriving inside the first section of the drier has to be heated up in the first instance, before the actual evaporation commences. Since part of the combustion gases is fed directly into said first section, rapid and efficient heating of the atmosphere in said section takes place. The second section is heated up by air passing from the first section to the second section. Thus different temperatures, each adapted to the particular purpose, can be applied in the two sections. Since the evaporation takes place largely in the second section, virtually no oily or solvent vapours will be present in the first section. This means that hot combustion gases can be conveyed directly into this section, without the risk of harmful cracking products arising. So the first section can easily be kept at a higher temperature, which is necessary for rapid heating of the web of material, so that the drier can be made shorter and thus takes up less space. The atmosphere in the second section will contain a high solvent vapour content because the evaporation will substantially take place in this section. It is therefore advantageous to use the atmosphere of the second section as combustion air for the burner . The oily or solvent vapours will thus be burnt in the incineration portion and the combustion gases which are not used for heating up the first section are clean enough to be discharged to the outside without any subsequent treatment. A saving in energy can also be achieved according to the invention by discharging the combustion gases via a heat exchanger for heating up the combustion air. The combustion gases from the combustion unit are in this way cooled before they are discharged into the outside air. The second section can be provided according to the invention with an additional inlet for outside air. Apart from the uncontrolled infeed of outside air via the inlet and outlet slot for the web of material, additional outside air can be fed into the second section of the drier in order to control the temperature inside said section and to keep the oxygen content of the air in this section up to the mark, for the purpose of ensuring good working of the burner. The invention is explained in greater detail with reference to the drawing, in which: Fig. 1 shows schematically a lengthwise section of the drier according to the invention, and Fig. 2 is a block diagram showing how the drier of Fig. 1 works. As can be seen in particular from Fig. 1, the drier according to the invention comprises an essentially closed housing 1 with an inlet slot 2 and an outlet slot 3 for a web of material 4 being fed through the drier. The web of material 4 comes, for example, from an offset printing machine, and good drying of said web 4 is vitally important for the final printing quality. The interior of the housing is divided by a partition 5 into two sections 6 an 7, which are passed through in succession by the web of material 4, the first section 6 being a heating zone and the second section 7 being an evaporation zone for the web 4. The wall 5 here is provided with a slot 8 to allow passage of the web of material. The two sections 6 and 7 are each provided on either side of the web of material with nozzles 9, 9a and 10, 10a, each of which is fed by a fan 11, 11a and 12, 12a respectively. By means of these fans with nozzles, circulation of the atmosphere in that particular section occurs in each section, the web of material 4 being conveyed in a suspended state between the nozzles. Provision is also made inside the housing for a heating appliance 13, which is provided with a combustion unit having a burner 14 with a gas supply line 15. The combustion unit has also an elongated combustion chamber 16, at the end of which there is an opening 17, through which part of the hot combustion gases can flow into the first section 6. The remaining part of the combustion gases is guided through the chamber 18, in which any harmful substances there may be are burnt. The clean combustion gases are discharged to the outside air through a heat exchanger 19 and then through a combustion gas outlet 20. The heat exchanger is also passed through by air discharged via a fan 21 from the second section, said air serving as combustion air for the combustion unit 14 and being heated by the heat exchanger 19. The second section 7 is heated by air passing from the first section to the second section through openings in the partition 5, for instance through the slot 8 for the web 4. The way in which the drier works will be explained partly with reference to Fig. 2, the same reference numbers as those in Fig. 1 being used. Fig. 2 shows only air and gas flows, and the web of material 4 is not shown in this figure. The two sections 6 and 7 are indicated by dotted lines, and each section has air circulation via the fans 11, 11a and 12, 12a and the nozzles 9, 9a and 10, 10a respectively. The first section 6, forming the heating zone, is heated by means of the combustion gases leaving the combustion chamber 16 via the opening 17. Virtually no evaporation will take place in this section, so that the air is relatively clean and the combustion gases from the combustion unit 16 can be fed in directly without the risk arising of harmful cracking products being formed. The second section 7, constituting the evaporation zone, is indirectly heated via the first section, through the fact that the air is conveyed from the first section 6 to the second section 7, for example via the slot 8. In the second section 7 the temperature is considerably lower than in the first section 6. The actual evaporation (drying) of the oily printing ink present on the web of material takes place in the section 7. The atmosphere in the section 7 thus has a relatively high concentration of oily vapours. The atmosphere from this section is fed as combustion air via the fan 21 via the heat exchanger 19 to the burner 14. The gas supply to the burner 14 can be regulated by, for example, the temperature of the combustion gases going via the opening 17 into the first section 6. The remaining part of the combustion gases flows through the chamber 18 and, through the longer residence time, all harmful substances present in these combustion gases are burnt in this chamber, and these combustion gases can be discharged without any problem to the outside air via the heat exchanger 19. In order to prevent leakage to the outside of the air present in the drier, there is a underpressure inside the drier, which has the result that fresh outside air flows in both at the inlet slot 2 and at the outlet slot 3 for the web of material. In the second section 7 any additional outside air can be fed in, with the result that the temperature inside this secion can be regulated and the oxygen content of the air present in the section 7 can also be kept up to the mark, in order to ensure that the burner unit 14 works properly. The first section could also be provided with an additional infeed for outside air. The quantity of outside air fed in depends on the quantity of combustion gases discharged and the air flowing in through the slots 2 and 3. The design according to the invention provides a very efficient and compact drier, through the fact that the heating of the web of material and the actual evaporation take place in separate sections. On the one hand, this gives the advantage that the air in the heating zone contains virtually no oily vapours, while the evaporation zone actually has a relatively high concentration of oily vapours. During starting up of the drier it is desirable to bring the drier rapidly up to temperature. For this, one or more further burners can be provided in the heating zone, the combustion taking place freely in this space. This is possible because the air present in this zone contains virtually no oily vapours and no harmful cracking products can arise as a result of the hot combustion gases. The compact structure of the drier containing the combustion unit with the heat exchanger connected thereto also has the advantage that the combustion unit need not be well insulated from the inside of the drier and, like the heat exchanger, need not be made leakproof. Leakage of combustion gases inside the drier does not in fact have any harmful consequences. Both the combustion unit and the heat exchanger can be designed simply and cheaply through this non-leakproof construction. It will be clear that a large number of modifications are possible. For example, part of the combustion gases can also be conveyed into the first section 6 downstream of the chamber 18, while the remaining part can be discharged to the outside air, directly or through the heat exchanger 19.

Claims: A drier for a web (4) of material, in particular for an offset printing machine, comprising an essentially closed housing (1) with an inlet slot (2) and an outlet slot (3) for the web of material, the interior of the housing being divided into zones through which the web of material passes in succession, each zone being provided with air nozzles (9, 9a; 10, 10a) on either side of the web of material which are fed via one or more of fans (11, 11a; 12, 12a) with the atmosphere from inside the housing, and also comprising at least one heating appliance for heating the atmosphere inside the housing, each heating appliance comprising a combustion unit (14, 16, 18), an intake (21) for combustion air which is in communication with one of the zones, and a discharge opening for discharging combustion gases into the housing, characterized in that the interior of the housing is divided by a partition (5) into two separate sections (6, 7) thereby constituting two separate zones and, viewed in the direction of movement of the web of material, the first section (6) constitutes a heating section and the second section (7) constitutes an evaporation section; the drier comprises only one heating appliance comprising an incinerating portion (16, 18) for the combustion of solvent vapour from the second section, an intake (21) for combustion air, which is in communication with the second section, and a discharge opening (17) in the incinerating portion for discharging a part of the combustion gases into the first section, for heating the atmosphere inside said section; the partition (5) is provided with an opening (8) for passing air from the first section to the second section for heating the second section. A drier according to claim 1, characterized in that the incinerating portion (16, 18) is connected to a heat exchanger (19) through which the remaining part of the combustion gases is discharged to the outside air and in which the combustion air for the burner (14) is heated up by the remaining part of the combustion gases. A drier according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the discharge opening (17) is arranged in the incineration portion in an area where full combustion of the harmful substances present in the atmosphere has not yet taken place. A drier according to any of the preceding claims 1-3, characterized in that the second section is provided with an additional inlet for outside air for regulation of the temperature of said section.

Inventors: DE VROOME, CLEMENS JOHANNES MARIA, JACOBS, THOMAS GERARDUS MARIA
Applicants: STORK CONTIWEB B.V.
Application year: 1989
Main classification: F26B23
IPC codes: F26B13, F26B23, F23L11, B41F23, F23M5, F23N3, F23C3