dryers and asbestos

[Croft]

Sorry kind of a long story

Something interesting happened to a friend of mine  in the copacking industry this week , He has a heat tunnel used for shrink wrapping product. It looks very similar to electric screenprinting  dryers but has a steel belt and runs a bit cooler.
  He had purchased this machine years ago used  and it is from approximately 1988 , in a recent electrical inspection it was noted that it didn't have an up to date electrical approval sticker.

His electrician gave him the parts  list needed to bring it up to code.  He called for parts that were available to order and was basically told they would call him back.  About an hour later the VP of the company called him offering a super deal on a replacement heat tunnel just name what he was prepared to spend they would take care of shipping to Canada and return of the old tunnel . Seems they were very interested in getting it back because they had used asbestos to insulate it .
   What I'm wondering is this a company being proactive ? and are there any screenprint dryers out there with the same insulation? I do have a newer M&R dryer so I'm sure it is good but I do also have a couple of  old Harcos laying around.

[mk162]

they were made, i don't know if M&R made them.  our last dryer was a Maxi-Cure, that one was fine...before that we had a pheonix(i think), and that had a huge warning label on it.

no idea what happened to that old dryer. 

[244]

they were made, i don't know if M&R made them.  our last dryer was a Maxi-Cure, that one was fine...before that we had a pheonix(i think), and that had a huge warning label on it.

no idea what happened to that old dryer.

M&R has never made any product with asbestos in it including dryers. I cant speak for other manufacturers other than Advance/American where I worked. The Tex Air in its early years did have asbestos insulation as well as a couple of their graphic dryers.

[ZooCity]

What was the vintage of Americans that might have had it Rich?  It's ok if you can't say that out loud too. 

Just curious, I thought ours might have had it but my HVAC guy said no, it was another type when I showed it to him.  Would hate to have that crap blowing around with the shirts.

[screenxpress]

I've got an old Vastex Econored II - i've had it pretty much apart and haven't seen any funky insulation.  Anyone know anything different?

[244]

What was the vintage of Americans that might have had it Rich?  It's ok if you can't say that out loud too. 

Just curious, I thought ours might have had it but my HVAC guy said no, it was another type when I showed it to him.  Would hate to have that crap blowing around with the shirts.

1979 or earlier. There was no real issue with the insulation as long as it was not damaged.

[Frog]

What was the vintage of Americans that might have had it Rich?  It's ok if you can't say that out loud too. 

Just curious, I thought ours might have had it but my HVAC guy said no, it was another type when I showed it to him.  Would hate to have that crap blowing around with the shirts.

1979 or earlier. There was no real issue with the insulation as long as it was not damaged.

Not unlike home instances. Not an issue until one tears up a floor for instance.

[alan802]

I spent a few years in the asbestos abatement industry and was a licensed building inspector and air monitoring technician so I've seen just about every building material made from asbestos while working in Dallas.  Even though contractors and manufacturers weren't supposed to use it, we found several buildings that were built after the asbestos ban to have materials made with it.  We had to inspect any and all materials that were suspect in buildings that were going to have any renovation or work done to them so we saw a lot.  If there was asbestos in a building we also did the project management and air monitoring during the abatement so it was beneficial to us to find the asbestos if it was there and it would show up in weird places.  Some buildings were very old and had been covered up with new material and we'd always find asbestos hiding in strange places.  Especially with tile mastic, you'd have the new stuff slathered on top of the old and it was hard to find sometimes.  You wouldn't believe how many times I had to tell an abatement worker to put his mask back on while inside a containment. Although many rules were excessive and you didn't have to worry about airborne asbestos with floor mastic removal, I'd catch them doing it during celing tile removal which is very likely to have airborne asbestos particles floating around.