Dryers redux

[Printficient]

Was talking to Winston today and he wondered if there was a market for a "small" gas dryer.
Is there?
If so, what would you like to see?
Size?
Efficiency?
Power Requirements?
Price Point?
Features?
Let me know and I will let Winston know.
Thanks

[mk162]

Small, cheap, efficient, zero electricity usage--all solar baby!

All for under $250!

Seriously, I think if you could make one that was 24-30" wide, 4-6' of heat, 110v or 220v, for about the same price as an electric, you'd have a good oven.

[Screened Gear]

Why not make it a propane gas dryer that runs off 110 and propane. It will be the gas grill of dryers.  30 inch belt, 5 feet of heat.  3 feet Infeed and Outfeed. No gas line or electric needs to be run and you have a high production dryer you can put anywhere.

[blue moon]

Why not make it a propane gas dryer that runs off 110 and propane. It will be the gas grill of dryers.  30 inch belt, 5 feet of heat.  3 feet Infeed and Outfeed. No gas line or electric needs to be run and you have a high production dryer you can put anywhere.

I might be mistaken here, but I doubt you can get high production and gas in 5' of heat. My electric panels are several hundred degrees higher than what gas will do so it just does not seem likely that you will get any  production friendly numbers from a narrow slow moving belt. . .

[Screened Gear]

I really know nothing about gas dryers. I want to do a propane dryer for my next dryer (no natural gas in my shop). I just bought a used Workhorse 5217. It has a 52 inch belt and I am loving it. I will not even post what I got it for. Great deal.

[Printficient]

Why not make it a propane gas dryer that runs off 110 and propane. It will be the gas grill of dryers.  30 inch belt, 5 feet of heat.  3 feet Infeed and Outfeed. No gas line or electric needs to be run and you have a high production dryer you can put anywhere.

I might be mistaken here, but I doubt you can get high production and gas in 5' of heat. My electric panels are several hundred degrees higher than what gas will do so it just does not seem likely that you will get any  production friendly numbers from a narrow slow moving belt. . .

Without letting the cat out of the bag, there are numerous ways to make a small very efficient gas dryer.  If so what power would you want.  The thinking is 3 phase for the power due to the methodology of efficiency.

[Printficient]

I really know nothing about gas dryers. I want to do a propane dryer for my next dryer (no natural gas in my shop). I just bought a used Workhorse 5217. It has a 52 inch belt and I am loving it. I will not even post waht I got it for. Great deal.

All gas dryers can be configured for LP.

[Clark]

Why not make it a propane gas dryer that runs off 110 and propane. It will be the gas grill of dryers.  30 inch belt, 5 feet of heat.  3 feet Infeed and Outfeed. No gas line or electric needs to be run and you have a high production dryer you can put anywhere.

I might be mistaken here, but I doubt you can get high production and gas in 5' of heat. My electric panels are several hundred degrees higher than what gas will do so it just does not seem likely that you will get any  production friendly numbers from a narrow slow moving belt. . .

Without letting the cat out of the bag, there are numerous ways to make a small very efficient gas dryer.  If so what power would you want.  The thinking is 3 phase for the power due to the methodology of efficiency.

Shops with a dryer that small probably won't have 3-phase.  And most won't pay the money to bring it in.

[Screened Gear]

How much electric does a gas dryer need? Its gas right? The display, temp monitoring and the belt motor is all that is electric right? Why would that need to be 3 phase?

[mk162]

Because motors are more efficient when they are 3 phase, and you also have a blower motor as well.

[ZooCity]

zero electricity usage--all solar baby!

The one redeeming quality of electric, you can get the juice from a lot of different sources.  How rad would that be to run your 3ph off a solar array or, even better, spinning the meter backward.  That tech is going to be cheaper to implement someday and besides, what happens when the nat. gas ain't so cheap anymore? 

[Screened Gear]

Since we are making the perfect dryer. Can we make it so it lays the shirts out flat at the end instead of just dropping them in a box. I'd pay a little more for that.

[mk162]

natural gas is still a better way of curing shirts.  I am not familiar with forced air electric, but I imagine they could use the same idea as gas.  Radiant panels just don't heat through the garment like forced air gas does.

I wouldn't hold my breath on electric solar panels, it will be a while before really good ones are really cheap.  I think we are still around 10% efficiency on them.

I did see a really cool one that reminded me of a vertical stat camera.  That was was supposed to be really good, but it was expensive, the best part was it was about the size of an exposure unit.  They were thinking a few dozen of them on top of a Wal-Mart could power the whole thing.

I don't know if the project died or was shelved or what.

[ZooCity]

Since we are making the perfect dryer. Can we make it so it lays the shirts out flat at the end instead of just dropping them in a box. I'd pay a little more for that.

I wouldn't be too surprised if M&R is working on or has that already with all the other fancy robot arm machines they've developed.  But hell yeah, a back end take off would be tiiiight.  Just hit a button at the front end between sizes and eliminate a back end employee.  Although, there goes the final QC. 

Or how about an affordable shop-bot for the middling sized print operation, like those creepy honda robots or maybe like the one in Rocky?

But seriously folks, here's one that for some reason beyond my reckoning nobody has included, despite it's low cost to implement: a non-contact pyrometer array at dryer exit (highest temp) point, or the option to have them throughout the dryer as well, delivering constant feedback to the operator at the front on the cure temp being maintained, as an average, across the substrate.  One operator could be loading, pulling, and not stopping to go and adjust temps between material changes.  You could take it a step further and let it diagnostically adjust the belt speed and/or panel temp according to various high/low limits that you set.  This would not be all that spendy I don't think and while not fool proof, combined with accurate panel and air temp control it would go a long ways to closing the loop so to speak.  I feel like so many things in this industry are just frayed ends dangling in the breeze. Hygrometers in the chamber for the wb users is another cheap to do, no-brainer.   Where's the systemic engineering?  Where's the measuring tools?

[mk162]

they melted