A guide through rotary dryer

Author: Aakash Sharma

A rotary dryer can be defined as a machine that is specifically designed to eliminate the unwanted water in order to transform the wet material into a product that is both desired and usable.

Most materials that people would like to utilize for various purposes usually hold excessive amounts of moisture when in their natural state and this greatly limits their use in terms of longevity. A rotary dryer can be defined as a machine that is specifically designed to eliminate the unwanted water in order to transform the material into a product that is both desired and usable. Rotary drum dryers tend to be the most versatile, economic and affordable choice when considerations for either a used or new industrial dryer are being made. Rotary dryers are the cog and wheels that run the mechanism that is the drying industry. They are preferred because of their high efficiency, capacity as well as their ability to quickly adapt to new purposes.

Application

Rotary drum dryers can be selected for both small and large projects. They are available in all sizes so as to accommodate numerous quantities, products and even moisture content ranges. Although there is a possibility of rotary dryers being larger, a dryer which a 14’ diameter is capable of comfortably accommodating various needs and happens to be the most practical for installation, transport and manufacture.

Everybody that requires to do some drying can use a rotary drum dryer and the most common one is the clothes dryer in most homes. However, the most popular use of rotary dryers is in the forestry, ethanol and biomass industries. Other industries that use rotary dryers include food and pharmaceutical companies, sugar processing plants and in torrefaction.

Design

Rotary drum dryers are designed to withstand exposure to very high temperatures and corrosive material. Stainless steel is usually utilized. instead of carbon steel in cases where the product is suspected to be corrosive in nature.

The primary mechanism that handles material in a drum is the rotary drum flighting. The flighting can be designed so as to be able to accommodate varying flow characteristics of the materials that are meant to be dried. Different flighting designs are able to solve problems like the following:

  • Materials that clump and form balls that require to be broken up.
  • Materials that easily flow but ought to be separated at a frequency that is higher per flight.
  • Pieces that are stringy and long and which easily get rapped.

The above list of problems that different flighting designs in the best rotary dryer can solve is not exhaustive.

It is possible to change the flighting in a rotary drum dryer system to repurpose an existing or a new dryer. This can and should be done by a flighting designer who looks at flow characteristics of the subject material and consequently determines the type of flights that are necessary. In this way, a rotary dryer is converted to a new purpose at just a fraction of the cost that would have been incurred in buying a new dryer.

Products

The best rotary dryer should be able to comfortably dry various kinds of products. Products that are characterized by non-uniform particle sizes are ideal for rotary drum dryers. It is critical to have knowledge of the infeed product’s characteristics so as to appropriately select the most effective flight design.

The greatest asset that a rotary drum dryer has is the ability to successfully accommodate a product which has multiple moisture contents and multiple size particles. It should be able to achieve this with the help of the right flighting package.

Conclusion

Materials that in thier raw state contain too much water that require to be eliminated before any further processing. Rotary dryers remove the excess water because of their high efficiency and capacity.