Nozzle dryer improves pre-painting drying process

A versatile ACI RN15 blower-powered drying system from Air Control Industries, recently installed at the Dana driveshaft assembly facility in Wellingborough, has enhanced the plant's pre-painting drying process. The result ensures effective paint coverage of drive shafts and related components. The system's improved performance compared with a previous installation has also resulted in reduced costs by eliminating the need for hand finishing of drying operations and the use of a compressor employed for this task.

Drive shafts and components passing through the drying process undergo a wash-down process in preparation for painting. However, as a result of complex and irregular shapes, there are areas where water can often be trapped.

Previously, the drying process involved the products travelling through an oven and then passing between static air-knives located immediately before the paint application chamber. These static air-knives were mounted on rigid frames that required positioning according to the different sizes and shapes of the various products, which range from 300mm to 2.5m in length and 50-130mm in diameter.

The new blower-powered drying system, designed and supplied by Air Control Industries, comprises two opposing banks of reciprocating air-delivery nozzles, mounted vertically at the entry point to the oven. The nozzles sweep up and down to deliver a moving volume of high-velocity air to ensure effective surface drying, while at the same time creating turbulence to dislodge water trapped in obscured recesses, including blind holes. The installed drying unit, an ACI RN15, has 15 nozzles on both sides, with each set of nozzles motor-driven in unison, with a reciprocating vertical movement. ACI is able to manufacture assemblies from a, RN3, a three-nozzle assembly, up to an RN15, a 15-nozzle assembly.

The nozzles are flexible - and can be supplied in various lengths - permitting products to brush against them without risk of damage, making them suitable for lines handling irregularly shaped and different products. Both sets of nozzles are fed by a common 37kW blower, an ACI APF direct-driven two-pole EV, which is housed in an acoustic enclosure.

Nigel Atterbury, the Quality Manager at the Dana Wellingborough plant, comments: "The new system works really well. It can cope with all our products without adjustment and saves time and cost by avoiding manual finishing and use of a compressor."

Between 600 and 700 drive shafts are produced daily during a single eight-hour shift. The drive shafts are employed on commercial vehicles, off-road vehicles and for industrial applications.

For more information about ACI's blower-powered drying systems, go to www.aircontrolindustries.com.