KREYENBORG’s Infrared Drying System offers the ability to dry and crystalize materials in minutes compared to hours with conventional drying equipment. This faster drying process can significantly reduce changeover time and drastically decreases energy consumption.
KREYENBORG IR Dryers can heat, dry, and crystalize in one-step
The heating of pellets and/or and regrind (PVC, PET, PE, PP, etc.) prior to extrusion helps to significantly increase the capacity of the downstream equipment.
When PET, PLA, PEEK, PPS, PBT or other materials are processed on the Kreyenborg industrial Infrared Dryers the material can be crystalized in the same step. Even with the added crystallization benefits, the residency time remains short when compared with conventional drying, reaching from >1% moisture to less than 300 PPM within 15-20 minutes.
The IR Process also allows the coating of adhesives in the system (hot melt, EVA and lime, etc.)
Through this Thermal process it is possible to also remove volatiles from the material that is dried. The IR-CLEAN® Super-Clean recycling process. With the IR-CLEAN® system, KREYENBORG offers an attractive and cost-effective alternative for the direct reprocessing of PET post-consumer flakes for food packaging. This process has been awarded a LNO from FDA and is also EFSA compliant.
The KREYENBORG Infrared Dryer Function
The energy is instantaneously brought into the core of the product by short-wave infrared radiation. The heat flow pushes the moisture from the inside towards the outside of the material ensuring a homogenous drying of the material throughout. Since the material is constantly in motion the evaporated moisture is immediately taken away from the rotating drum. The constant motion also exposes a huge surface area of the material to the IR Radiation which ensures an instant heat up process.
The rotating drum has an internal spiral that is equipped with mixing elements that create a constant mixing process which helps to avoid any material clumping. This constant mixing, combined with the slow rotational speed of the drum, ensures that the material will be evenly heated without damaging the material in the process. Combined with low rotational speed of the drum the material will not be damaged throughout the process. The speed of the process and the final moisture content of the product can be adjusted by the rotational speed. All functions are controlled through a simple HMI, that allows the storage of recipes and monitors exhaust air temperatures, fill levels, etc. The system will self-adjust if parameters deviate from the set points.
The IR-Radiator module
The Kreyenborg IR-Radiator module is specially designed for the IRD and IR batch systems. A trade-secret ceramic helps disperse the infrared radiation in a safe and efficient way. This, coupled with Kreyenborg’s patented Air-shield technology to protect the infrared lamps from dust, helps the IRD to be a leading technology in the drying industry.
Kreyenborg offers continuous and batch processing IR Dryers
For large scale production environments, the continuous process is ideal since it ensures production without interruption. In this process the equipment is automatically filled by a volumetric dozing system. Throughout the rotating drum the material is evenly mixed and thermally treated. The process takes only minutes compared to conventional drying methods that take hours.
We offer infrared drying systems with capacities that range from 50 lbs/hour to 11,000 lbs/hour.
KREYENBORG IR BATCH
Discontinuous heating, crystallization, drying and coating of batches of different plastics and other bulk materials in minutes instead of hours.
Ideal solution for thermal treatment of single batches.
The machine operates in batch mode which means that an entire batch of material is loaded at once into the system. Once the processing time has elapsed the batch is discharged from the drum by reverting the rotational direction.
Application examples:
KREYENBORG PET BOOSTER
Continuous crystallization and drying of PET in minutes instead of hours with significantly lower energy consumption. The PET Booster System can increase capacities of existing sheet lines or pelletizing systems by 30%.
Application examples:
KREYENBORG IR CLEAN
IR-CLEAN® Super-Clean recycling process. With the IR-CLEAN® system, KREYENBORG offers an attractive and cost-effective alternative for the direct reprocessing of PET post-consumer flakes to food grade.
High-Performance Decontamination
Efficient decontamination of recycled PET for re-use in direct food contact packaging.
PET – PROCESSING WITH IR-CLEAN®
With the IR-CLEAN® system, KREYENBORG offers an attractive and cost-effective alternative for the direct reprocessing of PET post-consumer flakes for food packaging – without using any vacuum technology and as a retrofit solution for existing extrusion lines. The efficiency of the cleaning process has been verified by a Letter of Non-Objection from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Similarly, several challenge tests have demonstrated compliance with the criteria established by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) for the use of recycled materials for direct food contact packaging.
Application examples:
Drying, Crystalizing and decontamination of PET for food-contact pellets or sheets
