Kannegiesser

Ellie Stowe, marketing and communications supervisor at Kannegiesser, reckons that “the Kannegiesser Powerdry is the most powerful dryer on the market.”

She says that “our dryers operate using one of the lowest energy consumptions in the field… which ensures that our customers benefit from the most efficient dryer evaporation performance and reap the benefits of energy savings through a fully drying performance.”

Process control and heating management are, she says, the key to securing low energy consumption whilst shortening overall laundry processing times. And Stowe says that exploiting this combination “makes the Powerdry the most powerful and efficient batch dryer in the industry.”

Stowe claims that on its highest setting, the Powerdry can run up to four batches per hour “using the lowest energy consumption and shortest drying time through ECO2Power – it’s the ultimate in drying technology.” The Powerdry sits in a market which has seen an increase in diversity of items and materials. “Dryers, ironers and finishers,” says Stowe, “must cover this diversity and combine high output and evaporation performance with low energy consumption and textile care.” She adds that tests on damaged textiles show that after 50 cycles of washing and drying, chemical fibre damage can increase by up to three times because of the drying process in comparison to the wash process. This becomes more problematic when it’s remembered that apart from the cost of labour, textiles are the largest expense within a laundry. And this is why she says that “gentle drying will generate enormous cost savings and the key to cost reduction is to avoid over-drying. When water from textiles evaporates, any further heat input can be harmful to textiles, is a waste of energy and an unnecessary extension of process times.”

As Stowe describes it, the Powerdry measures linen temperature with InfraTouch control (within the inner cylinder so that the exact linen temperature is measured), together with supply air and exhaust air temperature. This allows optimal process adjustment. The result is a “maximum air circulation rate and an ideal distribution of the linen in the inner cylinder.” Overall, she says that a decrease in residual moisture occurs during the drying process and the air re-circulation rate increases by controlling the air re-circulation flap.

Notably, Stowe says that this higher air recirculation reduces demand for heat from the gas supplied by the heating element. And “to ensure optimum control, the linen drop curve inside the drum changes in line with the degree of textile dryness.”

In summarising the benefits of the Powerdry, Stowe thinks that laundries “will benefit from significant energy savings. And with an exact determination of material temperature will lead to an exact drying process through an accurate predetermined drying point.”

JENSEN

Jensen’s Gerda Jank, head of communications, says that Jensen dryers “are best known for their productivity, safety, and servicing.” Available as standalone dryers for medium volumes and integrated into a line of dryers in heavyduty processes, she says that “they all use minimum resources and offer maximum performance.”

Onto the units themselves, Jank highlights the JTD standalone dryers. She says that they are fully insulated tumble dryers with reversing drum and cooldown that are available in loads of 20, 40, 60 and 110kg. In overview, she says that the standard stainless-steel drum “ensures high longevity and durability. JTD’s make efficient use of heating as more heat is transferred to drying via a specially designed large transfer surface.” And with a wide hatch sliding door, loading and unloading can be done very quickly. There’s also a smart indicator light which aims to aid the operation through “remote awareness.”

The other product that Jank discusses is the Jensen DT+ batch transfer dryer. Here she says that “Jensen transformed the transfer dryer DT into an even more efficient product, the DT+ – and in so doing, closed the gap between Jensen DT and Jensen WR dryers.” “I’m often asked what puts the ‘plus’ in the new Jensen DT+?” In answer, she says that it is “based on the well-proven DT design and upgraded with WR features allow for the DT+ to achieve efficiencies never seen before… 5-10 per cent lower energy consumption, compared to DT-series can be reached.” Jank adds that the DT+ reduces the water evaporation cycle time, “saving valuable minutes from each drying batch.” She also says that Jensen optimised the process of air recirculation within the dryer system with a motorised recirculation flap, and as a result, “the dryer is able to determine and optimise the fresh air intake ratio automatically for the best dry time – and so offers the best ratio between fresh and recirculated air.” Jensen claims that a more consistent and batch-related drying process results in lower energy consumption without compromising productivity.

Something else Jank points out is that the DT+ now has the capability to increase or decrease the blower motor speed which should decrease the energy consumption required to operate the machine. “This,” she says, “is ideal for less than full load operation, the laundry process becomes faster and saves both time and money.”

In her view, laundries where space is constrained or with architectural restrictions may also prefer Jensen dryers as “mirror-image versions of the batch transfer dryers have been designed in order to allow for a compact and space-saving installation with a pair of dryers directly side by side.”

Jank concludes by saying that “JTD standalone dryers are characterised by their small footprint. Jensen takes a holistic look at saving resources.”