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[August 2002]
Vacuum Heat Regeneration Drying for UK Tile Producer
Zander-Hiross (Tamworth, Staffs, England) - a specialist in the treatment of compressed air and gas - has supplied one of its latest WVM vacuum heat regenerated dryers to British Ceramic Tile (BCT) as part of a new automated compressed air conveyor system used to transport clay granulate, the raw material used in its tile making.BCT operates from a site near Newton Abbot in Devon that has been used for tile making since the 19th century. The current factory features fully automated tile production lines.
The compressed air plant uses four Ecoair compressors providing a total output of approximately 1250scfm (2040m3/h) at a working pressure of 7 bar and was originally fitted with two heatless dryers. However, these quickly proved to be unable to handle the duty and pressure dropped to below 4 bar, the dryers overloaded and the air became wet. The result was a clogged powder system which led to production levels well below 50%.
Heatless dryers use up to 20% of the airflow to regenerate themselves and a typical 1000scfm (1700m3/h) heatless dryer uses up to 30kW compressed air for purge flows alone. A Zander WVM vacuum heat regenerated dryer that does not use purge air for regeneration was recommended to improve productivity of the system and generate the quality of compressed air required.
Kevin McAvoy, the Technical Support Engineer with project engineers Industrial Air Power, commented: "The BCT plant is now running at 85% capacity and rising, and instead of all four compressors working flat out, it now uses only one compressor as a base load and another one as peak.
"Also, the dew point of the Zander WVM dryer is minus 47°C, which means that the air is desert dry and ideal for conveying the clay powder."
He added that the dryer is fitted with a dew point controller that allows an 18-hour regeneration cycle instead of the 6-hour standard cycle. This is said to make it extremely efficient - it uses only 9kW of power on average - and the energy savings are enormous.
ENDS