Challenge
Aluminium powder is a combustible powder, so the drum temperature ceiling and dust control matter more than in an ordinary drying duty, and workshop ventilation and static protection have to be considered as well. The first machine was sized for the throughput the customer needed at the time; as order volumes grew, a single unit increasingly ran close to its limit and drying began to constrain the production schedule.
Solution
The first unit was an electric-heated rotary dryer running continuous feed and discharge, delivering roughly 300 kg/h on a dry basis (capacity varies with the material and the operating conditions and is confirmed at the trial run). To raise throughput the customer added an electromagnetic-heated rotary dryer: heat is generated directly in the drum, so the temperature responds faster, and the drum was sized larger, giving higher throughput for the same material and conditions. The two units use different heating methods with independent temperature control and can be run separately or together according to the schedule.
Result
The aluminium powder was dried with the drum temperature ceiling and dust generation kept under control, and the final moisture content stayed stable. After the electromagnetic unit came online overall capacity increased and the pressure on the production schedule eased.