Dave Lewis, general manager of KBA Australasia says, “The VariDry Blue solution effectively recirculates saturated air from the dryer. Not only will it mean a KBA press is cheaper to run, it may mean a new press investment will fall into the government’s energy saving rebate scheme, which means printers could get a third of the cost of their investment back.”
According to KBA the infra red / hot air solution enables drying at high production speeds while achieving ‘enormous’ energy savings. The infrared/hot-air drying process accounts for around 40 per cent of the total energy consumed by a printing press.
The new generation of VariDry IR/hot-air dryers was specifically engineered to dry high-gloss coatings energy efficiently and to a superior standard of quality. VariDryBLUE slashes power consumption by as much as 50 per cent, even at maximum output levels, while at the same time supporting high production speeds.
The new range of VariDry Blue IR/hot-air dryers will be available for all large-format Rapida presses configured with triple delivery extensions. They can even be retrofitted on existing press lines, although if the press has double delivery extension, as is the case with virtually all Australian KBA installations, an extra delivery extension will also need to be specified.
The air drawn in is heated by two rows of lamps to the drying temperature pre-selected at the console. Optimised air nozzles with a uniform flow profile along their entire length are used to ensure that the air is distributed evenly onto the substrate surface. The unsaturated hot air from modules 1 and 2 in the delivery extension is recirculated through the system . The recirculated air can subsequently be reused in module 3 and in the swan neck. With this method it is possible to reduce the installed heating power by 2 x 17.5kW. Reusing the warm air several times over also has the advantage of reducing the volume of exhaust air compared to other conventional IR/hot-air dryers.
KBA says as an example a five-colour item of packaging was printed and given a protective coating on a Rapida 142 six-colour coater press with triple extended delivery and IR/hot-air dryer. The power consumed by the dryer during the production run was measured. The model calculation was based on an average price of 13 cents per kilowatt hour of electricity, although this may of course vary according to the energy provider and region. The sustainability of the VariDry Blue dryer is reflected in the potential savings. Calculated over an average machine life of eight years, a few kilowatts and cents quickly mount up to a sizeable item: the reduction in power consumption delivered a saving of approximately €140,000 ($198,000). KBA says in the long term – and at a time when energy prices are rocketing – printers can achieve big cash savings.
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