Drying system leans towards cost-efficiency

 Challenging economic conditions require pioneering business strategies from equipment suppliers to enable their customers to obtain maximum benefits from their investment. Driven by this objective, MORETTO S.p.A. unveiled its latest technologies, innovative business concepts and state-of-the-art equipment at K 2010. The concept enables MORETTO to offer moulders the opportunity to embark on a totally new risk-free business model called EUREKA – involving no investment up front – to achieve marked reductions in material treatment costs and, as a consequence, increased profits, improved performance and better quality.
 With the EUREKA project, MORETTO aims to provide moulders – treating primarily PET – with an alternative and totally new business model – a no-risk acquisition plan. Instead of either the outright purchase, lease of equipment or alternative finance options, the customer is invited to negotiate the power consumption and other operational costs of his existing equipment with the new EUREKA system.
 The company offers to install the EUREKA system even without a purchasing contract and will merely charge a monthly fee based on the amount of energy savings, calculating the differential between the 'old' and the newly installed equipment. After two years, the system will have been paid for and owned outright by the customer. This will be achieved just through energy savings. If not satisfied, the system/s can be returned to MORETTO at no extra cost to the customer.

  'Green factor' in PET drying system
 The EUREKA set up is composed of the fully automatic highvolume modular MORETTO drying systems that combine the X MAX dryer and the FLOWMATIK controller with the new OTX hopper to enable a throughput of up to 8,000 kg/h capacity, in combination with a modular generator of 20,000 m3/h – the system gives total flexibility of between 3 and 10 modular design dryer units and from 1 up to 32 drying hoppers, all without requiring either compressed air or cooling water. The result is faster, consistent and gentle drying of highly hygroscopic polymers, such as PET, with the benefit of a significant reduction in energy consumption. The factor separating this multi-tower system from conventional systems is the maintenance of a consistent, i.e. uniform, dew point throughout the process, thereby reaching high efficiency levels and total operating flexibility, for example in the mix of preform sizes and weights.
 Reduced energy consumption is achieved by the use of zeolite, a volcanic mineral, as a molecular filter. The air flow channel of the X MAX dryer is situated in the centre with the heater in the middle of the channel. With the heat exchanger also at the centre, complete recovery of regenerated energy is assured, as every watt of energy is used in the polymer treatment.
 The 'green-factor' labeled system with its extremely low energy consumption accommodates increasing throughputs of, for instance, PET preforms. This is particularly important as numbers of mould cavities are ever increasing. All the vital factors which influence the management and control of the drying process of numerous plastic granular materials, and PET in particular, are taken into consideration: type of material, granule size, bulk density, temperature, dew point , residence time, specific airflow, initial air moisture content, final residual moisture content in the granule, and viscosity. In a multi-dryer system, each unit, with its stand-alone air circuit and controlled by a dew point meter, can be set at the same temperature and air-flow rate, whilst simultaneously staggering the different dew points. TheOff White X Max 97