Airing Out the Options

“Many older lines have ovens that are merely ‘hot boxes,’ which worked well for solvent-based inks and coatings, but are totally inadequate for water-based coatings and the high speeds converters are running today,” continues Narang. “For example, last year we replaced a seven-year-old, 150´-long dryer, that struggled to reach 125 fpm line speed. Today this company enjoys drying and curing solvent-based adhesives on polyethylene film using their 140´-long, four-zone impingement system that easily runs at 300 fpm.”