As Fast as a Speeding Press

A variety of trends have emerged in the drying equipment market. Mark Hahn, VP sales and marketing for AAA Press International, states, “We see trends where converters are looking to run faster to improve throughput regardless of run size.” Dave Schommer, president of Dri-Tec, adds, “Because of the increased speeds and web widths, such as 2000 fpm at 150 inches wide, better drying methods have to be addressed. This is especially true on central impression (CI) presses where between color trap, drying has to be accomplished in a very short time before the next color is applied. The higher the speed, the less time is available.” He adds, “Higher-velocity air has helped, but is now running into the problem with non-absorbent substrates in that a dot of ink becomes distorted with the high-velocity air before trap drying. This is not desirable in process printing. Along with higher speeds, requiring faster drying, comes the need to have finer control of the dryer for the varying speeds. ­“Customers are looking at very fine control in some new and critical ­markets,” says Bob Narang, president, Radiant Energy Systems.