Development work on dryers in the climate chamber
20.12.2018
The WITTMANN material handling technology plant (including sheet metal production) has been located in Wolkersdorf, Lower Austria since 2015. The WITTMANN dry air dryers, which are sold worldwide, are among the products developed there. These are exposed to extreme conditions in the climate chamber on site, to make sure that the appliances show the reliability promised by the name WITTMANN at every place in the world.
Right next to the showroom in Wolkersdorf, on an area of some 35 m², the actual heart of the material handling technology’s R&D department is situated, the climate chamber. Of course access to it is prohibited while tests are in progress, yet numerous interested visitors to the showroom still take the opportunity to have a look through the viewing window into the interior of the chamber.
The climatic conditions prevailing in Austria and Central Europe certainly vary a lot, but on the whole are not so extreme that they would present a real challenge to dry air dryers. However, it is indispensable to test appliances which operate with the ambient air under extreme conditions as well. After all, WITTMANN dryers operate in all conceivable areas of the world, and so they must cope everywhere with the local ambient temperature and air humidity.
Test results and adaptations
Right from the planning stage of the Wolkersdorf production plant, the climate chamber installed there was included in the design. It offers a room completely insulated from the outside world and equipped with an ultra-modern air conditioning system, which is able to simulate an extremely wide range of ambient climatic conditions.
The dimensions of the chamber are laid out to accommodate not only mobile and battery dryers for test purposes, but also entire drying systems. This makes it possible to specify at an early stage the necessary adaptations to specific requirements on various local markets.
All dryers are exposed to a great variety of ambient conditions. The test results are recorded using the OPC protocol and included in relevant documentations, from which the locally required adaptations can be derived in each case. For example, if a dryer operating in Europe or North America is able to reach an excellent dew point value with standard equipment and in standard operation, specific adaptations still need to be made to reach a comparable result under tropical conditions.
It goes without saying that one of the most recently developed new products in the area of drying technology, the WITTMANN ATON segmented wheel dryer, was optimized in terms of drying performance and energy efficiency with the help of tests carried out in the climate chamber. WITTMANN dryers score with the option to have the actual dew point shown on their display – unlike various products from competitors, which only display the set target value.