A total drying solution for the manufacturing industry which mirrors the way hybrid cars save energy is now being developed by the University of Hertfordshire and the Elstree-based company Secomak Ltd, an industry leader in air movement technologies. 

The results promise to be world beating with savings of up to 50 per cent in energy costs. The solution utilised by the collaborative team involves only drying when necessary.

This new drying solution is used primarily to dry bottles or cans, and the system can be customised to dry any container but has potential to dry sheet metal or plastic extrusions.

This product is the result of a government funded Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) to which University of Hertfordshire graduate in Aerospace Systems, David Palmer has brought his skills in Computational Fluid Dynamics, project management and project planning.

According to David Palmer, "The big advantage of this system is that the machine is equipped with sensors which sense when product needs to be dried, rather than the dryer working all the time," said David. This works in a similar way to energy saving systems in hybrid vehicles and means that the energy consumption of our machine is directly proportional to the throughput of the product.

Secomak currently has three other University connected staff. Kim Whiteford, a third year University student in Human Resources who is on a twelve month placement at the company, James Reed, a third year University student in Marketing who is on a twelve month placement in Marketing with the company, and David Dell, who works part-time as a Senior Lecturer at the University's School of AADE and the rest of the time at Secomak as a Product Development Manager. 

Says Dell, "Drying is one of the major energy users in industry.  Secomak specialise in air movement and sells drying equipment  to the major operators in the food and drinks industries for drying high-speed cans, bottles and other containers.  Using technologies developed between Secomak and the  University of Hertfordshire, major savings are obtained by intelligent and optimised methods of drying in Secomak's latest equipment."

Dell continues, "The theory behind our machines is identical to the engineering philosophies applied in the Hybrid car. 'Supply on demand' on a production line is identical to the stopping of a Hybrid car's engine when stationary. The car runs on petrol and electricity and our machines uniquely run on both blower driven air and compressed air. Noise and energy savings are of the same magnitude for each  product and dryers can now join other major energy saving devices which will make a real difference to the environment."