Patent Grant
11740017
Not applicable.
The present application is directed to a dryer belt control system for a textile dryer.
Indicia applied to articles of clothing and other textiles have become very popular. Fanciful indicia, such as slogans, logos, college names, sports team names and logos, and sayings are commonplace.
Indicia are printed using screen printing machines, with one or more colors. Typically, a screen printing machine has at least one station to print each color. Each station generally includes a printing head, which supports a single screen, the ink, and a mechanism for applying the ink to the textile or substrate. The textile to be printed travels between printing stations. The textile is typically carried by a metal pallet, pallet support, flat bed, or platen. Common printing machines are of the turret-type, or are oval or linear in configuration.
Some printing machines incorporate ink curing stations. Other operations employ separate dryers. A dryer has two primary components: a conveyor system and a heating system. Typically, the drying operation includes an operator setting the internal dryer temperature and the conveying speed to achieve the desired drying characteristics. Commonly known mechanisms are employed to determine or read the ambient temperature in the dryer, which allows the operator to adjust the conveyor speed to compensate to achieve the desired drying.
Numerous inks are available. Such inks include water based inks, sublimation inks, and plastisol. The ink is cured or gelled onto the substrate to a critical temperature. The temperature during the curing process must be kept within a suitable window depending on the ink's curing properties, typically between 125 and 450 degrees Fahrenheit. For example, plastisols must reach a temperature of 320 degrees Fahrenheit. In the ranges below 320 degrees and above 350 degrees, the plastisol will not properly set, resulting in cracking, or it may become liquified. Moreover, if a dye in the textile is overheated, it will migrate, or the textile or substrate may scorch or burn, increasing waste and production costs.
To solve this issue, dryers such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,937,535 were developed to sense and control the drying process. Dryers are typically electric or gas-powered, use a great deal of energy, and are essentially a heat sink. Commonly assigned U.S. Patent Publication No. 2014/0047731, which is incorporated herein by reference and made a part hereof, discloses a speed control system for a dryer with an improved belt control system that reduces the amount of energy the dryer uses on startup, thereby reducing energy consumed in the drying process, and cutting costs of operation.
Another challenge in using dryers is the manner of making a belt track through the use of crowned rollers and skewing the belt in one direction or another by adjusting bolts until the belt is centered. This manner requires frequent adjustments and readjustments, and can also result in the edges of belts being destroyed because the belt fell out of proper alignment requiring belt replacement. Some belt tracking systems in current use are provided in the dryer tunnel which has the undesired effect of reducing the useable width of the belt ultimately reducing throughput. In one preferred form of the invention, the dryer is a textile dryer, but could be a dryer for other items.
Applicant, M&R Printing Equipment, Inc.'s, Roselle, Ill., line of dryers, more particularly conveyor dryers, and even more particularly conveyor dryers for textiles. Suitable dryers include infrared electric textile dryers and propane and natural gas conveyor dryers. M&R has designed and manufactured several dryers, the TRANSFORMER™, BLU-FLASH™, FUSION™, RADICURE™, Sprint 3000, Vitran systems. Belt width similarly can vary. Common widths are between 24″ to 87″ and conveyer lengths ranging from about 82″ or longer.
To understand the present invention, it will now be described by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:
While this invention is susceptible of embodiments in many different forms, there is shown in the drawings and will herein be described in detail preferred embodiments of the invention with the understanding that the present disclosure is to be considered as an exemplification of the principles of the invention and is not intended to limit the broad aspect of the invention to the embodiments illustrated.
The present invention provides a conveyor belt tracking system for a dryer having a conveyor belt. The term “tracking” means the speed of the conveyor belt is constant across a width of the conveyor belt so that the speed of the belt at each opposed lateral edge is the same. This ensures the belt will move through the dryer without damage caused when one edge of the belt moves at a different speed from the other edge causing the belt to skew and to come into contact with portions of the dryer causing a shredding or cutting of the belt. The tracking device overcomes difficulties in using crowned rollers which cannot be reversed in directions without realigning the belt. This is a time consuming process that increases the cost of drying textiles.
The tracking system is useful with a conveyor belt system and particularly with forced air dryers employing a conveyor belt system. The tracking system will be explained with reference to a textile dryer shown in
The chamber 14 has an ambient condition defined by physical characteristics such as temperature, humidity, pressure, air flow rate(s), exposure to electromagnetic radiation of a particular frequency such as ultra violet (UV) or infrared (IR), and other measurable physical conditions. An operator using a controller 24 having a suitable graphical user interface (GUI) can enter a desired value or a range of values for each physical condition used to constitute the ambient condition. The controller 24 will maintain the conditions in the chamber to define the desired ambient condition. The controller 24 has a processor, a memory, and computer readable instructions in the memory when executed by the processor takes the necessary steps to control the operation of the dryer to achieve a desired goal. The dryer is connected to other controls on valves, and blowers, for example, to moderate the flow rate, temperature, humidity of forced air supplied under pressure into and out of the chamber to maintain the set conditions. Additionally, the controller 24 is connected to a sensor or multiple sensors inside the chamber or dryer to measure and generate a signal representative of a physical characteristic such as temperature, humidity, air flow rate, etc., and sending the signal to the controller 24. As will be discussed below in reference to
In a preferred form of the invention, the first conveyor system 16 and the second conveyor system 18 extend parallel to one another, more preferably are coextensive (of the same length), and most preferably are coterminous (each of the opposed ends are in registration). Each of the first conveyor and the second conveyer systems 16, 18 are mounted or journalled for reciprocal translational motion as shown by arrows 26 and each have an upper surface 27 for supporting objects and in exposure to the ambient condition of the chamber. Preferably, the upper surfaces are generally coplanar. In one form of the invention, the objects are freshly printed textiles where the ink is still wet or uncured and the ambient condition is set to dry the ink over a period of time the textiles are present in the chamber (dwell time). The dryer 10 shown has two conveyor systems but more than two conveyors such as from 2 to 5 or more can be provided without departing from the scope of the present invention. Each of the conveyors will be associated with a zone having an independently set ambient condition.
Each of the conveyor systems 16, 18 preferably has a continuous belt 50, 52 respectively supported on a frame (support rails), with the belts 50, 52 having a highly porous (or open mesh) surface area, such as a screen, mounted around (entrained) at least two rollers supported by the frame as is well known in the art. One of the rollers is a drive roller and the other roller is an idler roller. The driver roller is driven by a motive source such as an electric motor. The preferred belt is a heat-resistant, Teflon® coated fiberglass. The belts 50, 52 are driven by the drive roller in the direction indicated by the arrows 26 so that the objects resting thereon, such as textiles, pass through the chamber 14 between the side walls 32 of housing 12 from the entrance 20 to the exit 22.
The continuous belts 50, 52 of each of the conveyor systems 16, 18 should be of sufficient width to carry objects of varying size with the wide belt 50 capable of supporting large textiles while the narrow belt 52 is capable of supporting smaller objects. The length of belts 50, 52 are dictated by the size of dryer 10, but this length must be taken into consideration when independently setting the speed the belts 50, 52 travel through housing 12. That is, a sufficient dwell time within the dryer 10 must be allowed for each printed article to reach the desired condition. The conveyors 50, 52 generally extend beyond the entrance and exit openings 20, 22 to points outside the housing 12.
In a preferred form of the invention, the dryer will use a belt tracking system on the drive roller or the idler roller on each of the conveyors so that the lateral edges of each conveyor move at the same speed. The belt tracking also allows the conveyor belts to change directions without causing the belt to lose tracking causing textiles to shift on the belt due to the lateral edges of the belt moving at different speeds. This overcomes a problem using crowned rollers which cannot reverse directions and maintain proper tracking without realigning the belt.
The belt tracking system allows for the two conveyors to have a small spacing between their respective lateral edges. A small spacing can be from less than one inch to about 4 inches, more preferably from about 1 inch to about 3 inches, or any range or combination of ranges therein.
To operate the dryer a user or operator will select the desired physical characteristics to be maintained within the chamber or in zone 1 and zone 2, and additional zones if present, of the chamber. For example, the user will select a desired temperature or range of temperatures, humidity, air flow rate, conveyor belt speed, dwell time of an object to spend in the chamber, and the frequency of electromagnetic radiation if any to pass through the chamber. The dryer is powered up and objects are placed on the conveyor belts by an operator at the infeed and removed by an operator at the outfeed. Typically, textiles that have been printed with ink are placed in the dryer to dry or cure the ink. The ink can be dried or cured using the heated air but the ink could be cured by exposing the textiles to electromagnetic radiation such as UV or IR light. Each zone has its own ambient condition so that objects having differing sizes, differing initial conditions or differing end conditions, for example, can be achieved using the dual or multiple zones having optimal conditions for the objects that pass through the dryer.
In steps 206,208 an operator using the GUI will enter the physical conditions to define the first ambient condition of a first zone and the physical conditions to define a second ambient condition of a second zone. It is not necessary to provide heat to both zones—one zone can be heated while the other zone is unused and no heated air is supplied. Thus, the dryer can be operated as a single chamber with two belts operating at the same speed to act as a single full-sized dryer, or one conveyor can operate while the other conveyor is stationary to operate as a single dryer of lesser size than the full-sized dryer, and both conveyors can be operated through two different zones to act as two dryers.
Once the operating conditions of the dryer are entered, an operator using the controller can, in steps 210,212, initiate the running of the first conveyor through the first zone and the second conveyor through the second zone. Periodically, the speed of each conveyor is measured 214 and reported to the controller which compares at step 216 the actual speed of the conveyors with the set speed. If the measured speed is not equal then it is determined at step 218 whether the measured speed is less than the set speed. If so in step 220 the conveyor speed is increased and if not in step 222 the conveyor speed is decreased, and this process is repeated until the desired conveyor speed is reached. The controller in step 224 provides a flow of heated air to the first zone and in step 226 provides a mixture of heated air and fresh air to zone 2. Thus, two ambient zones can be maintained with a single blower and a single heater.
Periodically, in steps 228,230 the physical conditions that define the ambient conditions in zone 1 and zone 2 are measured and compared in steps 232,234. Adjustments are made in steps 236,238 by, for example, altering the flow rate of heated air or fresh air or the temperature or humidity of the air supplied and the physical conditions are measured again until the desired conditions are met in zone 1 and zone 2. The dryer is operated until the task is complete 240 and the dryer and its associated systems can be shut down.
The dryer can be used to simultaneously dry batches of textiles having inks of different curing conditions. For example, one belt can be operated in the first zone to dry an ink applied to a textile in a screen printing operation while the second belt can be operated in the second zone to dry an ink applied in a direct-to-garment printing operation. Thus, screen printers who use both screen printing and direct-to-garment printing presses in a single location can use a single dryer to cure both types of textiles simultaneously.
The terms “first,” “second,” “upper,” “lower,” “front,” “back,” etc. are used for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to limit the embodiments in any way. The term “plurality” as used herein is intended to indicate any number greater than one, either disjunctively or conjunctively as necessary, up to an infinite number. The terms “attached,” “joined” and “connected” as used herein are intended to put or bring two elements together so as to form a unit, and any number of elements, devices, fasteners, etc. may be provided between the joined or connected elements unless otherwise specified by the use of the term “directly” and supported by the drawings.
While the specific embodiments have been illustrated and described, numerous modifications come to mind without significantly departing from the spirit of the invention, and the scope of protection is only limited by the scope of the accompanying Claims.
This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 17/031,210 filed on Sep. 24, 2020, which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 16/173,030 filed on Oct. 29, 2018, now U.S. Pat. No. 10,794,631, which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 15/265,538 filed Sep. 14, 2016, now U.S. Pat. No. 10,113,795, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 15/194,035 filed on Jun. 27, 2016, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,939,198, which claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/185,093 filed on Jun. 26, 2015, and U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/248,862 filed on Oct. 30, 2015, all of which are incorporated in their entirety herein by reference and made a part hereof.
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| Child | 15265538 | US |
