Dryer and printed material and the like

A dryer for printed materials and the like, which comprises:

• (a) a frame structure;
• (b) upper and lower heater panel assemblies vertically movably mounted within said frame structure, each said heater panel assembly including:
• (1) a plurality of juxtaposed, substantially coplanar quartz tube heat lamps extending across said heater panel assembly;
• and
• (2) guide means for guiding the movement of said heater panel assemby within said frame structure;
• (c) actuator means for moving said heater panel assemblies between open positions and closed positions;
• and
• (d) an air handling system including an air blower and duct means operably connected to said air blower and said heater panel assemblies for communicating air with printed material in said dryer.

A dryer for printed materials and the like, which comprises:

• (a) a frame structure with front and back vertical standards;
• (b) upper and lower heater panel assemblies vertically movably mounted within said frame structure, each said heater panel assembly including:
• (1) a guide frame with front and back longitudinal members each having a plurality of rollers mounted thereon adapted for engaging said frame structure standards;
• (2) a heat lamp tray with front, back, left and right raceways, said heat lamp tray of said upper heater panel assembly being attached to and suspended below a respective guide frame of said upper heater panel assembly and said heat lamp tray of said lower heater panel assembly being attached to and supported above a respective guide frame of said lower heater panel assembly;
• (3) a plurality of juxtaposed and substantially coplanar quartz tube heat lamps extending across said heat lamp tray between respective opposite raceaways;
• (4) a plurality of reflectors attached to and extending across said heat lamp tray, each said reflector partially surrounding a respective heat lamp and being open in the direction of the other said heater panel assembly;
• and
• (5) each said front and back raceway having a respective opening at an end thereof;
• (c) a pneumatic cylinder mounted on said frame structure and having an extensible and retractible rod attached to said guide frame of said lower heater panel assembly;
• (d) front and back pairs of pulleys attached to said frame structure;
• (e) a plurality of cables each trained over a respective pully and having an upper end attached to said upper heater panel assembly and a lower end attached to said lower heater panel assembly;
• (f) a drying air subsystem including:
• (1) a blower mounted on said frame structure;
• (2) a duct network extending from said blower and including upper and lower manifolds mounted within said frame structure above and below said upper and lower heater panel assemblies respectively and a plurality of flexible drying air hoses communicating with said drying air manifolds;
• and
• (3) a plurality of nozzles mounted on said heat lamp trays between respective heat lamps and receiving forced air from said flexible hoses;
• (g) a cooling air subsystem including:
• (1) upper and lower cooling air blowers mounted on said frame structure;
• and
• (2) a cooling air duct network including a plurality of flexible cooling air hoses communicating said upper and lower cooling air blowers with said raceways of said upper and lower heater panel assemblies;
• and
• (h) an exhaust air subsystem including:
• (1) upper and lower exhaust blowers;
• (2) an exhaust duct network including upper and lower exhaust manifolds communicating with said upper and lower exhaust blowers respectively and a plurality of flexible hoses each connected to a respective exhaust manifold;
• and
• (3) a plurality of exhaust hoods mounted on said upper and lower heater panel assemblies and connected to respective flexible hoses for communication with said exhaust manifolds;
• (i) said heater panel assemblies having respective open positions in relatively widely spaced relation and respective closed positions in relatively closely spaced relation, said lower heater panel assembly being reciprocated between its open and closed positions by said pneumatic cylinder and said upper heater panel assembly being reciprocated between its upper and lower positions by said cables.

A method of drying a web of printed material, which comprises the steps of:

• (a) detecting movement of a printed material web with respect to a dryer;
• (b) moving a pair of heater panel assemblies each including a heat lamp to a closed position whereat said heat lamps are in close proximity to said printed material web from an open position with said heat lamps spaced relatively further from said printed material web, said movements being guided by guide means;
• (c) actuating said heat lamps;
• and
• (d) blowing air from an air blower through a duct to at least one said heater panel assembly for communication with said printed material in said dryer to facilitate drying said printed material.