Heat treatment apparatus and method for manufacturing toner

A heat treatment apparatus for heat-treating powder particles containing a thermoplastic binder resin, comprising:

• a raw-material supply unit for supplying the powder particles into the apparatus;
• a hot-air supply unit for heat-treating the supplied powder particles;
• and
• a discharge portion for discharging the heat-treated powder particles, the discharge portion being positioned in a downstream side of the raw-material supply unit and the hot-air supply unit,
• wherein:
• the raw-material supply unit is circularly provided so as to surround the hot-air supply unit at such a position as to be adjacent to an outer peripheral face of the hot-air supply unit, or at such a position as to be separated from the outer peripheral face in the horizontal direction,
• from an outlet of the hot-air supply unit, hot air is supplied toward the powder particles which are supplied from the raw-material supply unit,
• the hot-air supply unit has a first nozzle and a second nozzle which spread in a radial direction to the downstream side from an upstream side in a hot-air supply direction,
• the second nozzle is arranged in the inside of the first nozzle, and
• the hot air passes through a space between the inside of the first nozzle and the outside of the second nozzle,
• and wherein:
• the heat treatment apparatus further comprises an air-flow adjustment unit for rotating the supplied hot air spirally along an inner wall face of the apparatus, the air-flow adjustment unit being provided in an outlet portion of the hot-air supply unit.