The thumbnail version:
- Energy costs keep rising.
- Dryers chew energy.
- There are ways to reduce a dryer’s energy consumption.
The full version:
The new generation of dryers are being made to be much more energy efficient which is of course the right way to go in view of rising energy costs and a growing emphasis on sustainability. But what if you have an older less energy-efficient dryer and with no plan (or budget) to buy a new one anytime soon?
Well, an article in the May edition of Images Magazine has a few suggestions for running your older less-efficient dryer more efficiently. One suggestion is to ditch the dryer completely and use air-dry inks with a catalyst that allows them to air-cure after 48 hours. Since this is quite a drastic change and probably completely impractical for most Canadian textile printers, let’s move onto two other suggestions.
The first concerns using lower-curing plastisol ink. For instance, ink that cures at 130 to 135 degrees Celsius as opposed to the more common range of 160 to 165 degrees.
The second suggestion is about not running the dryer all day but to instead flash your prints, accumulate them, and then run them all through the dryer at once close to the end of the day. This is even more appealing if you’re in a jurisdiction with lower rates later in the day or in the evening.
The above suggestions could help you keep your energy bills in check until you have to buy a new dryer. That then becomes a whole new ball game in which you’re going to inquire in depth about energy-saving features built into each of the models you’re considering.