There are dryers, and there are “dryers” – especially in the electronics manufacturing industry. “Dryer” should be understood as an umbrella term for thermal systems in the electronics industry which are not used to produce firmly bonded connections, i.e., neither soldered, sintered nor diffusion-soldered. These can be real drying processes (e.g. the drying out of pastes), curing (e.g. of polymer coatings), burn-in processes (burn-in test for components to locate early defects) or annealing (to produce special properties of connecting materials). Another area of application for curing and drying systems is in protective coating.
For all these applications, Rehm Thermal Systems offers a wide range of innovative drying and curing processes to meet every requirement. Below are the various systems with individual advantages in terms of product requirements and space requirements.
Vertical dryer Alteco
One of Rehm”s latest developments is the vertical drying system Alteco, which offers maximum performance with minimum space requirements. All industries that utilise coating processes and work with sensitive flat assemblies with protective coating benefit from this system. In addition to the best temperature profiling possibilities and low energy consumption, the minimum space requirement was also successfully achieved in the implementation of this system. Thanks to vertical transport, the Alteco replaces a comparable 40-metre-long horizontal dryer with a system length of just 4 metres. With this innovative system concept, valuable space in the production hall can be saved, existing resources can be optimally used, and daily production can be optimised.
Meander system
Vertical dryers save space on the surface, but require sufficient height clearance in the production facilities. In addition, the natural thermals in a vertical process chamber are crucial for the process, as heat always rises. If very small tolerances in the reproducibility of the temperature-time profile are required, it may be technically more sensible to thermally process the products in a horizontal process chamber. With the RDS 45000 meander system, Rehm has developed a special solution that enables equally long product dwell times at a productivity of 3.5 units/min in a horizontal position. The products meander in 13 tracks through the process chamber, which has a maximum temperature of 130°C and is equipped with 18 heating zones. The meander system also features seamless traceability: the barcode of the individual assembly is read in, which enables an exact assignment of the process-related data.
Continuous dryer Pramo
In the continuous dryer Pramo, the assemblies are transported through the system on goods carriers with “shuttle” supports. Within the dryer, they pass through several zones in which they are heated up to the appropriate temperature and then maintained at the set temperature for the drying/hardening process. The maximum temperature in the dryer is 150°C. In order to harden the materials according to the specifications, the cycle time can be adjusted according to the necessary dwell time of the assemblies in the drying system. The flexible goods carrier receptors are interchangeable, which means various assemblies and also special forms can be guided safely and reliably through the system at any time.
RDS Lacquer Dryer
The optimum heat management of the RDS lacquer dryers with upper and lower heaters works with infrared radiation (IR) and/or convection to dry the various materials reliably. By implementing these two heat transfer processes, the systems are optimally designed for the processing of lacquers and castings containing solvents. The exceptional thermal insulation of heating zones and the individually adjustable temperatures allow for optimum profiling of your drying processes – which are perfectly adapted to the requirements of the products. In the drying phase, the temperature is maintained until the material has hardened completely. A stronger convection is needed for this, as the evaporating solvents need to be discharged. In the subsequent cooling phase, the components are cooled down gently. Despite this, the component still has an outlet temperature of around 60°C. A separate air or water-cooled cooling unit is available as an option, and can be used to achieve significantly lower temperatures.