Many problems in the development of China's drying equipment industry

After more than 20 years of development, China's drying equipment industry has formed a certain number of enterprises and production scale. In terms of geographical distribution, there are many production enterprises in the eastern region and few enterprises in the central and western regions; especially in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai, there are more concentrated enterprises in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province, and there are more than 50 drying equipment manufacturers. At present, the conventional drying equipment required by the domestic market, as well as the main drying equipment required by the international market, can basically be manufactured by ourselves. This shows that the history of importing drying equipment in China has ended. But there are still some problems and hidden concerns.

Problem
According to China General Machinery Drying Equipment Industry Association, in the next few years, the demand for drying equipment in China's chemical industry will reach 3,000 units (sets); the annual demand for pharmaceutical drying equipment will reach 3,000 units (sets); agriculture, forestry, food, The annual demand for drying equipment for light industry and other industries is expected to reach 5,000 units (sets). At present, the domestic market share of drying equipment in China has reached more than 80%. It is expected that during the "10th Five-Year Plan" period, domestic dry equipment will occupy more than 90% of the domestic market. At present, the existing problems are highlighted by two aspects: regional concentration and weak technological innovation capability.

Concentrated enterprise distribution
Most of the production enterprises in China's drying equipment industry are gradually derived from the early enterprises in the industry. The geographical location is relatively concentrated, and the personnel structure has serious defects. So far, enterprises are mainly distributed in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai, Liaoning, and Black. Enterprises in these regions account for almost 50% of the total number of the whole industry. In sharp contrast, there are still some areas in China. Drying equipment manufacturer. The competition in the industry is fierce. Some enterprises pay attention to immediate interests, lack of systematic development ideas, and the overall quality is slow, which seriously hinders the normal development of the industry.

Technological development capability is not strong
After the reform and opening up, especially in recent years, the potential of China's economic growth has been effectively released, and the supply-demand relationship formed by the shortage of the economy has undergone a fundamental change, and the buyer's market has taken shape. Under the pressure of the buyer's market, some companies are catching up with the market rather than looking for and opening up the market. The company's energy is concentrated on products with more market demand and mature products in the near future. Therefore, in the oven, vibrating fluidized bed, spray dryer and other products, the manufacturers are more concentrated, and the competition is extremely fierce. There are fewer companies engaged in the development of drying equipment in the industry, and the improvement of new products and the introduction of new products mainly rely on mutual imitation.

Development proposals
â–²Adopt advanced technology to improve product quality
There is still a certain gap between China's drying equipment technology and the same industry in developed countries. At present, medium and low technology products dominate the market. After China's accession to the WTO, more international counterparts will enter the domestic market. As international competition continues to intensify, we will face tremendous competitive pressure. The world-famous drying equipment manufacturers, such as the Nero Group in Denmark and Okawara Co., Ltd. in Japan, have set up branches in China to seize the Chinese market. As the process of economic globalization accelerates, more multinational companies will shift their targets to the Chinese market. Increasing competition requires our company to improve product quality through technological advancement, absorption of advanced foreign technology, and independent innovation. The idea of ​​product development should work hard on the large-scale equipment, the degree of automation of control, the quality of surface treatment of equipment, and the selection of corrosion-resistant materials, and develop multi-functional combination machines to promote the life cycle of products. Industry associations should organize more enterprises to participate in international technical exchanges, absorb the latest technological achievements, and accelerate the improvement of the technical level of the whole industry.

â–²Adjust the corporate structure and cultivate the core competitiveness of the enterprise
The characteristics of China's drying industry are that enterprises are not big, not strong, not specialized, not refined, the quantity is large and the overall quality is not high; most enterprises are backward in management and do not reach the appropriate economies of scale. They should be guided and coordinated by industry associations to change blind development. situation. Enterprises with relatively concentrated concentration in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai may consider using joint ventures, cooperation and acquisitions to migrate to the central and western regions, and seek a broader space for enterprise survival and development. Enterprises in the industry must take the road of strong alliance, and cultivate some large companies and enterprise groups with strong technical strength, famous brands and independent intellectual property rights in the industry. Form your own specialty products and special services.

China's drying equipment manufacturers have low innovation ability, and few companies can introduce new technologies and new products with independent intellectual property rights. This is an important reason for the slow development of drying technology in China. At present, there are dozens of universities and research institutes in China engaged in the development and research of drying technology, which are distributed in the east, west, and north of China, but most of the knowledge achievements have not been effectively transformed into actual productivity. To become the main body of technological innovation, enterprises should directly cooperate with these universities and research institutes in various forms to rationally allocate and utilize resources, and effectively cultivate and develop their innovative capabilities.

Prospect
In the future, the focus of competition in the drying equipment industry will mainly focus on product quality, technical level, after-sales service and price. In the type of drying equipment, hot air heating atmospheric pressure drying equipment and vacuum drying equipment will be mainly used, and other users in special fields such as far infrared drying equipment and microwave drying equipment will gradually expand the number of applications. In terms of food and drug drying, the demand for larger specifications in vacuum freeze-drying equipment will increase, and the demand for equipment with functional combinations (such as granulation-drying, drying-filtration) will also increase, and high-automatic drying equipment will be added. It will be welcomed in some application areas. In addition, the appearance quality of drying equipment will be paid more and more attention, and the corrosion resistance and reliable performance of corrosive material drying equipment will be paid special attention by users.

At present, China's drying equipment industry has begun to enter a more mature stage of development, which can better meet the actual needs of users in various fields, and only 1/3 of the same foreign products in terms of price, which makes China's drying equipment compete in the market. Imported equipment has obvious price advantage; on the other hand, due to the large volume of drying equipment, most of them also involve on-site installation, commissioning and after-sales service. Therefore, for domestic users, it is more convenient to select domestic equipment than to import equipment. As far as the international market is concerned, after China's accession to the WTO, it is more conducive to the expansion of exports of drying equipment. At present, the main export products of drying equipment in China are vacuum drying equipment, vibration drying equipment, small and medium-sized food, food and agricultural and forestry products drying equipment, with an annual export volume of more than 100 units. The main export areas are Southeast Asia and other developing countries. The door to the European and American markets has been opened. At present, China's dry equipment export products account for less than 5% of the total domestic dry equipment. Experts expect that the proportion of dry equipment export products in the total domestic drying equipment will reach more than 10% during the 10th Five-Year Plan period.

In international competition, the main competitors of China's drying equipment manufacturers are Denmark, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Germany, the United States and Japan. Compared with competitors, the advantage of China's drying equipment is that the price is low. The main disadvantage lies in the fact that the degree of automation control, appearance quality, completeness and functional combination of the products need to be further improved.

Therefore, domestic drying equipment manufacturers should make full use of China's accession to the WTO, strengthen technical exchanges with foreign countries, draw on the strength of advanced foreign drying equipment, and accelerate the improvement of automation control, appearance quality, completeness and functional combination of drying equipment in China. We will narrow the gap with foreign products and increase the trust of our products in users, so that our country's drying equipment can occupy a place not only in the domestic market, but also in foreign markets.

The variety of drying equipment that has been produced in China is increasing day by day, the scope of application is expanding, the level and quality of products are rapidly increasing, and the market competitiveness is increasing. In particular, the Chinese government has issued various policies to support the export of products, creating excellent external conditions for domestic drying equipment manufacturers, which indicates that the development prospects of drying equipment in China are good.

Drying equipment common sense: common dryer types
At present, the common types of dryers in China include spray dryers, airflow dryers, fluidized bed dryers, fluidized bed spray granulation dryers, and the like.

Spray dryer spray drying is one of the fastest growing equipment in drying equipment. There are three conventional atomization methods: rotary atomization, pressure atomization, and air atomization.

Rotary atomization spray drying is characterized by large single machine production capacity (spray volume up to 200t / h), easy to control the amount of feed, flexible operation, and a wide range of applications.

The spray atomization of the pressure atomizer is characterized by the ability to manufacture coarse particles for easy maintenance. Since the nozzle hole is small and easy to block, the liquid must be strictly filtered. The nozzle holes are subject to wear and must be made of wear resistant materials. Pressure nozzles also have a new structure called a pressure-flow nozzle. It features a pressure nozzle at the center and an airflow nozzle around it. The atomization is divided into two stages: the pressure nozzle first forms a liquid film, and the liquid film is atomized by the gas flow for a second time to make the droplets finer. The advantages of this type of nozzle are: (1) adjusting the pressure of the compressed air, the droplet diameter can be adjusted, and the operation is simple; (2) the large-volume, high-viscosity liquid can also be atomized into fine mist droplets; If compressed air is deactivated, the original pressure nozzle can also be used.

Airflow atomizers are mainly used in laboratories and intermediate plants, and their power consumption is high. The first two atomizers can not atomize the liquid, and the airflow atomizer may atomize. High viscosity pastes, pastes and filter cake materials can be atomized using a three fluid nozzle.

Airflow dryer airflow drying technology is mature, if there is operational data, it can be designed directly. At present, many drying equipment manufacturers can provide this type of equipment.

Fluidized bed dryers Fluidized bed dryers are second only to spray dryers. It is divided into a fluidized bed dryer with a stirrer at the feeding site and a fluidized bed dryer with internal heat exchange. When a fluidized bed is used to dry the granules and materials which are easy to unite or agglomerate, fluidization is difficult in the feeding section where the moisture is relatively large. At this time, a stirrer is arranged in the feeding section to eliminate the agglomeration problem and achieve normal flow. Chemical. The latter is a combination of conduction heat transfer and convection heat transfer. When the amount of hot air used in the normal fluidization state is far from satisfying the heat required for drying, an internal heat exchanger is provided to supply part or most of the heat. This type of operation can significantly save energy. Internal heat exchangers come in many forms. Fluidized beds are also often used to combine dry second and third stage dryers.

Vibration is applied to a conventional fluidized bed, called a vibrating fluidized bed. Vibration fluidization can be divided into two categories from the generation of vibration sources: one is driven by a vibration motor; the other is an ordinary motor that vibrates the spring through an excitation box. When the size of the vibrating fluidized bed is large, the latter has a better effect.

Fluidized bed spray granulation dryer This process is an organic combination of fluidization technology, atomization technology and drying technology. It sprays the atomized liquid onto the fluidized seed bed, causing the seed crystal to grow and dry continuously, and to grow up to the specified size when the ejector is outside. The device is small in size and large in productivity, and can produce large particles. The industrial application of this device has been increasing.