Dielectric drying kiln material handling system

Abstract

A dielectric drying kiln material handling system includes a bottom electrode incorporating a conveyor system for moving material along said bottom electrode for moving material on and off of the electrode. Conveyors are built into the electrode in a manner so that the electrode surface of the bottom electrode, i.e. the surface contacting material to be dried is configured with gaps having dimensions so that the gaps do not significantly affect the uniformity of the power distribution over the electrode surface. Various types of conveyors may be used such as slat conveyors, roller conveyors, belt conveyors and the like provided the gaps, i.e. between the slats receiving the rollers or for accommodating the return rollers belt type conveyor are configured with dimensions so that the gaps do not significantly affect the uniformity of electromagnetic field and power distribution over the effective surface of the bottom electrode. The preferred arrangement permits computer control and includes an infeed conveyor, a electrode conveyor and an outfeed conveyor arranged in series so that material to be dried is positioned on the infeed conveyor and fed into the kiln with the feed forward of the infeed conveyor correlated with that of the electrode conveyor to deliver the material to be dried into position onto the electrode conveyor and then after drying, electrode conveyor is correlated with the outfeed conveyor to move the material from the electrode conveyor onto the outfeed conveyor. Preferably, the infeed conveyor delivers material into the kiln at the same time as the outfeed conveyor is receiving material being expelled from the kiln.