Spooner’s impressive Test and R&D Facility can support you in testing new equipment, processes and developing ideas, and it’s available to hire!

You can ensure your new product or existing process gives the optimum results in terms of efficiency, throughput and product quality before making a significant investment in new equipment.

Since 1932, Spooner Industries has led the way in forced air convection technology and continues to invest in the future of research and technology that can make a difference in so many diverse sectors. As a world leader in forced convection technology, Spooner design, engineer and manufacture industrial solutions for all drying, curing, cooling, air flotation and turning equipment for a wide and diverse variety of converting processes.

Spooner’s test and development centre is based at Spooner’s headquarters in Ilkley, West Yorkshire and is available for both new and existing customers to hire. Whilst working in the Test Centre, customers are assured of confidentiality throughout, and Spooner’s highly skilled and experienced engineers are on hand to help.

A comprehensive and versatile range of equipment is available, allowing customers to reproduce drying, curing, heating, cooling or coating processes for converting applications.

The test centre’s High Speed Coating Line (HSCL) is a modern, high-speed converting machine capable of curing, coating and flotation drying. A wide variety of products and substrates can be tested with state-of-the-art sensors and a sophisticated data-logging system for the comprehensive monitoring, recording and analysis of all drying and curing process parameters.

Spooner’s four zone HSCL dryer can accommodate the full range of Spooner flotation nozzles and is capable of many coating techniques including:

• Direct and reverse gravure
• Offset gravure
• Chambered doctor blade
• Trailing doctor blade
• Three roll hydrophilic (chrome roll)
• Three roll reverse
• Size press simulation

The HSCL dryer also features an air temperature range from 40-350°C, nozzle velocities up to 90m/s, and a line speed from 0 to 1000m/min, on-line corona discharge treater, LEL monitoring for solvent based chemistries and air turn units at dryer entry and exit.

Spooner’s Test Centre also features various hand sample machines which can be used for the in-depth study of a wide variety of coating, heating, drying and cooling processes. These pilot machines are extremely versatile and can simulate most commercially available drying and curing systems. Spooner uses these machines extensively for development purposes and the evaluation and characterisation of the process you require.

If you want to find out more about our test and R&D facility or any of our Converting equipment, get in touch with Lee Fairhurst at lfairhurst@spooner.co.uk or 44 (0)1943 885 724.

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