Abstract:In order to solve the problems of conventional air-impingement dryer such as small loading capacity, no uniformity of drying and crustation, a tilted tray air-impingement dryer was designed. This apparatus was composed of tilted tray skip, drying chamber, hot air recycling system, humidifying system and control system. The technological and structural parameters of the dryer, for instance, drying temperature, absolute humidity, airflow velocity, inclination angle, separation distance and nozzle arrangement can be adjusted according to different material properties and products requirement. The experimental results of Hami melon slices demonstrated that the drying uniformity coefficient can reach to 0.97. The carrying capacity and the dehydration intensity of the dryer were increased by 1.7 times and 3.65 times, respectively, compared with the conventional air-impingement dryer at the same temperature. And the drying time was shortened by 11.1% at the same time. The unit energy consumption of Hami melon slices treated by tilted tray air-impingement dryer was about 67.9% lower than that by the conventional way. Both the browning degree and shrinkage level were better than that of the latter. This research improves the loading capacity and adaptability of materials, which provide significance in enlarging applied range of air-impingement technology.