FiftyYearsof Continuous
Steamer
Evolution
By Charles B. Palmer, Zima Corp., retired, Spartanburg, S.c.
n the summer of 1949,withthe ink
barely dry on my bachelor degree in
I Chemical Engineering, I saw my
, first continuous dye range steamer
and was mystified by its operation.
Cloth going into the steamer through a
slot in the top of the entry wall and
exiting the steamer through a water
bath at the end of the steamer made
sense. But why was all that steam
gushing from the entry and why was
the atmosphere inside the steamer so
cloudy? Why was this steamer leaking
steam from so many points where the
rolls went through the steamer wall
and what was the purpose of the pul-
leys on each of the top rolls? They
certainly were not being driven by
anything unless that broken leather
strapping lying near the steamer had
something to do with it. It was a quick
trip through this plant without much
time for questions, and shortly there-
after I went to work in a batch process-
ing plant.
Thirteen years later, I visited several
more continuous fabric processing
plants specifically to study the pro-
cesses and the equipment. And what I
saw in the way of dye range steamers
was nothing but wider models of the
same steamer described previously
with somewhat better steaming condi-
tions but with all of the deficiencies
present to varying degrees. I then se-
lected similar steamers for a plant that
was on the drawing boards. Nothing
had changed in the interim, and I sup-
posed that was the way it should be!
WAKEUP CAll
In retrospect, I think steamer improve-
ments were not made in the interven-
ing years because nobody asked for
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them. Plant production people, who
knew most about the process, were
producing acceptable product; plant
engineers, who more than anyone else
selected the equipment for a plant but
knew least about the process, saw no
reason to change; and the machinery
producers certainly had no interest in
changing their models because of the
engineering and retooling costs in-
volved. There were only two major
suppliers of continuous wet processing
equipment in the United States in the
1950s, and they were quite satisfied
with the status quo.
Gradually, things were happening
that literally forced fabric and machin-
ery producers to sit up and take notice.
Our economy increasingly became
global. European and Japanese ma-
chinery manufacturers were offering
equipment to the United States that
looked and operated differently in
many respects but could be purchased
at competitive prices. In the 1970s, we
had an energy crunch followed by the
returned popularity of 100% cotton
fabrics in the 1980s. Emerging nations
with significantly lower labor rates
were taking "our" business and pro-
ducing fabrics on new equipment more
efficiently. It was a wake up call we
heeded; those who didn't are no longer
with us.
Continuing Improvements
In the ensuing years, many improve-
ments were made in continuous wet
processing equipment. These were
driven by the need to be competitive,
increase speed, conserve energy, im-
prove process results, and the influx of
technically trained people who recog-
nized the problems and were not will-
ing to accept them without trying to
overcome them. Everything was sub-
ject to question and the phrase "we
always did it this way" gradually dis-
appeared from wet processing plants.
For this desirable state of affairs to
occur, it was absolutely necessary for
plant production, technical, and engi-
neering personnel to meet together,
reach agreement about machinery
requirements, and very much become
a part of the decision making team
that clearly presented these require-
ments to the machinery manufactur-
ers. The results were excellent with
even the most staid suppliers making
some effort to fulfill those require-
ments. Both suppliers and users ben-
efited in what came to be recognized
as a win-win situation.
Similarities of Steamers
Before we go further, let us consider
the similarities of the steamers under
consideration. Tight strand steamers in
a fabric dye range, conveyer and roller
bed steamers in a fabric preparation
range, a type of festoon steamer in a
carpet dye range, and steamers for
continuous dyeing of pile fabrics all
had one thing in common. They used
copious amounts of steam because
much of the steam consumed was
exhausted to the atmosphere (hence
steam billowing from entry and exit
slots) in order to keep those steamers
filled with steam to the exclusion of
all'.
A common requirement was and is
that the steam must be saturated for
best results in a dye or preparation
range. Conversely, desuperheated
steam; i.e., unsaturated, causes myriad
problems ranging from badly soiled
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and difficult-to-clean interior rolls and
surfaces to poor fabric quality result-
ing from improper preparation condi-
tions damaging fibers, and dyeing
processes not reaching optimum end-
point with consequent fabric appear-
ance or quality problems.
PROPERTIES
Of STEAM
Steam-saturated or superheated-is a
colorless gas and is lighter than air.
Only if it condenses in the steamer
atmosphere does it look cloudy and
this condensation is normally caused
by air entering the steamer with the
fabric or through leaky seals where
roll journals pass through steamer
walls. Such condensation must be
absolutely minimized to obtain satis-
factory results.
Wet Steam
Saturated steam, sometimes called wet were not designed to make that
steam, is steam that can contain no
additional water. Therefore it cannot
dry roll surfaces or fabrics in contact
with it to their detriment. Saturated
steam, at sea level, in a steamer open
to the atmosphere, is always at 212F.
You can find this and other useful
information in any set of steam tables. J steam continues to pass through it
The one I use was published in 1933,
but the information in it never
changes; it is not debatable. In the
atmospheric steamers, you may have
sensors telling you differently, but I
guarantee they are being fooled (by
radiation, for example) and they are
fooling you.
Dry Steam
Boilers usually produce steam with
varying degrees of superheat; i.e.,
steam that is "dry" and can absorb
water until it becomes saturated. The
more degrees of superheat (actual
steam temperature under pressure
versus temperature of saturated steam
at the same pressure) the more prob-
lems you will have, which is why you
must superheat in one of several ways. nance free.
In most cases, you simply add water to
the steam by passing it through a sump from Kiisters Corp. for many years
or spraying water under pressure into
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the main delivering steam. This latter
method sounds simple, and it is if you
control the amount of water being
added. But, it has a high maintenance
requirement because spray nozzles
supplying the water clog easily and,
under the best conditions, you cannot
achieve true saturation. For this reason,
early steamers had a wet bottom, or
sump, through which steam, under
pressure, was passed to provide the
required steam atmosphere.
Wet Bottoms
The wet bottom works well if the
steam supply pressure and the steam
velocity entering the sump are low
enough and the height of water in the
sump is high enough to allow the
steam to condense in the sump and
boil the sump to provide saturated
steam to the steamer. But wet bottoms
happen.
Consider that a really deep sump of
2.5 ft only exerts 1 Ib/in2 of hydraulic
pressure on the bottom of the sump.
Steam of many times that pressure is
sparged into the sump with the result
that the sump eventually boils, but
without becoming fully saturated (i.e.,
the difference in pressure between
steam and sump depth means that
much steam passes through the sump
and into the steamer atmosphere with-
out first condensing).
External Sump
The answer was to design and build an
external sump with a minute water
volume compared to a steamer wet
sump but with a sufficiently high wa-
ter column and internal mechanisms to
ensure that steam passing through it
would always be saturated and avail-
able in the quantities required. An
added bonus was that this external
sump operated at atmospheric pres-
sure, was totally reliable, and mainte-
Such a sump has been available
now and used with all type of dyeing
and preparation steamers. Most inter-
esting is that the external sump was
developed and first used in the carpet
industry before being scaled down in
size for application to fabric prepara-
tion and dye steamers.
Heinz Gruber, an associate of
Eduard Kusters Machinenfabrik of
Krefeld, Germany, but located in the
United States in Dalton, Ga., the heart
of the carpet industry, was familiar
with external sumps. These were nor-
mally operated under pressure that, in
the United States, meant that the exter-
nal sump would require an ASME
code, making it more expensive to
build and limiting its construction to
metal fabricating shops licensed by
ASME. Heinz took the idea and its
deficiencies to the engineers at
Kusters Corp. in Spartanburg, S.c.,
with the result shown in Fig. 1, an
external sump operating at atmo-
spheric pressure with input steam
pressure of only a few pounds per
square inch.
CARPETiNDUSTRYSTEAMER
PROBLEMS
The carpetindustry'sproblemwas
identical to the problem found in the
fabric industry but magnified many
fold by the weight of carpet passing
through a carpet dye steamer. Al-
though acid or pre-metalized dyes
were used, it was shown conclusively
in the 1980s that saturated steam was a
requirement. Furthermore, its compo-
sition had to be constant throughout
the dye run.
Fig. 1. External sump design by KOsters.
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13
 Fig. 2. Type I steamer schematic.
Heavy Weight
Quick change color application already
had become commonplace, which
meant that one color lot followed an-
other into the steamer without interrup-
tion. Carpet weight varied widely, and
it was not uncommon for 70 oz lyd2
carpet carrying 300% of its weight in
dye liquid to follow a 40 oz lyd2 carpet
with its weight of dye liquid into the
steamer. The heavier carpet demanded
almost twice as much steam, which the
boiler could supply but that the
desuperheater, regardless of sump or
spray in line type, could not immedi-
ately desuperheat.
Until steam conditions eventually
stabilized, carpet of varying shade was
produced (i.e., off quality carpet or
carpet that could not be shipped with
the remainder of the dye lot). The
development of the external sump
solved this problem. It was engineered
to handle the easily calculated steam
volume requirement of the heaviest
carpet to be dyed and was capable of
switching instantaneously to lower
carpet weights and back again to
higher carpet weights without variation
in steam quality. Furthermore, the
change in steam volume was con-
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14
Fig. 3. Type II steamer schematic.
trolled automatically by an RTD sensor
feeding its signal to a simple control-
ler. (More about the control method
later since it was first developed about
10 years prior to the external sump.)
Energy Costs
The energy crunch of the 1970s hit the
carpet industry particularly hard be-
cause of the heavy weights they pro-
cessed. Early carpet steamers re-
sembled fabric dye range steamers in
that they had top entry and exits.
Steam was supplied through a sump or
from bottom sparge lines delivering
steam supposedly superheated by a
spray-in-line desuperheater.
In the example used, this Type I
steamer (Fig. 2) billowing steam from
exit and entry was consuming 14,000
Ibs/hr of steam, which had become
veryexpensive.2 With energy costs
rapidly increasing, it did not take long
to design, build, and sell the Type II
steamer (Fig. 3) with low entry and
exit slots. This simple change reduced
steam consumption to 7,700 Ib/hr, but
that only provided some breathing
room to develop the Type III steamer
(Fig. 4), which consumed only 4,700
Ib/hr, roughly one-third the amount of
the Type I steamer and very close to
the calculated amount of steam re-
quired by a 100% efficient process.
The company from which this data was
collected said their steamer was saving
them $250,000 per year!
Cloud Control
The Type III steamer had entry and
exit slots even lower than the Type II.
Unlike the others, however, steam was
introduced from sparge lines in the
top, and the amount of steam was
controlled by measuring the tempera-
ture of the "cloud" formed in the area
of the interface between steam and air
at the bottom of the steamer. By vary-
ing steam flow to satisfy a setpoint
measured in the "cloud" below the
carpet path through the steamer, the
steamer remained filled with steam but
none was exhausted. The carpet con-
sumed only the steam the dye process
required and none was wasted. If for
any reason, and there were some legiti-
mate ones, it was necessary to provide
excess steam and exhaust a controlled
amount, the control system could eas-
ily handle this requirement.
The "cloud control" also was devel-
oped by engineers from Kiisters in
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 had exhaust ducting at the entry and
exit lips because the customers could
not believe that the steamer did not
require an exhaust.
Some owners continue to add a
surplus of steam and run their exhaust
fans; others have blocked their exhaust
ducts for further steam savings. Steam
savings when operating these steamers
as intended recover their cost in about
one year. The external sump has been
downsized to accommodate this
smaller equipment and, as expected,
eliminates all steam problems often
encountered in preparation equipment.
2l2F. So they placed their sensors
close enough to the steamer roof and
pressurize the roof sufficiently to radi-
ate the sensor and get the reading they
wish, while the steamer continues to
exhaust 2l2F steam from the bottom.
They were satisfied with the result, the
steamer manufacturer was satisfied
with the result, and with the addition
of the external sump, the process re-
mained in control regardless of how
you fiddled with it!
OTHERIMPROVEMENTS
Seals

Fig. 4. Type III steamer schematic.

Spartanburg,S.c. It resultedin a
steamerwith steamon top and air on
the bottom similar to the "open bot-
tom" Arioli steamer used in the wet
printing industry but with a distinctly
different control principle. Years later,
when the external sump was developed
and added to these steamers, they
became ideal for the process.
fABRIC fOllOWS
Following on the heels of the steamer
developments in the carpet industry,
the same principles were applied to
fabric preparation steamers. They
worked just as well, reducing steam
consumption to the amount required
by the process plus an insignificant
loss to radiation. Many steamers of
this type (Fig. 5) were sold and most
Fabric Dye Steamer
The last bastion of resistance to mod-
ern steamer design was the tight strand
fabric dye steamer. During the last 20
years, dyehouse managers grudgingly
gave up the top entry for mid-entry and
finally for true bottom entry (Fig. 6),
fearing all the time that they might be
doing wrong even though each change
resulted in improved conditions.
They even liked the "cloud control"
principle, but absolutely would not
consider eliminating overflow; i.e., the
excess steam that then had to be
exhausted from the lip. No need for
the steamer manufacturer to argue over
that point; his control system would
handle it with a simple change in
setpoint.
Much more difficult was to con-
vince the dyer and the dye supplier's
technical people that you cannot oper-
ate an atmospheric steamer above
While the developments above were
taking place, lesser known improve-
ments were being made that were
applicable to all steamers, since all
steamers have rolls whose journals
pass through the steamer walls. Many
of these rolls must be driven, and all of
them must be sealed so that steam
does not escape wherever a roll passes
through the steamer wall. Until the
advent of the non-lubricated seal, these
seals leaked, and required lubrication
that often got into the steamer with
consequent problems.
The non-lubricated seal corrected
those problems as well as eliminating
half the lubricating points on a
steamer. The seal itself was not really
non-lubricated. It was made of plastic
inside a stainless sandwich and lubri-
cated by condensed steam. As long as
the seal was properly made and ad-
justed, it did not leak. If it failed, re-
placement was simple.

Fig. 5. Fabric preparation steamer with exhaustducting. Fig. 6. A true bottom entry steamer design.

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15
 Drive Changes
Another improvement involved the
mechanical drive to be found on the
rolls of a roller bed steamer. The tradi-
tional double sprocket on each roll and
connecting chains was replaced with
single sprockets and a single continu-
ous chain contacting only a single
tooth at a time on each sprocket as the
chain slowly drove the rolls of a roller
bed steamer. This was so successful
that maintenance disappeared, neither
chain nor sprockets wore out, and the
market shifted away from conveyer to
roller bed steamers, which also offered
fabric handling advantages.
Finally, in the 1990s, there was a
strong shift from DC to AC range
drives. These new drives had many
advantages including less expensive
and lower maintenance AC motors.
Computer programs made these drives
versatile but more sensitive and pro-
vided the ability to process fabric
under lower controlled tension.
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16
At lower tensions roll problems like
out of round, not level, or not aligned
showed up as fabric creases (that pre-
viously were eliminated by higher
tensions) and consequent off quality.
Steamer rolls became larger in diam-
eter and were manufactured to tighter
tolerances. Roll centers were short-
ened. And selected rolls were driven
by individual motors. The product was
better and its quality certainly was.
MODERNSTEAMERS
The modern dye range steamer now
has an external sump to supply satu-
rated steam at atmospheric pressure, a
"cloud" temperature sensing and con-
trol system to provide precisely the
amount of steam the process requires,
a low or true bottom entry, and the
absence of steam gushing into the
room. Roll diameters are almost twice
that of the 1950s and no more than one
roll in 20 yards is driven but by indi-
vidual motors rather than by sprockets
and chain or by pulleys and belts.
Seals do not leak and the steamer
remains cleaner and easier to clean
inside and out. You can still see its
1950s forerunner in the functional
aspects of the steamer, but the modern
version that evolved from it is the
salvation of a high speed dyeing pro-
cess and will help keep us in business
a while longer.
References
1. Keenan, 1. H. and F. G. Keyes, Ther-
modynamic Properties of Steam, John
Wiley and Sons Inc., New York, 1936.
2. Palmer, C. B., American Dyestuff
Reporter, Vol. 75, No.8, August 1986,
pp 18-20.
Author's Address
Charles Palmer, 153 Highbridge Dr.,
Spartanburg, S.C., 29307.
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