Powered bottle dryer with 5015 fan

thingiverse

Fan powered bottle dryer that uses a single 5015 fan to speed drying times efficiently. Designed for use with a minimum ID of 16mm for the bottle mouth, this innovative system ensures fast and effective results. Design info: ---------------- We reuse bottles from a particular Italian soda brand, which means washing them out thoroughly. However, they have a small mouth, only a little over 16mm in diameter - so I found alexthurlow's fan powered bottle dryer design online and was ready to print it until I realized the OD of the nozzle was 25mm, too large to fit inside the bottle comfortably. I enjoy designing parts in Fusion 360, so I used his design as an inspiration for my from-scratch creation. I noticed that with the smooth outside of the nozzle, if it matched the ID of the bottle, the air wouldn't have a clear route to escape - so I changed my design to include a path for air to leave freely. I also realized that having the fan farther out resulted in a longer area that would require either bridging or support material, so I redesigned it with the fan tucked in closer to minimize this area significantly. I also made the transition from the blower exit to the round nozzle as a loft to hopefully decrease flow losses even further. As it is, with an 8.5V power supply on the fan (which I thought was a 12V one), the air jet is surprisingly strong and effective. In a test with a larger mouth bottle (around 40mm in diameter) the bottle was nice and dry in maybe 15-20 minutes. Small warning: ---------------- The bottles we use with a 16mm ID are quite tall, nearly 300mm (12 inches) tall - standing them up on the mouth isn't exactly the most stable setup. In my testing they don't tend to fall over, but it would be good to make sure the bottle and blower are on a flat, stable surface before letting it sit for any length of time. Possible improvements: ---------------- With a larger diameter bottle, it's possible to put the bottle off-center so it isn't partially covering the fan inlet. I could make the support fin opposite the fan longer so a larger bottle could be handled off-center with ease. I'm also curious if blowing in air from the side might help circulation which would result in even faster drying times and better results overall. The current design works for most of our applications which range up to standard bicycle water bottles successfully.