When Robert Barnes was asked by a friend to build a dryer
to dehydrate macadamia nuts 25 years ago, he never thought
it would be the start of his own drying machine
business.

Robert, an electrician and refrigeration
engineer by trade, set up his own refrigeration and
air-conditioning company in 1989, attracting Port of
Tauranga as one of his clients. Since 1995 he has also been
using his skills to develop highly innovative Rexmoi®
Dryers. He sold the refrigeration and air conditioning
business five years ago to focus solely on Drying Solutions
Ltd.

Now Robert is gearing up to exhibit a Rexmoi®
Dryer, at his fourth Foodtech Packtech show next
month.

Robert says he’s proud that his dryers enable
people to turn ordinary products, in some cases waste
material, into high-quality, high-value finished goods for
the ultimate benefit of New Zealand.

Rexmoi® Dryers
use a refrigeration system, rather like a heat pump, to
create a warm, dry enclosure where the products are dried.
Warm, dry, filtered air flows over the product to remove the
moisture which is then condensed and drained out through a
small pipe.

The product is laid out on stainless steel
trays mounted on trolleys for easy handling. Several
different types of tray are available to suit the various
products such as wet slices, nuts, raisins, pet-food and
bushy material.

Rexmoi® Dryers use much less energy
than other drying systems, and are totally enclosed so no
smells or gases are emitted into the atmosphere. They are
covered by several patents and trademarks.

The drying
process is controlled by a programmable controller which
Robert sets in conjunction with the client to provide an
optimum drying ‘recipe’ for each product. This sets a
specific temperature, humidity and airflow in the chamber at
each stage of drying, to maximize the quality of the
finished product. The dryer can even be used for cooking
products at low temperatures.

While business is going
well for this Tauranga resident, he says there’s always
room for improvement, so he is constantly thinking of
features to give more sustainable drying options for the
food industry. He is currently investigating whether the
energy released from the dryer during the final cooling
stage can be economically recovered to heat water for
factory cleaning.

With the support of his wife
Paulette, who looks after all the paperwork and accounts for
the business, Robert focuses on what he does best –
designing, innovating, manufacturing and commissioning the
Rexmoi® Dryers.

“We encourage people to trial our
units first, have a go at drying and figure out how to dry
their product. It sounds simple, but it’s actually quite
complex. They identify any problems and we find a solution
to match their expectations.”

Robert says trials of
his dryers have been carried out on many products including
tomatoes, fruit slices, herbs, mussels, fish, blueberries,
leaves and nuts. They have even been used to bake
meringues.

“People hire our units if they are
starting out on their drying business journey, to help them
in a drying business or to trial drying. Once they’ve
tested out the dryer, we can modify the unit to suit the
client and then build a unit for that client,” says
Robert.

“I’m really excited for the next steps in
this business. For example I’d love to see our dryers used
in the Pacific Island nations for drying natural resources
such as coconut, kava, leaf and sea slugs. We get a lot of
enquiries from that region for those products, and it would
be a great opportunity to create and support micro economies
there. Once the product is dried it’s much easier to
preserve it and transport
overseas.”

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