Abstract: An improved doctoring knife for drum dryers and flakers of the type in which a product is deposited on a rotating drum and removed by action of the doctoring knife against the drum is disclosed. The improved doctoring knife is comprised of a series of knife blocks each having a cutting edge wherein the knife blocks are positioned adjacent to one another so that when the cutting edge of the knife block contacts the drum its bottom face will be in a plane substantially tangent to the line defined when the cutting edge contacts the drum. When a cutting edge is damaged the knife block containing the damaged edge can be removed and reground while undamaged knife blocks remain in position.

Abstract: The sequential drying system comprises a plurality of drying stations each having an upper section arranged in sequence in a tunnel. Material holders which are movable are provided for holding the material to be dried. Moving means move the material holders stepwise from an upper section of one drying station to the upper section of the next drying station through the tunnel. A separate lower section is provided for each drying station for moisture collecting means. Separating means are provided for separating the upper section of the drying stations from each other in the tunnel during the drying intervals between movements of the material holders. The separating means preferably is a vertical panel mounted at one end of a material holder so that it moves with the material holder. The atmosphere in each drying station is recirculated between its upper and lower sections in a closed path.