Abstract: An apparatus for the treatment of material in the form of webs, usually textile webs, with a heated treating fluid, e.g. hot air for the drying of the material, comprises a drum having a perforated periphery adapted to receive the web from a so-called float-dryer disposed above the drum. The treating fluid is forced through the perforations of the drum and contacts the web lying therealong. The float-dryer has a surface inclined downwardly toward the surface of the drum in a direction opposite the direction of rotation thereof and in a direction opposite the direction of rotation thereof and is provided with means forming a fluid cushion between the web and the float-dryer surface. The arrangement prevents the application of tensile stress to any significant extent to the web during the predrying and subsequent treatment thereof on the surface of the drum at the transition region between the predryer and the drum surface or elsewhere along the treating path.

Abstract: An apparatus for drying a continuously moving web has a housing defining a vertical zigzag path having a succession of oppositely directed and inclined stretches each flanked by a pair of parallel and confronting walls each in turn provided with an array of nozzles. Rollers are provided at the ends of the stretches for reversal and guiding of the web, and a blower is provided whose pressure side is connected to the nozzles for creating a gas cushion to each side of the web which supports the web and guides it along the path. Each of the walls is corrugated in a direction perpendicular to the direction of travel of the web, and the nozzles are provided on each side of the crests of the corrugations. The gas cushion is drawn off at the ends of the troughs of the corrugations.