Abstract: The performance of fire hose directly affects the fire extinguishing efficiency and rescue safety in fire and rescue. Proper drying can prolong the service life, improve operational reliability and reduce costs. To address the problems of high energy consumption and long processing cycles of conventional drying methods, this study proposes a collaborative drying technology that integrates infrared radiation with air source heat pump. Four comparative experimental protocols were designed (infrared drying, heat pump-infrared segmented drying, infrared-heat pump segmented drying, infrared-heat pump combined drying). A quantitative evaluation system including power consumption, SMER and MER was established to investigate the influence mechanism of different operating parameters on drying efficiency. Experimental results show that when the heat pump-infrared segmented drying mode (infrared temperature 35 ℃, mode conversion time 1.5 h) is adopted, the comprehensive performance of the system is the best. Total energy consumption is reduced to 4.74 kWh, SMER increases to 1.35 kg/kWh, and MER reaches 2.56 kg/h, representing a 27.3% reduction in energy consumption compared to traditional heat pump drying. The parameter optimization scheme proposed in this study can reduce the operating costs of the fire hose drying system and promote the sustainable use of fire hose, offering significant environmental value.

Key words: fire hose, infrared-heat pump combined drying, infrared drying, drying conditions, system performance, evaluation system