In industrial dryers, hot air is blown over wet coatings either from top or from both top and bottom sides to remove the solvent. Drying of multilayer coatings is a complicated process that involves simultaneous heat and mass transfer, transport, and thermodynamic behavior of polymer solutions. Airflow and its temperature are important operating conditions in a dryer. We report optimization of the operating conditions to minimize residual solvent without inducing blisters for two-layer coatings using mathematical modeling. Our results reveal that optimal air flow on the bottom side of the coating is always greater than or equal to that on its top side-an agreement with the common notion of "backside drying." Furthermore, the effect of coating thickness, residence time, individual layer thickness, initial solvent concentration, and reversal of the two layers on the optimal conditions is discussed. (C) 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 111: 308-316, 2009