4 Plate Freezing Solutions for a Higher Quality Product
Plate freezing solutions are constantly getting better. You may not realize it, but many of the food products we eat are frozen in a plate freezer. Some examples are fish, meat, and vegetable products, as well as some pastries. But other items are able to be plate frozen into blocks, like vegetables. Even delicate items can be frozen using plate freezers.
There are plenty of reasons for using plate freezing. Plate freezing reduces physical handling of food during processing and preserves product texture, taste, and nutritional value. Freezing the product at its peak freshness ensures the end user gets the highest quality product experience possible.
1. Horizontal Plate Freezers
Horizontal plate freezers are a manually loaded batch style freezer using layers of aluminum plates with refrigerant flowing through them. Product in trays or boxes is placed in between the plate layers. After fully loading the freezer, the freezer plates are lowered until they make contact with the top of the product putting a slight bit of pressure on the product to have full contact. The full contact ensures the most efficient method of transferring heat from the product to the refrigerant.
2. Automatic Plate Freezers
Automatic horizontal plate freezers are the big brother of the standard horizontal plate freezer. The automatic plate freezer is a first in/first out style of freezer that conveys the product either in trays or boxes to the freezer and distributes the product to the correct plate opening. As the freezer is loading product by a pusher the frozen product is being pushed out the other side. The frozen product is then conveyed to the packaging line for final packaging or to palletizing.
Automatic plate freezers eliminate the need for labor to load and unload the freezer, speeding up the process and increasing overall capacity. They can use all of the standard refrigerants that a standard horizontal plate freezer can use.
3. Standard Vertical Plate Freezer
Carsoe vertical plate freezers are built to deliver high product quality at the lowest possible cost. Large capacity, good ergonomics, and an easy-to-clean design, all make these machines popular plate freezing solutions.
Vertical plate freezers are typically used for freezing product that will be packaged or palletized after the freezing process. The product is filled directly into the vertical pockets where the product comes into direct contact with the freezing plates. Direct contact has the highest rate of heat transfer and is proven to be the most efficient way to freeze.
4. Flat Top Style Vertical Plate Freezer
The new generation of flat top freezer is designed to be the most hygienic vertical freezer on the market. With its all-stainless frame, no other standard flat top is as hygienic.
Similar to the standard vertical freezer, product is loaded into the top of the freezer into freezing stations. The freezing station can be one large block or can be fixed with permanent dividers to make multiple blocks per station.
The Flat top freezer is the easiest freezer to automate and to clean. These two factors make it the most productive vertical freezer in our lineup.
Plate Freezing Solutions
Whether you need a single machine or many, Scan American’s line of Carsoe products can supply a freezer to suite your application. Each of our plate freezing systems can handle whatever it is your company is processing. People expect quality from their frozen foods and you want to deliver quality to them. The faster the freezing process, the fresher the food will be when it reaches your consumer.
Carsoe/Freezertech is the technology leader in automated plate freezing. They offer stand-alone freezing units as well as complete customized solutions. If you are interested in how you can use the latest advancements in plate freezing technology to increase efficiency and further improve your end product, contact Scan American today.