Plate freezers are normally used to quickly freeze and store flat items such as pastries, fish fillets, and best Australian beef jerky patties, as well as irregularly shaped vegetables such as asparagus, cauliflower, and spinach, and potato, broccoli.. Plate freezers are so-called because they are made up of several plates that are stacked either horizontally or vertically. Internally circulating refrigerants cool the food to subfreezing temperatures as it is firmly pressed between metal plates. For more click here IQF freezer
Let’s knowthe two kinds of plate freezers!
Well, plate freezers are of two different types known as horizontal plate freezers and vertical plate freezers.
Plate freezers are made up of a series of parallel flat plates that are circulated with a coolant. The plates can be hung horizontally or vertically. A hydraulic system is used to open the space between the plates for loading and unloading as well as to close the plates so that effective contact with the food product occurs during freezing. To prevent the product from being crushed unevenly or excessively flattened during plate closure, spacers or limit stops between plates and a pressure relief valve in the hydraulic circuit can be used.
Vertical plate freezers are the best freezers to freeze irregular-shaped items like fish and meat. Direct gravity feeding of the product between the plates results in the formation of blocks. To remove the block at the end of the freezing process, plate heating and block ejection systems are required, and cleaning may be required before reloading. The products that are in the shape of rectangular boxes are kept with the help of horizontal plate freezers.
Although automated systems that open individual plates to allow simultaneous loading and unloading of rows of product from feed conveyors and continuous operation have been developed, plate freezers are more often manually loaded and operate in batch mode. For an effective kind of operation, there must be equal contact between the plates and the food product surface. This can be accomplished by packing the product densely (with little void space) within the package and/or applying moderate pressure to the plates. Even and efficient contact between the plates and the surface of the food product is essential for efficient operation. In the case of packaged products, the design of carton dimensions that ensure low voltage and minimal headspace is critical for good heat transfer.
The primary benefits of plate freezers are as follows:
It becomes very easy in the transportation of the products that are similar in shape-size by providing high packaging density and stability of the plates is required; the total heat load and energy use are lower than for air systems (no fans and less infiltration and air interchange loads); and if the evaporating refrigerant is used directly in the plates, the refrigerant.
The main disadvantages of plate freezers are their high capital costs, especially if they are automated to run continuously, and the product types that can be handled.
Therefore we have tried our best to provide you with important inputs regarding plate freezers, types, and benefits of plate freezers.
