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STAND OUT TECHNOLOGY

Air Blast Freezer…

What’s So Good About it?

Currently, the country’s industries are growing
rapidly. One of the industries that create revenue
to the country is the food industry, whether it is
frozen seafood, frozen RTE food, and others.
Part of the production process is required cooling
step, which one of the most important processes
is a freezing. Once a product has been frozen, it
will be kept on a cold storage at -20 C to -25 C
o
o
before further delivered or distributed.
Freezing is a process to frozen goods within a short period,
which the process is needed a machine so called “Freezer”.
Plate freezer or contact freezer and air blast freezer are two
types of freezers that are the most popular in the frozen food
industry.
Plate freezer or contact freezer This type of freezer has an
advantage as it require less space for installation and less power
consumption than the air blast freezer compared to the same
production capacity. However, the disadvantage is the goods
that will bring for freezing must have a consistent thickness and
smooth skin, so that it is quite specific and not popular among
users.
Air blast freezer is a machine, which has been manufactured The continuous freezer or continuous tunnel, goods will be placed in
to meet the demand of each customer. An important thing is a tray on a cart or on a rack that moves into the blast freezer. After one
buyers or users should have a basic understanding of the cart has been moved out, the other cart will be moved in. This type of
functionality and requirements of a freezer in order to be able operation is suitable for mass production. The form of freezing can be
to use the machine to serve their demands. It is flexible to use, divided into two types of airflow: Cross-flow freezer and Series-flow
can freeze goods with different texture, types, and sizes, and freezer.
thus, it is widely used among the frozen food industry. • Cross-flow Freezer The direction of the cold wind will flow crossing
The air blast freezer can be divided into two main types as the move in and move out direction of the cart
follows • Series-flow Freezer The direction of the wind will flow in the same
1. Continuous Freezer: way as the direction of the cart’s moving
goods will move through The batch freezer or batch tunnel, goods will be arranged and placed
freezer continuously. separately in a cart, which is equipped with shelves. After that a cart will
2. Batch Freezer: be moved in a room by putting beside one another in line with a firm space
goods will be placed in a between each cart. This is because when having too much air space,
freezer and be frozen before cold air will be flown through each space easily. As a result, the efficiency
bringing out and after that of the freezing will be decreased. The goods will take longer time for
new goods will be moved to a freezing. It will cause a loss of energy and will lower the quality of the
freezer for freezing. goods.

56 FOOD FOCUS THAILAND AUG 2018