Spiral freezers
Spiral freezers are a type of industrial freezer commonly used in food processing facilities to rapidly freeze food products. They are designed to freeze products in a continuous, uninterrupted manner, offering efficient and high-capacity freezing capabilities. Spiral freezers utilize a spiral conveyor system that moves the product through a freezing chamber in a spiral pattern.
Spiral freezers are a widely used form of refrigeration in food processing, favoured for their compact spiral belt arrangement and their ability to freeze large volumes of product with longer dwell times. Spiral blast freezing of food products is the most energy-intensive process in a plant, with air temperatures regularly in the range of -10°F to -50°F depending on the type of product being frozen.
Most spiral freezers employ mechanical or cryogenic refrigeration methods, together with high-velocity air pumped over the product in either a horizontal (crossflow) or vertical (downflow) arrangement. The choice of refrigeration method and airflow geometry is what determines freezing consistency and the energy load the plant must carry.
The benefits that drive selection are energy efficiency, with low operating costs combined with maximum performance; hygiene, through an accessible, clean design with deep clean sanitising systems available; and simple, intelligent controls, with touch screen operation and product recipe selector options. A spiral freezer also gives a small factory footprint, suiting both low and high capacities on a compact site, and superior quality through efficient, consistent freezing for the highest product quality results.