Cryogenic tunnel with conveyor for producing pods of food products, particularly sauces
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing processes for manufacturing cryogenically treated ice cubes or pellets face issues with adhesion to support surfaces, leading to material loss and demolding difficulties, despite previous solutions like pre-cooling honeycomb mats and conveyor belts, which still require improvements in product flow rate and efficiency.
Innovation Solution
A new tunnel structure with a stainless steel conveyor belt featuring unitary molds that allow automatic ejection of pellets, where the mold's bottom pivots independently of its walls during demolding, utilizing the properties of stainless steel to prevent adhesion and facilitate easy removal.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If pre-cooling honeycomb mats and conveyor belts are used, then adhesion is reduced and demolding is facilitated, but material loss occurs and demolding difficulties remain
Solution Approach 1:
The conveyor belt is divided into modular elements with individual cavities, each acting as an independent mold. This segmentation allows precise control of each cavity's thermal characteristics and demolding behavior, reducing material loss while maintaining ease of demolding through uniform cooling across all units.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention changes the thermal parameters of the conveyor belt by using materials with specific thermal conductivity and heat capacity. The belt is designed to achieve optimal cooling rates that prevent adhesion without causing material loss, resolving the contradiction between ease of demolding and material preservation.
2Reliability
If conventional freezers are used to complete freezing, then freezing is achieved, but productivity is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The conveyor belt performs preliminary freezing action during the demolding phase, pre-cooling the product sufficiently to allow easy ejection. This preliminary cooling action enables continuous high-speed production without requiring lengthy subsequent freezing cycles in conventional freezers.
Solution Approach 2:
The conveyor belt system enables continuous freezing and demolding operations without interruption. The belt continuously moves through the freezing zone while simultaneously demolding products, maintaining uninterrupted productive action rather than batch processing with idle transfer times.
3Ease of operation
If honeycomb conveyor structures are used, then demolding is facilitated, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts the cooling function from a separate pre-cooling device and integrates it directly into the conveyor belt structure itself. The belt contains embedded cooling channels or thermally conductive elements that perform both transportation and freezing functions, simplifying the overall system while maintaining demolding facilitation.
4Productivity
If stainless steel conveyor belt with unit molds is used, then productivity is enhanced and material loss reduced, but manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The stainless steel conveyor belt with unit molds is designed as a universal component that performs multiple functions: transportation, precise dosing, freezing, and demolding. This multi-functionality consolidates several separate devices into one, enhancing productivity while the modular design maintains manufacturing ease through standardized production of identical cavity units.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Significantly reduces material loss and enhances the flow rate of processed products, enabling efficient production of up to 250kg/h with improved ease of demoulding and reduced surface marking, as demonstrated in experimental tests with various product viscosities.
Implementation Method 1
utilizing the properties of stainless steel to prevent adhesion and facilitate easy removal
Implementation Method 2
a cooling zone
Implementation Method 3
manufacturing frozen pellets or ice cubes
Data Source
Figure 1~2
Figure 3~4
AI summary
Equipment for manufacturing pellets of liquid or pasty products, comprising a tunnel and a conveyor belt suitable for transporting the product to be processed in the equipment along a processing path passing through the different zones of the equipment, where the conveyor belt is equipped with unit molds, or unit molds are arranged in the structure of the conveyor belt, where the equipment includes a pellet demolding zone, located at the exit of the tunnel or just downstream of the tunnel exit, demolding zone occurring in a rotation zone of the conveyor, and where the structure of the belt allows the demolding of each pellet to be carried out automatically by ejection, ejection carried out by an element of the structure of the conveyor belt itself, by the fact that opposing forces are exerted in the demolding zone on the walls of the mold.