Vacuum-Insulated Moulding Roller for Ice Cream Demoulding
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing technologies for manufacturing frozen aerated products, such as ice cream, face challenges with ice cream sticking to the rollers and inefficient use of liquid nitrogen, leading to high consumption and hygiene issues, particularly when trying to demold the products.
Innovation Solution
A roller with a multiplicity of open moulding cavities, hollow and partially filled with liquid nitrogen, featuring a vacuum insulation compartment with a sigmoid cross-section design to reduce thermal stress and nitrogen consumption, allowing for effective cooling and demoulding of ice cream products.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Temperature
If the cavities are cooled to low temperatures to prevent ice cream melting, then the ice cream will stick to the roller surface and become difficult to demould
Solution Approach 1:
The roller surface temperature is varied periodically during the manufacturing cycle: cooled to -5°C to -15°C during the filling and initial freezing phase to prevent melting and ensure proper setting, then heated to +5°C to +15°C during the demoulding phase to reduce adhesion and facilitate easy release of the ice cream product from the roller cavities
Solution Approach 2:
The temperature parameter of the roller surface is dynamically adjusted between two distinct ranges: a lower range (-5°C to -15°C) for effective freezing and product setting, and a higher range (+5°C to +15°C) for easy demoulding, thereby resolving the contradiction between preventing sticking and enabling easy release
2Temperature
If liquid nitrogen is used to cool the rollers to maintain low temperatures, then effective cooling is achieved, but liquid nitrogen consumption is excessively high
Solution Approach 1:
Liquid nitrogen is injected into the roller internal circuit only during specific phases of the manufacturing cycle when low temperature is required (filling and initial freezing), rather than continuous cooling, thereby maintaining effective temperature control while dramatically reducing overall liquid nitrogen consumption
Solution Approach 2:
The roller retains residual coldness from previous liquid nitrogen injection cycles, allowing the cooling effect to persist continuously through thermal inertia during phases when active nitrogen injection is not required, thereby extending the useful cooling action without proportional increases in nitrogen consumption
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
The solution significantly reduces liquid nitrogen consumption by 50% to 60% and minimizes thermal stress, enabling efficient and hygienic production of ice cream products by maintaining low temperatures while preventing sticking and improving demouldability.
Implementation Method 1
Each roller is hollow with its cavity being partially filled with liquid nitrogen so as to ensure cooling of the rollers
Implementation Method 2
it consumes, though sheer evaporation of the liquid nitrogen, a huge amount of liquid nitrogen
Implementation Method 3
a vacuum insulation compartment is located on each side of the roller
Data Source
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AI summary
A roller having a multiplicity of open moulding cavities on its surface, the roller being hollow with its cavity being partially filled with liquid nitrogen, characterised in that: A vacuum insulation compartment is located on each side of the roller; The vacuum insulation compartment, in radial cross section, presenting an outside generally plane and circular wall in the form of an annular disc, joint to a roller side wall by two portions having: a general sigmoid cross section for the portion at the peripheral part of the vacuum panel; a general sigmoid cross section for the portion at the central part of the vacuum panel.