The market for plate freezers has always been fiercely competitive. Over the years, however, with the entry on to the market of Asian companies that can produce equipment at lower costs than their European counterparts, the focus has moved to innovation, reliability, and customer service.
Dybvad Stål Industri (DSI), the Danish manufacturer of plate freezers, has found that even in harsh economic times there is still a market for high quality products with user friendly designs, a strong focus on product reliability, and low maintenance costs, says Peter N Christensen, the sales director. He says the company is experiencing a boom in orders from both offshore and onshore plants and from different industry sectors including fishing, pet food, meat and poultry. “I am convinced that our customers realise that disappointment at low quality lasts much longer than pleasure at low prices”, he says.
More than 50 models
Plate freezers consist of a series of hollow flat, refrigerated aluminium plates that are mounted parallel to each other and can be arranged either horizontally or vertically next to each other. The material to be frozen can be packaged or unpackaged and is introduced in between the plates so that the plate surfaces are in close contact with the product to be frozen. The frozen product is a block. DSI has more than 50 different horizontal and vertical freezers that can be used in any application where plate freezing is required. The company also works closely with different manufacturers of automatic loading and unloading systems to develop systems customised for the plate freezers.
Energy saving
The company has developed a system to measure core temperature called the CorePoint System, which measures the temperature at the core of the product during the freezing process. The system can be retrofitted to any of the company’s vertical plate freezers and consists of a thermo sensor mounted in a probe that is inserted into the product. When the product is completely frozen it can be easily removed; the probe slides out smoothly and are ready for the next job.
The CorePoint system offers a number of advantages, including precise measurement of the core temperature, documented freezing temperatures, energy saving, reduction in emissions, fully controlled freezing time, and ease of installation. Only one kit is needed for each freezer. The system gives full control over the freezing time for each freezer regardless of the different initial temperatures of the product.
