According to Integrated Marine Systems, seafood processors in Prince William Sound and other key Alaska ports are successfully using the FastFreeze portable tunnel production freezer to increase freezing capacity, improve quality and streamline production with its continuous processing flow.
The FastFreeze is built into a standard shipping container; the freezer can be supplied with its own control room and run as a free-standing system or interface with existing plant systems. IMS says this results in lower startup costs and less time required to increase freezing capacity – with flexibility for future changes.
The patented FastFreeze design reduces freezing time and keeps consistent super-cold temperatures in the freezing cell. Product from the FastFreeze enters cold storage at a sufficiently low temperature to avoid either prolonged freezing or warming of the product already there.
The breakthrough continuous flow-through freezing technology solves problems identified with traditional freezers. An airlock system eliminates problems with open doors while creating a uniformly cold environment with sequential defrosting for continuous operation – all serving to diminish moisture loss, frost-up, and defrost. Trolleys are designed to fit and fill the whole space so all air flow is directed to the product without blocked or imbalanced circulation; adjusting the gap between shelves controls air velocity over product. Variable feed rates accommodate freeze rates.
The trolleys convey product through the freezing cell at steady production rates specifically for the size and shape of the product; large or small H&G, thick or thin filets, steaks, vacuum packed filet product or roe. By processing in perpetual motion at a steady pace, product doesn’t sit around warming up at the beginning of the line or the end. Time at room temperature is minimised; staging area, racks, boxes, and totes are almost eliminated.
IMS continuous throughput freezing also provides both the efficiency and economy of smaller crews working steadily without downtime.
According to IMS’s Greg Sangster, the FastFreeze has potential to fill the gap for many land-based seafood and aquaculture processors. “This freezer can improve quality and save production time over traditional blast freezers.”
