TUNNEL WARMING, PASTEURISING & COOLING
Integrated Tunnel Technology
At INOX, our focus in this area is to provide a suitable thermal process to comply with local food and beverage processing requirements and to achieve optimum product quality, lasting shelf life and appearance of your filled product.
Applications
TUNNEL WARMER
For product warming, tempering or slow heat up process to ensure ZERO product breakage.
TUNNEL PASTEURISER
Applied to product to ensure that the pasteurising process is complete. Usually implemented when the filling process has not allowed suitable time for effective pasteurising to take effect.
TUNNEL PASTEURISER & COOLER
Combined warming or pasteurising zone and cooling zones in one unit. This technology provides quality pasteurising process and cooling without any risk of re-infection to the product.
TUNNEL COOLER
After the hot fill product and pasteurising, fast, effective product cooling is required in order to maintain the product color, smell, taste, texture, appearance and other important characteristics that are important to your products market potential.
Tunnel systems for food plants
Improve Shelf Life
Improve Shelf Life
Many retailers won’t admit the level of food waste they have on short shelf life chilled products, despite being signed up to reduction initiatives. Gentle pasteurisation, without necessarily extra cooking, can simply extend shelf life, without compromising quality to allow an extra 10-15 days of life (example).
This means not only is the distribution and sales process optimised but the consumer has more time to eat the product when it gets home.
Industry & Product Knowledge Bring Confidence
INOX have successfully collected data on a large range of food products and completed turnkey systems for processing of many food products. Typical products include:
- sauces
- conserves and jams
- syrups
- juices
- pastes
- other condiments.
Container types and materials include:
- cylindrical, square, rectangular shapes, pouches, tubes and bladders, etc.
- glass, aluminium, PET, PE, etc.
Continuous cooling production tunnels
Manufactured For Food Plants
High quality stainless steel manufacture
The tunnels are fully manufactured from 304 SS and have been designed for washdown food production environments.
The recirculation of the water medium through a highly efficient tube heat exchanger or plate heat exchangers maintains the product temperature.
This pasteurisation zone is also insulated and fully seal clad in 304 SS for additional heat retention.
Thus, our ability to apply valuable industry experience gives INOX the ability to successfully complete projects with confidence.
Space optimisation and energy efficiency are key factors to our design.
With particular consideration towards energy efficiency and energy retention, INOX pasteurising and cooling tunnels showcase both thermal energy engineering and food production sanitary design and manufacture from INOX.
Effective Energy Exchange
Our systems have specifically zoned spraying loops giving a counter flow effect that efficiently cools your products during the single pass process.
All water loops have inline strainers and pressure/temperature indicators to quickly identify any blockages and the ability to clean the filters.
Effective heat exchange systems
Optimised Nozzle Arrangements
Optimised nozzle arrangements
The cooling spray water and cooling system medium are separate circuits linked via a heat exchanger to ensure no cross contamination.
The spray nozzles are simply mounted to the stainless steel pipework which can be easily accessed through the maintenance manway openings.
All spray nozzles are adjustable for fine tuning of spray and spray direction.
Product Infeed & Outfeed
Infeed and outfeed pusher systems for containers are also designed and manufactured by Inox specifically for your product.
These systems are pneumatically operated and controlled by PLC to ensure smooth uninterrupted production.
All systems and projects are fully designed by INOX, manufactured and tested at our Melbourne facilities.
Smooth product infeed and outfeed handling
Refrigerated Air Systems
Sanitary refrigerated air systems
Specialised tunnel projects
INOX refrigerated air cooling systems are available for foods such as processed cheese, bakery products, cakes and cup cakes, biscuits, and confectionery that require cooling prior to packaging.
Our engineers collect product cooling data through testing to determine the correct cooling dwell time and suitability of available factory space. Product throughput and future production expansion is considered with our designs.
This system enables to processors product flow to become ‘continuous’ and avoids expensive labour costs associated with stacking and storage of products. Which in turn also eliminate product handling damage and contamination issues associated with unpackaged food products.
To ensure that your products remain stable and of high quality is paramount in the design of the air flow and belt surface temperature of these types of cooling tunnels.
FDA grade approved belting is fitted to our systems.
The number one recommendation to processors when selecting sanitary equipment is that the machinery should be “cleanable to a microbiological level.”
Refrigerated air cooling tunnels can be utilised with pick and place robotic systems at both the infeed and outfeed of the tunnel. Providing effective packing and reduced labour costs.
For reference, INOX has installed refrigerated air systems in Philippines for processed cheese cooling and refrigerated air cooling systems for cup cake manufacture in Australia.
Therefore, INOX design, manufacture and supply tunnel projects using water or refrigerated air as the cooling medium, to suit all types of processed, baked or fried food products.
INOX expertise in the manufacture of stainless steel equipment for the food industry ensures that equipment is suited to the food production environment. Hygienic and cleanable.
Our Clients
