GEA has announced two new variants of its trusted A-Tec spiral freezer for the North American market that provide significant hygiene and practical benefits to its food processing customers while maintaining all the essential and unique performance features of the range. By locating the fan electrical motor outside the freezer, GEA has made the A-Tec much easier to clean and maintain. The company has also added a low profile top drive option that reduces the overall height of the freezer for use in confined spaces. Here is a brief overview of the features added to the spiral freezer.
New external fan and gearbox
GEA’s designers have succeeded in locating the fan and gearbox of the A-Tec outside the freezer taking them out of the food area, reducing the number of component surfaces within the unit and significantly improving hygiene. Their external location also provides free access to these key components for easier cleaning and maintenance, especially as the inside of the freezer is maintained at -30°C.
Key A-Tec features maintained
The new developments have not affected any of the essential and unique features of the A-Tec machines. These include: highly effective horizontal airflow that minimizes the temperature rise from the top to the bottom of the spiral, thereby reducing dehydration of the product and improving the yield; the unique, sloped, fully welded, fully insulated floor of the A-Tec making under-floor heaters redundant and , eliminating the risk of accidental floor damage should heaters fail, while providing a high level of hygiene. GEA’s unique sequential coil defrosting system is simple, effective, easy to clean and allows the freezer to run continuously for up to six days in combination with the GEA Static Pressure Control System for air balance control–compared to the 8 to 16 hours for machines without this- technology.
“We know how important these features are to our customers,” said Mathieu Nouhin, GEA product manager, Freezing “but we also wanted to include the external drive to further enhance hygiene and make maintenance easier. With the A-Tec we have achieved a fully open area that’s easy to access. We have managed to improve the product without losing any of the features that have made it so popular with our customers in the past.”
Low profile top drive (LPTD)
GEA engineers have also turned their attention to the overall height of the spiral freezer that is important for some users where headroom is restricted. While the standard A-Tec is around nine meters high. GEA has now introduced the LPTD option that reduces that height by around 1.6 meters. The LPDT is driven by a gearbox positioned externally on the side of the freezer.
GEA’s processing technology for new Amul plant
As reported in our August issue, earlier this year GEA inked a deal with India’s AmulFed Dairy to build a milk production facility in addition to the previous two that were also provided by them in Gujarat. The new facility will augment output by 90,000 liters an hour in order to produce numerous value added products. Upon completion in 2018, the plant will be the largest skim milk powder and dairy whitener production plant in Asia.
The new plant offered some of the latest in-house GEA technologies. The plant has a number of catchy features that makes it efficient and environmental friendly. In order to reduce the emissions into the atmosphere, GEA SANICIPTM bag filters are included in series with cyclones that lower the powder emission and save the product.
