JBT’s newly launched CleanFREEZETM spiral freezer marks a step-forward from the long-standing Northfield SuperTRAK Structure Supported Spiral Freezer, with a system that offers innovations in both hygiene and cleaning. A radical redesign of the freezer has been focused on making the machine easier and faster to clean and has significantly reduced the risk of bacterial growth across the structure.
By eliminating flat and overlapping surfaces, and reimagining the cleaning system, JBT engineers have been able to bring the overall sanitation time down to four hours from a previous five-six, while maintenance, servicing times and safety have also been improved by moving the fan motors to the exterior of the unit and providing stairs instead of ladders.
Innovative design
According to John Bauer, JBT’s division product manager for freezers, the CleanFREEZE freezer takes the original design on which the SuperTRAK was based and adds new hygienic features, including innovations that differentiate the CleanFREEZE freezer from other spiral freezers and go beyond what is currently available on the wider market.
Among other design improvements, the previous tubular structure has been eliminated from the CleanFREEZE freezer, while overlapping joints have been kept to an absolute minimum and formerly flat, horizontal surfaces have been sloped. “We’ve eliminated thousands of feet of overlapping surfaces through our solid, capless belt support compared with the previous capped, stainless steel tracks, while we’ve made the drum drivebar more cleanable,” says Bauer.
Faster cleaning
However, one of the most crucial changes, continues Bauer, has been a significant reduction in the overall cleaning system time – from defrosting to cleaning to pulldown – from up to six hours previously to an average of four hours. “This remains a foaming style, single pass system but with a significantly reduced cleaning time,” he says.
This has been partly achieved through a radically revised freezer design, which features the fan motors on the exterior of the freezer rather than inside the box, making it easier to service the motor as no defrost process is now required.
JBT’s goal, Bauer adds, was to create a more hygienic, structurally supported freezer that goes beyond what is currently available on the market and in that they would appear to have succeeded.
