44 FOOD & DRINK TECHNOLOGY
Fig. 2. Most food products can be chilled from 200˚F to 70˚F in seven seconds by Lyco Easy-Flow.
forcing the water and its product load to the sides of the pipe and out of the end, which would be very hard on food products. Easy-Flow uses a custom-designed plenum configuration to direct the high- velocity flow along the interior perimeter of the plenum wall, so that most products move through the middle of the plenum without being negatively affected by the rapid stream of water. More robust products, such as macaroni, have near-zero product damage, while some products like curly fries, ravioli and other pastas with filled shapes display a higher rate of product damage and may not be suitable for this system.
Tis plenum-driven fluid motion is achieved by modifying the shape of the periphery on the inside of the plenum wall itself, which precisely directs the flow of fluid and the food product. Such plenum-control technology is frequently used in airflow engineering, but Easy-Flow is unique in adapting this application to fluid dynamics for use in the food processing industry.
“Easy-Flow uses a high level of surface turbulence around the product to significantly reduce the convection coefficient so that you achieve a very rapid heat transfer between the water and the product,” says Dan Maupin, R&D Manager with Lyco Manufacturing. “Tis happens at a very rapid rate, so it really stops the cooking of pasta, rice and dry beans, and quickly cools vegetables or any fairly discrete, reasonably tough food product. Where it might take three or four minutes to cool cooked product from 200°F to 40°-50°F with the best conventional systems, the Easy- Flow cooler can do it in 21 seconds for many products.
“Te system has very few moving parts,” continues Maupin. “It is hydraulically driven. Tere are no motors except for the pump. We have built in many features to adapt this
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New generation of chiller Easy-Flow is well suited for small, particulate food products like most pasta, rice and dry beans, and small- volume vegetables such as sliced potatoes that do not require much time to remove heat from the centre of the product.
It is suitable for cooling shorter runs with a throughput of 6,000 pounds or less of product per hour.
technology for the food industry.”
Another of those features is its compact size and footprint, being only 7.5 feet long and 4.5 feet wide for a three-tank system. And its ease of cleaning – the unit has only
one inside piece that optionally disassembles and one section that pivots on the inside for cleaning. Overall, there is much less surface area than other chillers. An operator simply adds cleaner into it and runs it in production mode to clean the unit.
Given these production parameters, the cooling unit is extremely efficient. Like the shaker conveyors, rinse wheels and the rotary-drum chiller that came before it, this system has set a new benchmark with its ability to chill many food product from 200°F to 40°-50°F in 21 seconds. It provides expanded versatility and a new opportunity for food processors to run their operations more efficiently, and with a higher assurance that their food products will move through the Bacterial Danger Zone without contamination.
Jim McMahon writes on emerging technologies in food processing. Lyco Manufacturing is based in Columbus, WI, USA.
www.lycomfg.com
Fig. 3. Shortening the cooling process through the bacterial danger zone.
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