IDM ¦ Technology/IT
Hellenic Dairies
Savings potentials in cooling tunnels
Cooling processes are extremely
important in the foodstuff industry.
The dairy industry, in
particular, requires high-performance
and reliable systems to
cool its products in a defined manner. The
constant high level of competition simultaneously
increases the necessity to utilise
energy resources sparingly: This objective
can be achieved by utilising pallet cooling
systems which are precisely customised to
the requirements and conditions of the respective
producer. The fact that airinotec
has mastered the required technology has
meanwhile spread internationally.
When it comes down to cooling technology,
specialist knowledge is required.
Especially in the dairy industry, efficient
product cooling requires a high level of
industry knowledge and relevant experience.
One person knows this very well:
Stefan Hummrich, who manages the business
of the Franconian airinotec GmbH
company together with Ralf Niebe. As
one of the leading suppliers in Europe,
airinotec is a heavy-weight in the field of
developing cooling systems, and develops
tailor-made systems for cooling palletised
products. One focus of the company is
concentrating on foodstuff production –
and dairy products belong to the supreme
discipline in this case because of their specific
requirements.
Recipe for success:
Customer orientation
"Our recipe for success is customer orientation,"
says Stefan Hummrich. "When we
first started the company, we initially concentrated
on listening to our customers.
We quickly realised that the requirements
10 · February 2020 ¦ international-dairy.com
for every project were very different." Of
course, it is therefore primarily the products
which determine the design of the plant.
How large is the production volume? Are
the filling temperatures the same for all the
products involved? Which cooling result
must be achieved in what time? What does
the cooling behaviour of the pallets look
like? At the same time, however, the spatial
conditions which exist in the companies
are also decisive: Is there a lot of, or little,
space available? How high are the premises?
"A completely standardised solution
is not the solution of choice under these
prerequisitions. Instead, there is always a
requirement to develop modular standards
for the individual systems, which can then
be flexibly adapted to the application case
which is involved," says Stefan Hummrich.
A comprehensive system
portfolio for all application
cases
Here at airinotec, one develops a portfolio
which is aligned to the customer's requirements
and which takes all these points into
account – and this is always adapted to
every size and every need. In principal there
are four system solutions: The one-track
or two-track ChannelCool cooling tunnel,
the discontinuous functioning AccuCool as
well as the C-Cube and ModulCool. These
variants have been designed and developed
for different application cases and
can therefore be configured specifically for
each individual case.
ModulCool has been developed for
smaller dairies as a static cooling system in
which pallets can be parked in cold storage
cells. The system is called ModulCool
because it is based on a modular construction
Airinotec AccuCool Flexible pallet
cooling on two Instorage levels.
design; it can be easily extended in
order to add additional cooling modules
at any time. The C-Cube, on the other
hand, is particularly suitable for products
with longer cooling times – and for pallet
cooling in existing cold stores. C-Cubes
are supplied as pre-assembled and can be
utilised very quickly without investing time
and effort. A C-Cube can therefore cool
two pallets – and the system can also be
expanded at any time or adapted to new
products in this case.
Continuous or discontinuous?
ChannelCool is based on a continuous pallet
conveying system: If a company does
Airinotec Incubator – Fully automatic
on two storage levels.