IQF Food Freezing Spiral Tunnel Air Coolers

IQF Food Freezing Spiral Tunnel Air Coolers

IQF (Individual Quick Freezing) spiral tunnel quick freezing technology combined with high efficiency evaporator is widely used in food processing industry, such as vegetables, fruits, seafood, meat, prepared dishes, etc., to ensure quick freezing and maintain the quality of food.

Working Principle:

Food products (e.g. shrimp, strawberries, French fries, etc.) enter the spiral tower through the conveyor belt, and are quickly frozen under the strong cold air flow of -30℃~-40℃ (usually 3-15 minutes).

The air cooler (evaporator) provides high speed cold air (wind speed up to 10-15m/s) to ensure food monomer separation (IQF) and avoid lumping.

Key Advantages:

✔ Fast freezing (3-5 times faster than conventional freezing), reduces ice crystals to damage cell structure and maintains food texture.

✔ Monomer freezing (IQF), avoiding sticking, convenient for subsequent packaging and processing.

✔ Energy saving and high efficiency, adopting frequency conversion control, adapting to different capacity requirements.

✔ Space saving (spiral structure is more compact than linear tunnel).

Role of air cooler (evaporator) in IQF spiral tunnel

Forced convection heat transfer: quickly take away the heat of foodstuffs through large air volume and high air velocity airflow.

Temperature control: Maintain -30℃~-40℃ ultra-low temperature environment.

Anti-frost design: some models are equipped with hot air frost melting or electric frost melting function to reduce downtime.

Common Air Coolers Types

Aluminum fin type: lightweight, high heat transfer efficiency, suitable for small and medium-sized IQF equipment.

Stainless steel: corrosion resistant, suitable for seafood, high humidity environment.

Two-stage compression: Ultra-low temperature model (below -40℃), suitable for high-end IQF needs (such as tuna, high-end seafood).

Main application areas

Seafood: shrimp, fish fillets, shellfish, etc.

Fruits and vegetables: strawberries, blueberries, peas, corn kernels, etc.

Meat: diced chicken, diced beef, meatballs, etc.

Prepared dishes: frozen dumplings, spring rolls, fried chicken nuggets, etc.