Could your continuous freezer be running like a 1912 Lancia Eta?

Steve Henshall from Alfred & Co tells us how an outdated continuous freezer, the profit centre of your business, could be like running a 1912 Lancia Eta and what a modern machine can offer.

“Many years ago I accompanied a friend in his 1912 Lancia Eta competing in the Gordon Bennett Rally in Eire. This was essentially an elegant carriage in which the horses were replaced with an enormous inefficient engine.

Starting up was a two person job and driving the Eta was a matter of guesswork with the most important controls being connected via complex and lengthy rods. If you consider driving a modern car, everything is controlled precisely by modern technology, traction control, anti-lock brakes, fuel injection, power steering, central locking – all of these things we now take for granted.

I still see many ‘Etas’ when visiting modern ice cream factories, striving for the last ounce of profit and the reduction of waste. You wouldn’t use a 1912 car to deliver your products, so why use a continuous freezer with piston pumps, mechanical unmetered air incorporation and manual control of the refrigeration plant?

This machine, be it old or new, is the profit centre of your business and should offer the best and tightest control of what it’s producing – control that is only available using modern technology.

Modern machines offer rotary pumps for an even ice cream delivery, controllable and consistent flow, steady barrel pressure, automatic refrigeration control and most importantly mass flow meters to ensure that for every litre of mix the exact amount of overrun air is added, it’s similar to having an accountant as your production manager.

All this is achieved by having simple, highly reliable sensors on the machine and a PLC which is the simplest form of computer imaginable, your smartphone has more computing power. “

If you own an ‘Eta’ call Steve on 07980 832642 who can introduce you to the latest machines from Gram or Technogel running in the UK. Or we can visit Denmark or Italy and introduce you to the men who design and build these machines, as their UK agents, we have an ‘all access’ pass.