Realcold One Day Chill Tunnel Installed At Carbery

Carbery Milk Products have just successfully completed a €1.9 million refit and expansion of the Cheese Chilling Plant at their Irish Head Quarters.

REALCOLD and NH3 Refrigeration Ltd were pleased to be part of this expansion and refit by supplying the "One Day" Chill Tunnel and MILMECH Conveying Systems associated with it. The project entailed a new conveying system from both the Cheddar and Mozzarella lines, integration of them into the new single "One Day" Chill Tunnel and onto a relocated robotic palletiser to achieve maximum 236,000kg/day production.

Rapid cooling of cheese blocks to +15°C in less than 24 hours is essential for cheese quality and Carbery was among the first in the world to install a rapid chiller in 1980. The quality issues are so significant that the NZDB has always paid a premium for 24 hour cooled cheese blocks. The Australian industry has retrofitted cooling tunnels to all major plants. Both the American and European industries are now seriously addressing the issue.

A "One Day" Cheese Cooling Tunnel provides product consistency and quality in addition to making consistent blocks without deformation, which in turn allows for improved cheese processing and automation. Bulk stacked blocks need up to two weeks for appropriate cooling. When thousands of blocks are produced per day, the required space is significant. The Cheese Tunnel is a relatively high density cooler requiring space for only one day's production.

The Realcold Tunnel is always full of product. Simultaneous loading and unloading ensures that all shelves are constantly fully loaded. This makes it possible to achieve consistent air velocities over all the cartons, all blocks can only be exposed to identical cooling conditions. The Cooling Tunnel is a "highly developed, extremely simple machine". The simplicity of the fifo operation results in fewer moving parts, reduced maintenance, reduced down time, simple operator interface, guaranteed consistent chilling results and lower capital cost.