Process for freezing or chilling
AssigneeI.Q.F. Inc.
InventorsGeorge A. Temple, Donald W. Kirkwood, Bosko Milankov
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Chilling or freezing a substance into small pellets is disclosed. A substance such as liquid egg falls gently from only a small height onto the surface (12) of liquid nitrogen. The discharge nozzle (13) is prevented from freezing up by a flow of ambient or heated air over it. The surface of the boiling nitrogen is kept smooth by imparting a velocity to the nitrogen with an impeller (20) or by running the nitrogen along a trough. The pellets are consistent as to final temperature, and the process is efficient as to nitrogen use. The process can be used with other thick, creamy substances.
Claims32
A method for freezing or chilling a substance, characterized by the steps:
- of discharging the substance from a nozzle into a very much colder liquid from such a small height above the surface of the liquid that the substance solidifies gently into pellets that are substantially consistent in size;
- and of imparting such a large relative velocity between the liquid and the nozzle that turbulence on the surface of the liquid due to local boiling is carried away from the nozzle substantially immediately.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.