Food processing vat with zoned temperature control
AssigneeCheese & Whey Systems, Inc.
InventorsTimothy J. Isenberg, John E. Zirbel
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A food processing vat is provided with a zoned heat transfer system that provides zoned temperature control to the vat. The zoned heat transfer system selectively transmits heat to or removes heat from different portions of a bottom wall and/or side wall(s) of the vat. A heat transfer fluid may be directed through the zoned heat transfer system along a flow path that is selected based on a target size and/or a target temperature of a batch of food product being processed in the vat.
Claims13
A vat system for processing liquid or semi-liquid compositions, comprising:
- a vat that includes a bottom wall and side walls extending upwardly from the bottom wall;
- a zoned heat transfer system including multiple heat exchangers arranged at locations relative to different portions of at least one of the bottom and side walls of the vat,
- wherein the multiple heat exchangers include a first heat exchanger with an upper edge defining an upper boundary of the first heat exchanger at a first relatively lower height with respect to an overall height of the vat and a second heat exchanger with an upper edge defining an upper boundary of the second heat exchanger at a second relatively higher height with respect to the overall height of the vat, and wherein each of the first and second heat exchangers includes a pair of spaced apart sheets defining a void space therebetween through which a heat transfer fluid flows and wherein the first and second heat exchangers are arranged with respect to each other to selectively permit flow of the heat transfer fluid through the void spaces of the first and second heat exchangers for selectively transmitting heat to or removing heat from the respective different portions of the at least one of the bottom and side walls of the vat at different heights with respect to the overall height of the vat establishing a vertically defined temperature differential between the first and second.
A vat system for processing liquid or semi-liquid compositions, comprising:
- a vat that includes a bottom wall and a side wall extending upwardly from the bottom wall;
- a zoned heat transfer system that includes multiple heat transfer zones defined within the vat and selectively transmitting heat to or removing heat from at least one of the bottom and side walls, the zoned heat transfer system including multiple heat exchangers arranged at locations corresponding to the multiple heat transfer zones at different heights with respect to the vat, wherein each of the multiple heat exchangers includes a pair of spaced apart sheets defining a void space therebetween through which a heat transfer fluid flows and wherein the heat transfer fluid within the void spaces of the multiple heat exchangers is (i) heated for transmitting heat to the at least one of the bottom and side walls of the vat, or (ii) unheated for removing heat from the at least one of the bottom and side walls of the vat;
- and
- a diverter system within the heat transfer system that selectively directs a flow of the heat transfer fluid through the void spaces of the multiple heat exchangers at the locations corresponding to the multiple heat transfer zones establishing a temperature differential between the different heights with respect to the vat.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.