High quality, microbiologically pure foodstuffs and beverages need a perfectly hygienic production environment. Consistently high product quality and reliable product shelf life are largely dependent on optimized and consistent climatic conditions and the air purity of the production environment. Fluctuations in these sensitive parameters encourage the growth of micro-organisms or lead directly to an impairment of product quality. Particularly during decanting and packing of foodstuffs and beverages there are invisible dangers lurking in the background - germs such as yeast or mold spores are transmitted in the area via the air or by people. This is why in addition to hygienic processes a hygienically impeccable production environment is of crucial significance, so that optimum product quality can be guaranteed.

In defining a solution we give particular consideration to:

• Use of heat recovery systems instead of circulating air systems (contaminated circulating air)
• Installing high-quality mechanical filter stages
• Installing UVC sterilization systems integrated into the air conditioning system
• Controlled pressure drop between production area and upstream facilities
• Maintaining constant, optimum room conditions
• Low velocity feed of supply air

Dairy products, regardless of whether they are yoghurts, desserts, fresh or soft cheeses or other milk products, have to be systematically cooled after decanting in order to achieve the desired product quality in conjunction with a specific shelf life that should be as long as possible. Voith has taken on this challenge and produces pallet cooling systems for fast, even and reproducible cooling of such products in a highly cost-effective manner.

The right choice of system is dependent on many factors such as type and variety of product, product volumes, decanting temperature or packaging. This is why Voith operates a test cooling tunnel, so that the cooling system can be designed to exactly meet customer requirements. The results obtained are then applied to the following cooling tunnel concepts and project-specific solutions are defined:

Voith ContiCool CC

Continuous pallet cooling system for

• large production volumes or high pallet throughputs
• minimal product variance, i.e. for products with similar cooling times
• design variants: single or multiple lane, interior or exterior installation

Voith StoreCool SC

Discontinuous pallet cooling system for

• large product variety, i.e. products with very different cooling times
• maximum flexibility
• lower operating costs
• maximum energy efficiency
• design variants: single or double storey, inside or outside installation

Voith StoreCool Plus with FlexShell Technology

The further development of Voith StoreCool SC offers

• significantly lower cooling times
• increase of the specific capacity (throughput per storing position)
• lowest operating costs
• less floor space require
• FlexShell Technology also suitable for retrofitting in existing Voith StoreCool Systems  

All concepts have the following features in common:

•  Process-optimized air distribution system - guarantees uniform and effective cooling even in case of critical packaging, part-loaded pallets and cooling tunnels that are not full; overcooling of individual products within the pallet is prevented.
• Air locks at cooling tunnel entry and exit - minimize humidity and heat input, save energy, extend defrosting times and thus increase system availability.
• Hygiene-compliant system design - guaranteed high level of cleanliness, easy to maintain.
• Intelligent automation modules - allow low-cost operation and use product-specific data for automatic optimization of system.
• Integrated energy saving programmes - to control mode of operation depending on occupancy of individual cooling zones.

Of course other products, such as ready-made salads or jams can also be cooled to very precise temperatures in our cooling tunnels. In addition, Voith offers cooling cells with a lower level of automation for smaller product volumes, as well as a large number of special solutions.

Incubation and ripening rooms both have to guarantee ambient air conditions within narrow tolerance ranges. Voith offers customized solutions tailored to the respective applications.

Incubation rooms / cold storage cells

Depending on the formulation, constant temperatures in all areas of the room are necessary for incubation. Following the incubation process the product has to be cooled down quickly, in order to guarantee uniformly good product quality. Depending on requirements/requests Voith can design the incubation room as:

• an incubation room only (without cooling system)
• combined cell (incubating and cooling)
• incubating room combined with cooling tunnel

Ripening rooms

For critical ripening processes, e.g. for cheese ripening, it is not just important to maintain constant ambient air conditions, but also to keep the air very pure. The growth of foreign cultures such as yeast or mold has to be avoided at all costs.

This is why Voith does not stop at designing the air conditioning system, but pays particular attention to the air distribution within the ripening room - identical climatic conditions have to be ensured constantly at every storage area within the room.

To maintain air purity mechanical filter stages and UVC sterilization systems integrated into the ventilation system can be used. This ensures consistently high product quality.

When storing sensitive products it is extremely important to maintain constant, product-specific room conditions. This is the only way to guarantee the required product quality.

Voith can help you from planning to realization, upgrading or optimizing your (high-bay) storage. We can provide you with a customized solution for your cold storage for products such as dairy products subject to mandatory chilling, or a temperature-controlled finished goods store for confectionary e.g. biscuits and chocolate products or a raw material store.

Voith solutions offer you the following benefits:

• Constant, product-specific room conditions like temperature and relative humidity
• Compliance with hygiene requirements for air purity for storing open products
• Identical climatic conditions at every storage area
• High operational reliability thanks to redundant systems
• Air-conditioned storage of products using intelligent Voith automation modules leads to lower running costs
• Air conditioning does not impact on storage volumes
• Easy to use from a central location
• Low maintenance
• Intelligent automation solutions