Patented new design for large ice cream inclusions at highest capacity and lowest cost
The new Tetra Pak® Extrusion Wheel lets ice cream producers capture new opportunities – with the large inclusions consumers know and love from bulk and cup ice creams, now in premium impulse ice creams such as sticks and sandwiches. And thanks to patented new design, it does so at the highest capacity and lowest cost per product in the industry.
Running at the highest capacity in the industry for products with large inclusions, the new Tetra Pak Extrusion Wheel produces up to 200 products per minute, which equates to 12,000 products per lane per hour. The high capacity and low cost per product are made possible thanks to a new patented wheel design, a new patented stick placement solution and a unique continuous process. The innovative new solution means producers no longer need to compromise on speed and cost to make these in-demand products.
Patented wheel design
The new patented wheel design with a cavity system and pistons, shapes products in moulds to secure even distribution of large inclusions and ensure a smooth product surface every time. This improves upon existing solutions where cutting risks damaging large inclusions and disturbing the smooth product surface.
Patented stick placement solution
The new patented stick placement solution ensures correct placement and secure quality every time. Instead of inserting the sticks in the ice cream, it first places the sticks – and then ice cream is filled around them. This prevents the risk of displacing of sticks and/or chunks with an uneven surface and unmet quality standards as a result.
Unique continuous wheel movement
The unique continuous wheel movement never slows down and never stops and starts, unlike the indexing utilized in all other solutions on the market. In addition, wheel movement is completely synchronized with the tray movement and velocity. Together, these features secure the accurate placement of every product on the tray, every time in a continuous and smooth movement – even at very high speeds.
Run faster and cut labour costs and waste
The above smart features combine to make it possible to run faster – and to reduce the cost and waste that comes from products that don’t meet quality standards or are incorrectly placed. Producers cut labour costs as well since precise product placement eliminates the need for monitoring and product adjustment by skilled operators. In fact, the new Tetra Pak Extrusion Wheel secures a 98% line yield thanks to accurate product placement on trays. That means a maximum level of 2% waste due to misalignment of product on trays, compared to an 8% loss with existing benchmark solutions on the market.
In addition, operators no longer need to handle the costly and complex external cooling systems based on nitrogen, utilized in existing benchmark solutions – where too much free water can freeze up and stop production. The Tetra Pak® Extrusion Wheel, on the other hand, is simply and easily mounted on the worktables of existing extrusion lines. And electricity is the only utility required.
No more compromising on speed and cost
“All this means that you can utilize all of your existing downstream equipment system at the same high capacities for ice cream products with large inclusion as you can for your other ice cream products. This new solution means it is no longer slower or costlier to produce these products – products that consumers are demanding,” says Product and Concept Manager, Elsebeth Baungaard.
In fact, the new solution means producers can achieve the lowest cost per product in the industry for single-serve ice cream products with large inclusions. In a typical scenario, producing single-serve ice cream products without large inclusions gives a total cost of €0.19 per product. Adding the Tetra Pak® Extrusion Wheel to enable large inclusions results in a total cost of just €0.21 per product, compared to €0.27 per product when using a nitrogen-dependent solution.
What new products can you make to capture new opportunities?
Test your specific recipes in our Product Development Centre in Denmark – this is included before shipment of the Tetra Pak Extrusion Wheel and enables guaranteed performance. We can also help you create a business case and idea support based on with ingredients we have already tested.
Contact us today to request a cost calculation and product test.