Quick facts
Tray tunnel system for ice cream production
The Tetra Pak® Extrusion Tunnel M3 is a tray tunnel system for the extrusion, shaping, filling, decorating and hardening of ice cream products including ball-top cones, desserts, wafer cups, sandwiches, cakes and logs, slices, bite sizes, stick products and candy bars.
Capacity
Up to 24,000 products/hour
Applications
Ice cream sticks, sandwiches, cones, wafer cups, candy bars, slices, bite size, cakes, and logs
Flexible production, with growth potential
- Meets your present and future needs, thanks to easy add-on of extra modules
- High capacity in relation to footprint - 275 products / m2 / hour
- Modular design and easy cleaning deliver product versatility with secure product changeovers
Features
Modular design
Easily adapted to meet a range of production needs
The unit is designed in modules to maximize versatility with regard to the product. The layout of the equipment and its placement on the worktable can all be varied to enable the production of several kinds of ice creams
Servo cutter
Precisely repeatable production
The servo cutter slices the extruded ice cream with a high degree of precision every time independed of speed on line (standard deviation below 1%). This, combined with the fact that the Tetra Pak® freezer upstream delivers a well mixed and consistent stream of product, means that every single ice cream coming off the line is the correct and the same size
Start-up process design
Enhances hygiene and minimizes product losses
Preparation for production is carried out outside the tray to ensure safe and clean start-up without the risk of contamination. As the ice cream mixture enters the extrusion nozzles, they are gradually cooled down. When they reach the right temperature and fill out the nozzle to form the correct product shape, the operator can move the nozzles over the product trays and set the cutter in motion.
Worktable-equipment interface
Easy switch between different product types
This unit has a well-defined and standardized interface between the equipment and the worktable. It consists of identical mounting points where the equipment used to create (and differentiate) products is mounted. Production is easily varied, simply by switching and moving fillers, decoration equipment, biscuit dispensers etc.
Lubrication-free tunnel
Hygienic production
To prevent the risk of black spots, no lubrication is used inside the tunnel. Only lubrication free components are used on the inside, while the main drive is placed outside the freezing zone - which also facilitates maintenance.
Options
Dehumidifier
Extended run time between defrosting
If planning to run continuous operation for several days in a row, it is important to control the humidity in the hardening tunnel to prevent frost build up. The dehumidifier supplies dry air to the tunnel and keeps the moisture level down.
Automatic stick inserter
Enhances food safety and production reliability
With an automatic stick inserter, operators just need to load up boxes of sticks, and they receive an alert when it’s time to reload. This gives several advantages: there is no contamination risk from human contact; boxes cost less than bundled sticks, and one person can easily handle a four lane production line. This feature also supports the unit’s high operational speed – up to 200 sticks per minute per lane.
Combination trays
Broadening the range of possible products
Combination trays makes it possible to run different product types on the line without changing the trays on the worktable. The specially designed trays can be made to run up to 5 products on the same trays at varying capacities.
After cooler conveyor for stickles products
Optimizing footprint and energy consumption
When producing ice cream bars and bite size pieces on an extrusion line, chocolate needs to dry and harden after chocolate enrobing. While this is often achieved by having an additional tunnel connected to the line, with the Tetra Pak® Extrusion Tunnel M3, it’s possible to run an after-cooler conveyor through the tunnel house.
Add-on and exchange modules
Enabling production of a broad range of ice creams
Whatever kind of ice cream you want to produce, there is an add-on module or modules to make it possible. Different stick product size and shape, full and half sandwiches, ice cream slices, candy bars, bite size, ball top cones, wafer cups, decorated cakes, logs etc.
Tetra Pak® Decoration Depositing unit
Create innovative ice cream designs
This advanced, highly automated solution lets you decorate ice cream products with different materials such as caramel, ripple/fruit sauce or chocolate compound. The unit consists of a pump system, print heads and design software, and is mounted on the extrusion line worktable. Product quality is repeatable and precise, and it is easy to create new designs.
Ice Cream Video Care
Get full visibility of your ice cream line
Ice Cream Video Care lets you visually monitor inaccessible and “hidden” areas of ice cream production lines. Featuring up to 16 cameras, the solution enables improved quality control and troubleshooting – by making it easier to locate the root cause of quality issues, it becomes possible to reduce downtime and product waste. Ice Cream Video Care provides access to live video as well as recordings.
Ice Cream Centre Filling Assist
Fine-tune ice cream position
Ice Cream Centre Filling Assist helps you produce precision-perfect ice cream cones, sandwiches and similar products on filling units on extrusion lines. The system analyses chain pin position by measuring time intervals as the pins pass the sensors. Any deviations are compensated for, ensuring that the ice cream – and ripple – consistently end up where it should: in the centre of the cone or wafer.
