Heaters Deliver Home Cooked Flavor
Problem:
A restaurant equipment manufacturer wanted to successfully enter the fast growing Cook-N-Chill market.
The Cook-N-Chill method involves cooking large quantities of food completely at a central location. The food is bagged in smaller quantities and quickly chilled to just above freezing. These bags can be stored up to 45 days. The bags can be transported to remote locations and reconstituted by re-thermalizing (heating up quickly).
This process is popular because:
- The food has a home-cooked flavor as the components are allowed to mingle
- Waste is minimized
- The food can be transported to remote locations
Typical users for this method include hospitals, prisons, armed forces, schools, universities and airlines.
Key to this method of food distribution is rapid re-heating of the chilled food.
Solution:
The oven used to re-heat the food was made with two FIREBAR® heaters (formed on the major axis) around the blower and mounted in a bracket at the rear of the oven. Each unit was 5 killowatts with two coils for single phase operation.
The FIREBAR was ideal for this application because it offered the required surface area, thin profile for air flow and bend configurations necessary. This unit was also self-supporting whereas conventional tubulars would have required intricate bracketing.
Value Added:
Ability to provide a custom solution with a differentiated product.