Do you have a long way to go? How about a short time to get there? Are we talking about commissary and bakery products that need to be frozen or cooled? If we’re still on the same page, it’s safe to say we’re heading towards a discussion about spiral systems.

Spiral systems give commissaries an option when space is tight and additional linear feet for proofing, cooling or freezing is required.

JBT FoodTech’s self-stacking belt coolers, proofers and freezers feature descending layouts, a design breakthrough that combines the company’s latest wide-belt and Frigoscandia FRIgoDRIVE technologies. For raw dough or pizza lines, a GC 42-in.-wide belt cooler or freezer operates at speeds up to 130 ft per minute. Its downward vertical airflow has proven effective for disk-shaped products such as topped pizzas, pizza crusts, topped pies and cakes as well as donuts, according to the company.

JBT also manufactures SuperTrak spiral freezers and coolers for topped pizzas, pies, cakes, cinnamon rolls, donuts, raw dough loaves, raw pizza crusts, raw cookie dough and proofed croissants. Especially pimportant in plants with around-the-clock schedules, the SuperTrak freezers feature the company’s F.A.S.T. sequential defrost system that has no moving parts or louvers. With a 60-in.-wide structure-supported belt, it is the company’s highest capacity system. The defrosting system can be operated on  timed intervals or triggerd by monitoring the pressure differential across the coil.

“This system uses hot gas to defrost coil banks and has a redundant coil banks and has a redundant coil and fan so that capacity and/or outfeed temperatures are maintained during periods of sequential defrosting,” says Andrew Knowles, JBT FoodTech’s sales support and pricing manager.

IJ White, meanwhile, offers its own sequential defrost systems on the company’s blast freezers. It allows bakeries and commissaries to run their freezers “for days-on-end into weeks-on-end” by defrosting coils on the fly, according to the company.

The company’s Auto Pressurization System further reduces the need for defrosting cycles in  tis spiral blast freezers by dramatically reducing infiltration of warm moist air from the outside to the interior of the freezer at entrance and exit points. APS maintains freezer temperatures more evenly, and bakeries use less energy because coils don’t lose effectiveness, caused with insulated by ice and snow.

Similarly, JBT FoodTech optimized its fan-driven air balance tunnel for GC spiral freezers to minimize moisture entering the spiral through the infeed and outfeed openings. “Many bakeries run six days per week or longer before defrosting and cleaning freezers,” Knowles says. “Therefore, freezers need an effective air-balance system, sufficiently large coils and measures to continuously keep the coils relatively free of thick frost and ice accumulation.”

And when it comes to the belts on these spiral systems, Ashworth has developed several new belt designs to meet ever-expanding requirements faced by food processors. The company introduced its Omni-Pro belts to address food safety regulations while maximizing efficiency. The 360° welds on link-and-rod-style belts are stronger than previous designs and also more sanitary because they eliminate nooks or crevices. Additionally, the company expanded its standard radius belting to include tight-turning, small-radius belting as well as mid-range reduced-radius belt for those systems design with larger oversized cages.