Heating System

Written by Administrator | 02 February 2012

 Steam shrimp cooker

Arintha system steam cooker for cooking foodstuffs, especially shellfish such as shrimp, in a continuous cooking process in a pure saturated-steam environment at 100° C. and atmospheric pressure. The cooker comprises a cooking chamber covered by an enclosure movable between a raised position admitting access to the cooking chamber and a lowered cooking position. A conveyor transports shrimp from a feed tank, through an entrance opening, and into an upper cooking region of the cooking chamber where the shrimp are cooked. The conveyor deposits cooked shrimp into a discharge race through an exit for downstream processing.

Hydrostatic seals formed at the entrance and exit and between the bottom rim of the enclosure and a water-filled trough bounding the cooking chamber prevent steam from escaping at those places. One or more ports through the floor of the cooking chamber are open to the atmosphere at vertical positions at or below the vertical positions of the hydrostatic seals and are of sufficient cross section to maintain atmospheric pressure within the cooking chamber. A feed mechanism including a paddle for controllably depositing shrimp in the feed tank onto the conveyor is mounted to the enclosure. Lifting the enclosure to the raised position lifts the feed mechanism away from the conveyor for ready access to the cooking chamber.

 Heating Conveyor with element

Arintha system Conveyor ovens are a cooking tunnel with heating elements above or above and below with a constantly revolving belt of steel mesh or slats passing through it. There will be a tray in front of the conveyor for loading foods and a tray at the rear for received the cooked food. While popular for high volume bread, biscuit production, they can do a wide range of foods. The heat is controllable, but usually it is the speed setting on the conveyor Wire mesh, modular or slat, that controls the length of time the food is subjected to heat.

Power source can be gas, electric or infra-red and they come as double-decks or triple-decks for high volume production. The cooking tunnel can be as short as 50cm or more than twice that length on big ovens. Some also feature a split conveyor belt with individual speed settings for each half of the conveyor belt so that two cook times can happen during the same pass-through.