ACFRI System

Patent n°1355609 of 05/24/2019

Since 1968, Jean Claude Comby ACFRI company's founder, has developped a Blast Chilling and Deep Freezing range of cells using the vertical-type evaporator technology.

This technology offers mutliple benefits :

• Vertical homogeneity of fluid distribution via the multi-layers principle
• Limited number of bends and weldings ( leak risk limitation)
• Vertical ventilation by lateral air blows 
• Pivoting Ventilation ramp for an easy cleaning of the fan's rear side and the 3 evaporator sides.
• Evaporators ultra short defrosting and drying by continuous ventilation’s work

The ACFRI ventilation principle guarantees the ventilation's homogeneity.

The cooling is produiced at a very low temperature without inadvertent deep freezing risk for produts.

Ventilation and temperature being homogeneous on the whole height, products on trolley's top reach the end of cycle at the same time as the ones on the bottom.

Air blow temperature

The principle of Blast Chilling and deep freezing in mechanical refrigeration is based on the temperature difference between the product and the air blowed. The more the temperature difference will be, the shortest the cycle will be. In Blast Chilling as in Deep Freezing, a cell should be able to produce a negative air blow temperature.

Difficult products	Fragiles products	Deep freezing
To reach +10°C at core, some products require a blow up to -20°C.	Some products more fragile and more easy to chill can just have a mastered blow during all the cycle (see ACFRI progressif'temp solution).	To quickly reach -18°C core temperature, all products require an intense blow between  -30°C and -40°C.

Air speed

The air speed allows the indispensable heat exchange for a product blast chilling.

The more a product will be ventilated, the more its chilling will be fast. In the case of a blast chilling done by an air blow below zero, it is so necessary to provide the same blow for all the products, at the risk of causing an inadvertent deep freezing of the first chilled products.

Some more acute products require a specific and very ventilated cooling.
The use of apertured trays, pallets  or particularely large trolleys, is an obstacle for the air flow on the product. For such cases ACFRI has developped an ultra performing ventilating device.

The ventilation is provided by a double air circuit on each trolley sides.

This device can be associated to the reverse ventilation direction system, during cycle.