FPS stay cool-efficient

When consumers pay high prices for food, they expect consistent quality. Whether the buyer chooses items for a restaurant menu or a family table, frozen foods are hard to match in terms of preserving nutrition and flavor. But the food is very picky. Sean Cao, Electrical Engineering Manager, FPS Food Process Solutions:

As a global leader in food cooling and freezing equipment, FPS Food Process Solutions provides innovative systems designed to meet strict hygiene requirements. Driven by the good reputation of the food industry, the private company has achieved double-digit growth in recent years. FPS is headquartered in Richmond, a suburb of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Midstream Challenge-The second time. Recently, a food and agribusiness in Idaho specializes in restaurant-quality frozen products, seeking a solution from FPS. Based on the success of the potato production line, the food company plans to expand production capacity at its new plant in Winnipeg. The new plant is designed to run two processing lines-one for French fries and one for forming potato products, such as potato pancakes. The refrigerators on each production line have signed an FPS contract. Cao Jun:

The tunnel freezer is suitable for quick-freezing French fries. The spiral freezer is very suitable for shaped potato products, which must be cooled more slowly. In both cases, the freezing process takes place in the middle-between cooking and packaging. Cao Jun:

Every time a customized solution is the same as all FPS freezers, the potato processing plant’s solution is custom-designed to meet specific application requirements. FPS built 56,000 pounds per hour tunnel freezer and 13,000 pounds per hour spiral freezer. In the tunnel freezer, a separate quick freezing (IQF) process reduces the temperature of freshly blanched French fries from 190°F to 0°F in approximately 20 minutes. As French fries pass through tunnels on a conveyor belt, the IQF process uses refrigerator coils and a fan system to circulate cold air. Cao Jun:

Maintainable structure. Efficient control. In order to maximize cleanability and uptime, FPS installs internal components outside as much as possible, thereby minimizing the number of internal components. In addition, all motors can be installed externally to improve durability and reduce the number of internal components that need to be cleaned. Maintainable and hygienic design is only part of the uptime equation. The other is consistent and precise airflow—and an easy-to-use control system. FPS built their new industrial chiller on PlantPAx® DCS (Rockwell Automation's modern distributed control system). Cao Jun:

The challenge is to easily design and integrate a custom freezer for a new potato processing plant. Solution The intelligent process control solution based on PlantPAx DCS has:

The control platforms of both types of refrigerators are equipped with Allen-Bradley® ControlLogix® 5570 controllers. Allen-Bradley PowerFlex® 753 and 525 AC drives control fans and conveyor belts. The HMI is based on the Allen-Bradley PanelView™ graphic terminal, and the system is integrated on the EtherNet/IP™ network. Various RTD sensors are integrated in the system to monitor the freezer compartment and product temperature. The PID loop is used to adjust the refrigeration valve and conveyor speed to meet the requirements. Fan control is the core of the operation of the two freezers-and the key to efficiency. Cao Jun:

The road to smarter system design Although FPS is very familiar with Rockwell Automation control systems, this latest solution is the second time the company has used PlantPAx DCS for system design. The lessons learned in the first implementation-a large site-wide project-can easily be extended to two smaller refrigeration systems. Cao Jun:

FPS estimates that the PlantPAx system helped them reduce design time by approximately 20%. Cao Jun:

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