Increasing energy and raw material prices, increasing demands of the efficiency of machinery and intense competition among food companies are challenges the industry is experiencing today. Therefore production is optimised, costs are reduced and the senses of companies are sharpened.
In recent years most companies have started projects such as LEAN to assist this efficiency process. The Gerstenberg Schröder engineers have designed Nexus, a scraped surface heat exchanger (SSHE), to meet these challenges of today and the ones of tomorrow.
Nexus means connection, link or tie, which is the reason GS have chosen the name. During the development of Nexus, the GS engineers have monitored the requirements from the industry and designed a compact SSHE that includes all the excellent features of the Kombinator and the Perfector. Thus Nexus links the past to the future.
Optimisation of process equipment, lowering environmental impact and reducing energy consumption while keeping high product quality have been the key aims for the development of Nexus. Nexus is the next generation of high-pressure scraped surface heat exchangers, a milestone in the industry.
Nexus can be described as a machine with an evolutionary design and a revolutionary functionality. Low energy consumption, easy service and hygienic design have been in focus when designing Nexus. The patented scraper blade system has, compared with traditional systems, been optimised to secure efficient scraping off in addition to applying minimum wear on the chilling tube.
Safe choice of refrigerant
SSHEs have predominantly used cooling media such as various Freon types or ammonia (NH3), and the use of these is, from a health and environmental perspective, not optimal, even though the refrigerants are kept in closed and pressurised systems. The environmental issues and increasing legal restrictions, especially for Freon, have revived the use of CO2 as a refrigerant. In addition, some food companies are reluctant to have NH3 in production areas where foods are produced.
The forecast for refrigerants in future is generally a jungle of restrictions, legal requirements and high prices, which is why GS have worked on developing SSHE using another efficient cooling medium. GS have, at an early stage, seen the numerous advantages that CO2 offers as refrigerant. The choice of CO2 as refrigerant for Nexus is considered an advantage economically, environmentally and legally.
Refrigerant experts within the line consider CO2 a clear winner of the near and distant future, since CO2, just like NH3, is a natural refrigerant that is a very effective cooling medium under pressure. CO2, however, is considered to be 20% more efficient as a cooling medium compared with NH3.
Flexibility
Nexus can produce crystallised fat products such as margarine, spreads and shortening at low cost but of high quality. GS customers all over the world cover multinational companies as well as smaller, specialised manufacturers and naturally the requirements for processing equipment differs.
Some manufacturers see an increasing need of being able to vary the range of products. On the basis of considerably differentiated production wishes and conditions, Nexus has been designed to provide for and to permit changes, upgrading or simplifications. The Nexus user will experience a compact and flexible machine in which choice of product and configuration is numerous.
