Single Contact Freezer Plates - A Better Solution for Profitable Freezing. Gunthela freezer plates are the preferred choice when compared to others. They are superior in performance and quality at a very competitive price. Their highly enhanced surface area, both inside and out, provides excellent heat exchange properties. The outstanding corrosion resistance guarantees long life. Our aluminum evaporator plate dominates the fishing industry of British Columbia, is in widespread use along the entire west coast of North America and finds ever greater acceptance in many fishing communities around the world.

Freezer plates are available in multiples of 8 inches (20cm) wide and up to 20 feet (610cm) long.

These plates are the excellent base for most of our equipment:

Typical single contact plate freezer racks, sized in almost unlimited range of depth and length to fit the often-limited space. They can be designed for thermostatic expansion or pump re-circulation, equally suited to all refrigerants, ammonia as well as freon.

One of two 5½ m long freezer racks, ready to be crated and shipped overseas.

Based on decades of experience in designing and building equipment for the fishing industry, these compact, self-contained, high quality units are made to last even in the most demanding marine conditions. Extensive use of corrosion resistant material, such as stainless steel, aluminum and plastic guarantees low maintenance operation.

A six-station unit with 4 inches (10cm) clear space between shelves. Having the condensing package placed below the cabinet allows comfortable loading and discharging of product.

The condensing packages of such freezers are remotely placed in the engine rooms of vessels or shore plants. These freezers have been produced in a wide range of sizes. The units shown here were designed and built for a shrimp factory ship operating in Guyana. These are actually four freezers in two enclosures, a very compact package. The daily capacity of each of the four freezers is between 3,000 and 5,000 kg.

A medium sized 8-station cabinet freezer for salmon and tuna with 8 inches of clear space between shelves.

One of two large freezers, built for a local vessel owner, who uses his trawlers to fish the South American Waters. This unit has various shelf spacing from ten to sixteen inches and space saving bi-fold doors.

20 and 40 feet (6. & 12m) standard shipping containers are built into fully self-contained units, ready to operate anywhere in the world, with daily freezing capacities from 16 to 32 metric tons.

The ideal freezer for small fishing vessels and processors.

The freezer chest offers many advantages for the small operator:

• Freeze seafood quickly and easily and store it in the same rugged, self-contained freezer chest.
• Capable of bringing product down to minus 40ºC (-40ºF) in northern waters and minus 30ºC (-22ºF) in tropical climate.
• Freeze up to 2,200 lbs. (1000 kg) per day and store up to 800 kg.
• Contact freezing in our chest is highly energy efficient, reducing fuel and power costs. Opening the lid of a chest, unlike opening the door of a regular cabinet freezer, there is hardly any loss of cold and no heavy frost-up.
• Ruggedly built of heavy gauge aluminum, one can drive it over the roughest road or take it far out to sea on deck in the nastiest weather.
• Available in many sizes to fit specific needs.

This 5000 kg per day unit was designed to freeze ranched 120 kg bluefin tuna to a core temperature of minus 55ºC.

Cold storage spaces on land today are invariably kept refrigerated by means of blower coils. These coils are inexpensive, easy to install and easy to defrost; however, on fishing vessels they have several disadvantages:

• They require a lot of space to be left empty for air circulation thus reducing the already limited storage capacity.
• They cause considerable product dehydration. This is because their operation inherently results in both temperature cycling and temperature gradients across the storage space. These gradients become even more severe when insufficient space is left for air circulation

Typical holdkeeping plates. They can be supplied in multiples of 8 inches (20cm) wide and in increments of inches from 24" (60 cm) to 20' (6 m) long.

Typical layout of under-deck plates, which in a vessel with sufficient insulation can maintain temperatures of minus 40 degrees and lower.

Designed to use temperature differentials to shrink-fit heavy metal disks onto large size shafts. These freezers use off-the-shelf evaporator coils instead of plates.

This freezer was delivered to a customer in Russia to shrink fit train wheels onto axles.

Brine immersion freezing has been developed for its very specialized application in the fishing industry of the Pacific Coast.

Gunthela Enterprise, designed and patented the first system in 1978 for the Prince Rupert Fishermen's Cooperative. Thereafter, roe from brine immersion frozen herring became trend setting in the Japanese marketplace.

Throughout the following years, the original design was upgraded and, in 1987, three 100 ton/day units were sold to B.C. Packers and Cloverdale Cold Storage. This was followed in 1988 by a 100 ton per day unit sold to New West Fisheries of Seattle for operation in California and 160 per day brine immersion freezers to Cloverdale Cold Storage and Bella Coola Fisheries. The Bella Coola Fisheries installation included a complete, portable refrigeration package in a 40 foot container and a customized after freezer system. Finally, in 1991, besides other smaller installations, two major projects were completed and successfully operated. Complete brine immersion freezing systems were sold to BC Packers in Prince Rupert, BC and to Ide & Company, Ltd., in Tokyo, Japan. The equipment had been further improved and the plants were able to handle between 240 and 300 tons/day, depending on sizing of the after freezer.

In spite of extremely tight scheduling, all installations were completed on time and operated successfully, surpassing guaranteed capacities.

A large proportion of British Columbia's production is frozen in this way. Japanese buyers consider roe not from brine-frozen herring, substandard.

Brine immersion freezing offers the following advantages and benefits:

• Economical handling with minimal labour increases the cost efficiency of brine freezing: each new packaged plant will require personnel for supplying and receiving the product, and only one person to generally oversee operation and quality control.
• Brine immersion freezing allows a 25% to 40% more efficient utilization of the refrigeration system compared to other methods; this also provides a corresponding savings in energy.
• Immersion frozen roe herring yields a 5% increase in roe compared to the recovery of roe from herring frozen by other means. That, as an example, translates into an additional return of $168.00 for each short ton of 12% roe herring processed at an assumed roe price of $14.00/lb., without consideration of price gains (as a result of a better quality product).
• The quality of roe from immersion frozen roe herring is superior: the skeins of roe are straight and without the deformation common in other freezing processes, therefore the roe is brighter and fuller in size.
• Japanese customers have demonstrated increased preference for roe from immersion frozen herring and this method of freezing is quickly becoming standard here on the West Coast.
• The equipment is self-contained and portable, resting on one common base (including pump and chiller).

Gunthela's equipment (previously known as Farexcel Freezing) is manufactured to the highest standards of workmanship. All materials are approved for government-controlled fish handling environment. With the exception of chiller and brine pump, all materials in contact with the product or brine are aluminum, stainless steel, or plastic. As a matter of fact, the whole system is built of aluminum, including the base and walkway.

The importance of being able to freeze large quantities of roe herring quickly cannot be over emphasized, since both the recovery and quality of roe suffers when held in storage. Brine immersion freezing, by its nature, allows bulk freezing of large quantities with a minimum of effort. Our equipment is specifically designed with these requirements in mind.

We now offer three different sized units specially designed for the freezing of roe herring.

The latest, further improved model of our regular conveyorized system is able and guaranteed to freeze 480,000 lb/24 hours with an infeed temperature of 45° F (7° C) to an average output product temperature of 12° F (-11° C).

It includes the following basic components:

1. Main package of system assembled on a common aluminum base including:

• Shell and tube flooded ammonia brine chiller, 40 inch diameter x 20 feet long, complete with all necessary valves, piping and controls.
• 50 HP, 6,000 Gallons/minute brine pump.
• 50 feet x 6 feet aluminum freezing channel with approximately 90 feet of speed controlled main transport conveyor, infeed raceway and transfer conveyor
• Filter screen with air knife and 15 HP blower
• All necessary interconnecting piping, hoses and valves.
• All electrical wiring, starters and control panel.
• Aluminum walkway with guardrail along one side of freezing channel and infeed conveyer

2. Flooded metering infeed hopper-elevator complete with drive and speed control.
3. Brine salinity control system.

The above system requires provision of the following plant capacities:

• Refrigeration: 300 TR. At -20° F
• Water: 100 gallons/min. (not continuous)
• Brine: Approx. 4,500 imp. Gallons or 5,400 USG
• Power: Total connected load approx. 78 kW

The two lower capacity units are less expensive and will serve many smaller operators that don't require the high volume of the above unit.

These two brine immersion freezers are offered at considerably reduced cost by eliminating the transport conveyor and utilizing an overhead brine distribution chamber. Pumps and chillers are matched to the size of the units and their anticipated capacities.

The medium capacity freezer has inside freezing channel dimensions of 50' long by 6' wide and has an output of 240,000 lbs/24 hours. The small unit is has inside freezing channel dimensions of 40' long by 5' wide with a capacity of 144,000 lbs/24 hours. Both units include the variable speed infeed conveyor, are fully portable, and are made to the same quality standards as our regular brine immersion freezer.

As mentioned before, all of our units are contained on one common frame and are portable with the two lower capacity units being well suited for installation on a vessel or barge.

We are in a position to design and build the necessary Refrigeration Package, Brine Making Equipment, and After-Freezer System suited to your particular requirements. We also provide advice in the decision-making process, assistance in the start up and the training of personnel, as well as comprehensive operation and maintenance manuals.

Requests are quickly and professionally handled and proposals are detailed and comprehensive. We are prepared to make site visits to evaluate various plant situations and advise about the best and most economical approach for using our equipment. We invite your inquiry.

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