Cooling plates offer an inexpensive way of transport cooling. For example, you can use cooling plates to keep your prepared meals cool without electricity. You can think of ice cream in the ice cream truck and cold dishes such as salads and desserts at the buffet. Are you curious which cooling plates are suitable for your application and why? You can read about it in this article.
The right cooling plate: what should you pay attention to?
There are a number of points to bear in mind when choosing the right cooling solution for you. Firstly, the dimensions can be important. The better the size of the cooling plate fits your storage system, the better the cooling result. Catering entrepreneurs and caterers, for example, often use the Gastronorm size classifications.
Secondly, there are various possibilities in the material use of cooling plates. For example, you can opt for a plastic variant, but there are also variants available in, for example, stainless steel.
Finally, it is of the utmost importance that a cooling plate can achieve and maintain the desired temperature range. Different possibilities are conceivable for different applications: an ice-cream producer will probably want to keep his products at a lower temperature than a salad seller.
1. Dimensions: cooling plates for Gastronorm sizes and other dimensions
The Swiss-born Gastronorm scale is used by many restaurants and caterers. It consists of a number of standard sizes for stainless steel containers in which food can be prepared, cooled, placed over and displayed. The 1/1 Gastronorm size is 325 x 530 mm. The Gastronorm size can be reduced to as much as 1/9 (108 x 176 mm), but can also be increased to 2/1 (650 x 530 mm).
Due to the popularity of the Gastronorm, related products are also tailored to these dimensions. For example, De Ridder Packaging supplies cooling and freezing plates that fit exactly for Gastronorm 1/1 and Gastronorm ½. We also supply cooling plates in other sizes.
2. Material of cooling plates: High Density Polyethylene
If you are looking for heatsinks, you will come across variants of different materials. The cooling plates of De Ridder Packaging are made of High Density Polyethylene (HDPE). This material is a plastic form, which is characterised by its moisture resistance, UV resistance and weather resistance. The material remains intact at a wide temperature range from -30 to +80 degrees Celsius, and is therefore extremely suitable for use as a cooling or freezing plate. HDPE has a sharp price-quality ratio, because despite its relatively low price it is a strong material. As a result, the cooling plates have a long lifespan.
3. Temperature: cool your food at the right temperature
The cooling plates cool your dishes at 0 to 8 degrees Celsius as standard. For a good cooling result, freeze the cooling plates in advance at -18 degrees Celsius. However, it is also possible to lower the freezing point of the refrigerant with which the plates are filled. We can achieve this by changing the composition of the refrigerant. In this way you can reach a temperature of -21 degrees Celsius. Ideal for keeping frozen products at the right temperature.
Tailor-made advice
At De Ridder Packaging we offer a wide range of refrigerants for the refrigerated or conditioned transport and storage of products. Thanks to our production facility on location, we can realise a customised solution for every transport challenge. Do you have any questions or would you like advice? Feel free to contact us. We are happy to think along with you.
