Choosing a tilting steam jacket pot is an important investment decision that directly affects production efficiency, product quality, and operational safety. Here is a detailed shopping guide that covers all the key aspects you need to consider.
1、 Core considerations ("why" and "what to choose")
1. Determine the capacity specifications
This is the primary issue. Capacity does not refer to the total volume of the pot, but to the effective volume that can be processed at once.
Calculation formula: Typically, the effective volume is 70% -80% of the total volume of the pot. This is to prevent the material from overflowing during heating and stirring.
Common specifications: 50L, 100L, 200L, 300L, 500L, etc.
How to choose: Determine based on your daily production and batch processing capacity. For example, if 150kg of material needs to be processed per batch, choosing a 200L pot (200L * 0.8 ≈ 160L) is appropriate.
2. Choose the material of the pot body
This is directly related to food hygiene and the durability of the pot.
Standard configuration: Food grade SUS304 stainless steel
Advantages: Corrosion resistance, easy cleaning, and compliance with national food hygiene standards. Suitable for the vast majority of food processing, such as sauces, fillings, jams, meat products, etc.
Identification: Require suppliers to provide material certification.
Upgraded configuration: SUS316 stainless steel
Advantages: Strong acid and alkali resistance, especially suitable for processing products with high acidity (such as lemon, hawthorn) or high salt content.
Cost: More expensive than 304 stainless steel.
Contact parts: Ensure that all parts in contact with the material (pot body, mixer) are made of stainless steel.
3. Pay attention to heating performance
The core heating method of a tilting pot is the medium introduced into the interlayer.
Steam source:
Factory boiler steam: If your factory has a centralized steam supply, this is the most economical and efficient choice. It is necessary to confirm the steam pressure of the boiler (such as 0.4MPa, 0.7MPa) and select the design pressure resistance level of the sandwich boiler based on this.
Electric heating steam generator: If there is no boiler, it can be matched with an electric heating steam generator for flexible use, but it will increase energy consumption costs.
Thermal efficiency: The interlayer of the pot body should adopt a reasonable structural design (such as a hemispherical pot bottom) to ensure a large heating area, uniform heating, and no burning of the pot.
4. Evaluate the dumping structure
This is the core of the "tilting" function, which concerns the convenience and safety of operation.
Manual tilting type:
Method: Tilt through a handwheel or worm gear mechanism.
Advantages: Simple structure, low cost, and maintenance free.
Disadvantages: labor-intensive, especially for large capacity (over 200L) pots, the operating efficiency is low.
Hydraulic/pneumatic tilting type:
Method: Using hydraulic cylinders or pneumatic cylinders as power, buttons control tilting and resetting.
Advantages: labor-saving, stable, safe, and can accurately control the tilt angle, especially suitable for large capacity pots and frequent discharge conditions.
Disadvantages: High cost, requiring the configuration of a hydraulic station or air source.
Suggestion for selection: For quantities below 100L, manual operation may be considered, while for quantities above 200L, hydraulic or pneumatic operation is strongly recommended.
5. Determine whether stirring is necessary
Determine based on the characteristics of the material.
Non stirring type: suitable for boiling materials with low viscosity and not easy to stick to the pot, or mainly relying on manual stir frying processes (such as stir frying fillings).
Mixing type:
Advantages: Uniform heating, preventing bottom sticking, good consistency in product quality, greatly saving manpower.
Mixing type: usually scraping bottom mixing, which can tightly adhere to the bottom and wall of the pot, scraping off any materials that may adhere.
Speed regulation function: Optimal frequency conversion speed regulation, which can adjust the stirring speed according to different process stages (such as mixing and concentration).
6. Review security configuration
Safety is no small matter.
Essential safety valve: The sandwich pot must be equipped with a safety valve, which automatically releases pressure when the pressure exceeds the set value and is a key device to prevent explosions.
Pressure gauge: Real time display of working pressure inside the interlayer.
Protective device: For models with agitation, there should be reliable linkage or protective structures to prevent the agitator from accidentally starting when tilted.
Material certification: Ensure that the pot body material and pressure bearing components have qualified certificates.