Schröter has supplied state-of-the-art systems technology to a French meat products company for 18 years. Now the company has ordered a CONT Ijet system with an hourly output of 3,000 kilograms. Special features include ice water chilling and robotic loading and unloading units.
“KNACKS” at their finest – perfect sausages with artificial casing
The processor offers an extensive range of sausages of different diameters and lengths. A Schröter customer for many years, the company uses, among other systems, nine THERMICjet hot-smoke cooking systems, a continuous cooking tunnel, as well as six SEMIjet hot-air cooking and blast chilling systems at different locations. The company manufactures an extremely wide range of different products – in addition to bacon and ham, its main products, it also uses the Schröter systems to produce blood sausage as well as to precook hamburgers. The CONTIjet is primarily used for sausage production. Schröter was also able to impress the customer with its continuous CONTIjet system for this product due to the fact that the engineers from Borgholzhausen tailored it specifically to the production of the company’s “Knacks” sausage with artificial casing. The CONTIjet will help to increase the company’s production capacity to meet the growing demand for the “sausage with bite”. known as “Knacks.” In addition to its main version, the Strasbourg “Knack,” the system can also process other variations, such as the “Maxi-Knack,” cocktail sausages, or “Balls.”
The CONTIjet, which dries, smokes, cooks, and chills in one continuous process, is equipped to handle sausages of various lengths and diameters. In the current project, the system is used to produce peelable sausage with artificial casing with a diameter of 17 millimeters and a length of 160 millimeters. The drying, smoking, and cooking process takes 55 minutes, the subsequent chilling process another 44 minutes. One special feature is the complex cooling system, which is equipped with ice water chilling. For this system, coarse and fine filters clean the process water so that it can be recirculated and reused. At the end of the entire production process, the product’s core temperature ultimately measures between two and three degrees Celsius. In addition to the current smoke system, which can supply multiple processing zones with liquid smoke either individually or in unison, the CONTIjet can alternatively be equipped with a second smoke system designed for a natural smoking process.
When it comes to loading and unloading, different automated solutions exist that can be used depending on the capacity requirements. In this CONTIjet, the robotic units ordered by the customer create a fully automated process and are responsible for transporting the finished products to peeling and packaging. The customer always maintains an overview of each step in the production process, since complete control, maintenance, and service information is available and can be accessed online.
Schröter was able to assemble the entire system and bring it into operation in only ten weeks. This is because the zones and all peripheral components, such as filter systems, pumps, and heat exchangers, are modularly designed and were assembled and completed at Schröter’s factory in Borgholzhausen – including factory approval by the customer. Special trucks then transport the modules to the construction site in one piece for final assembly. Furthermore, Schröter was also able to complete this elaborate project in such rapid time thanks to the excellent communication with the customer and due to the fact that all coordination with peripheral system suppliers went smoothly.
