Installation for the continuous heat treatment of foodstuffs

DETAILED DESCRIPTION In an installation comprising a housing having an inlet and an outlet for the material to be treated and including a series of treatment zones; an endless conveyor driven to revolve and traversing the treatment zones successively for conveying the material to be treated through the treatment zones; means for supplying and removing the heat carrier and for conveying the same within the installation; and heat exchange means for controlling the enthalpy (heat content) of the heat carrier, these objects are achieved in that a series of containers is arranged separately from each other and each adapted to receive the heat carrier, that the means for supplying and removing the heat carrier are associated with the containers separately and in a manner to be controlled independently, and that the containers have connecting lines adapted to be connected variably to one another for a variable exchange of the heat carrier within the installation.
The resulting advantages of such an arrangement particularly reside in broadening the applicability of such installation in so far as any treatment process of the types outlined above can be performed within the same installation, and it becomes possible to use the heat exchange means in a variable manner, by way of such means for supplying the necessary thermal energy as well as such for possibly removing the same.
This, among other advantages, enables to obtain favourable operating costs and to optimize the same.
According to an advantageous embodiment of the invention, the means for supplying the heat carrier may be designed as sprinklers or showers, at least one each of them being associated with an outlet region of each container, while the means for removing the heat carrier may be designed as feed pumps, one each of which being associated with the inlet region of each container.
For promoting the variability of the installation, a preferred embodiment provides that the feed pumps be controllable with regard to their yield/capacity, whereas the conveyor for the material to be treated should be controllable with respect to its conveying speed