RAY® Plus freeze dryer
A plus for freeze drying
A big plus for your freeze drying set-up
We’ve developed the next generation of GEA freeze dryers - RAY® Plus – to combine the latest design in industrial scale freeze drying with some major improvements in energy efficiency, productivity and ease of cleaning.
Backed by 70 years of GEA expertise in freeze drying R&D and engineering, our RAY® Plus freeze dryers (patent pending) are designed to give your large-scale processes a real boost, with a redesigned chamber that can offer better resource efficiency coupled with lower associated costs. By reducing the pressure losses in the chamber, this new design allows for an impressive 30% greater capacity when compared with existing RAY® freeze dryers that have an equivalent footprint, effectively increasing throughput while optimizing space utilization. The RAY® Plus chamber also supports thorough, fast cleaning, while the human-friendly user interface supports remote access.
A plus for energy efficiency
The improved flow inside the RAY Plus chamber allows you to use less energy on the vapor trap without cutting capacity.
A plus for cleaning
The RAY Plus features a redesigned, self-draining chamber that lets you clean the freeze dryer thoroughly and efficiently.
A plus for capacity
Turn up your freeze-drying throughput. The RAY® Plus gives you 30% more capacity, and so greater productivity for each cycle.
Improving freeze-drying performance
So how have we achieved all of this? Experts here at GEA developed a proprietary computational fluid dynamic (CFD) model that was instrumental in supporting our design process for the RAY® Plus freeze dryer. The digital tool accurately models and evaluates flow and pressure losses under deep vacuum inside the freeze drying cabinet. Using the CFD model we could virtually assess the effects on freeze drying of even the most subtle alterations in design under different operating conditions. This meant we could ensure that the final design would offer optimal performance and efficiency in the real world.
The result of our innovation gives you a new generation of RAY® Plus freeze dryers that features up to 50% reduction in pressure losses inside the cabinet, when compared with our existing industry-leading portfolio of RAY® freeze dryers. We’ve achieved this by installing vapor traps on both sides of the cabinet, and allowing vapor inlet at both the top and the bottom of the vapor trap.
Our innovation, your way
RAY® Plus user interface
Reengineered top to bottom with the user in mind, the RAY® Plus introduces an intuitive user interface that is human friendly and supports remote access. This, combined with the comprehensive control system with recipe management and batch reporting, makes day to day operation a breeze.
Freeze-dried tomatoes, freeze-dried kiwis, freeze-dried raw meat, freeze-dried oranges, and freeze-dried kale.
A snapshot of freeze dryer scalability
RAY® Plus Pilot Plant freeze dryer
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Last year was not a year of hyped-up headlines for alternative proteins. Perhaps that is precisely why it was an important year for food biotech, the biotechnology behind everyday foods and ingredients. While the sector worked through a difficult funding environment, approvals were still granted, pilot lines set up and new platforms tested in the background. In short: headlines are turning into infrastructure. Frederieke Reiners heads GEA’s New Food business. She and her team work at the intersection of biotechnology and industrial food production. In this interview, she takes us on a world tour of food biotech in seven questions.
