DirectDrive Stacker Delivers Better Bakery Freezing

The coffee cake line at THOKS’s Waltershausen plant operates on a 24-hour production schedule. For three of those hours, the line stops so that the spiral freezer, a vital application, can defrost. In this area, the company had previously used a discontinued plastic stacker that never performed well. The plant’s maintenance team had tried implementing various fixes over the years. But even with extensive modifications and weekly scheduled maintenance, the system was prone to breakdowns and poor performance.

THOKS officials needed a self-stacking spiral freezer that would fit within its limited existing footprint and allow the plant to continue operating two freezers. Most of the available options would have required THOKS to install a new freezer box, or undertake a plant expansion. Then, Intralox presented its cutting-edge spiral technology: the DirectDrive Stacker.

An innovative extension of the Intralox DirectDrive System (DDS), the DirectDrive Stacker is a lightweight modular plastic solution that combines the hygienic and space-saving benefits of stackers with the unique, simplified operating system advantages of the DDS. The DDS stacker provided THOKS with an effective solution that fit within their small footprint and required no changes to the freezer box or to the plant. Since installing the stacker in June 2016, THOKS has reduced its maintenance time to zero while gaining improved freezer performance and reliability.