"Lao Zhang, which cooked food packaging machine is used to package this pot of braised beef just out of the pot?" The new intern asked with a temperature gun in hand.
"See the one with the gold label?" I pointed to the equipment in the southeast corner of the workshop, "That is the ancestor who serves hot cooked food. It must be packaged at above 85¡æ to prevent the juice from dripping!"
As an old technician who has been working with equipment in the packaging workshop for more than 20 years, I dare say that there is no equipment more "picky" than the cooked food packaging machine. Think about it, hot marinated food needs to lock in its aroma, and cold dishes need to maintain their crispness, which is not something that ordinary vacuum machines can handle?
Challenge 1: When hot steam hits the cold seal
Last month, a technician from a smoked chicken factory in Northeast China came to the factory to complain: "Our cooked food packaging machine always stumbles on condensed water, and the seal always leaks oil." Engineer Chen from our equipment R&D department dismantled a prototype on the spot: "Look at this newly added sloped water collection tank, the steam is diverted away before it climbs to the sealing line." Later I heard that the packaging damage rate in their workshop has dropped by 70%, and now even the greasy spicy duck neck can be sealed neatly.
Fresh-keeping wisdom hidden in the gears
There are many kinds of fresh-keeping packaging technologies on the market, but those who really know the business know that the fresh-keeping secret of cooked food packaging machines lies in the "three degrees" - temperature, speed, and air density. When debugging the equipment last week, I demonstrated to my apprentice: the same amount of five-spice pig's trotters can be packaged in normal mode for 7 days. After the fresh-keeping mode is activated, an extra 15 seconds of nitrogen replacement is added during vacuuming, and the shelf life is doubled.
"Master, how do I remember this set of action programs?" The apprentice stared at the operation screen in worry.
"What to remember!" I smiled and pressed the smart memory button, "Now this generation of cooked food packaging machines can learn by themselves - the last program customized for Guangdong Roasted Meat Factory, even the interval time of pouring sauce is recorded in the chip."
Factory Manager's Perspective: Let the Equipment Learn to "Bend" At the automated production line acceptance meeting, I often remind customers: "Don't treat the cooked food packaging machine as a steel straight man, it must be able to 'bend' to serve different ingredients." The equipment modified for a pre-prepared food giant last year is an example: in the morning, 300g of braised pork was packaged in aluminum foil boxes, and in the afternoon, 500g of pickled fish soup bags were changed. The robotic arm can automatically identify the curvature of the container and adjust the gripping force. This flexible production capacity has now become the standard configuration of our factory equipment.
Recently, I have been asked: "What is so special about your high-temperature sterilization process?" Let me put it this way. The hot air circulation of ordinary cooked food packaging machines is like a hair dryer blowing directly. Our double vortex sterilization system is like a sauna SPA for the product - it can meet the commercial sterilization requirements without baking the tender chicken feet into rubber bands. Last month, the test report of an airport catering company showed that the sterilization qualification rate of our equipment continued to be stable at the high level of the industry.
Technical echo in the customer's workshop
When visiting a salted duck manufacturer in Jiangsu, the workshop director Lao Li patted the equipment and said: "The most amazing thing about this cooked food packaging machine is the 'breathing skill'!" He was referring to the intermittent vacuuming function we specially designed: cooked food with bones such as duck legs, if the vacuum is continuously strong, the gravy will be drained. Now the machine knows how to "suck for three seconds and stop for one second", which can maintain the vacuum degree without losing the flavor.
Before leaving get off work, Xiao Liu from the Quality Inspection Department came over with a notebook and said, "Mr. Zhang, today the cooked food packaging machine has been packaging braised pig's trotters for 8 hours, and the fluctuation value of the heat seal strength has not exceeded 0.3!" I glanced at the curve chart - the steady green line is the evidence of our 20 years of hard work on sealing technology.
Standing on the second floor of the workshop and looking down, dozens of cooked food packaging machines are putting on "protective clothing" for delicacies from all over the world. Perhaps consumers will never know that the crisp sound of "pop" when they tear open the package condenses how many times we have worked day and night to overcome technical difficulties.
