Understanding Machines
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Soft Serve Machines - How do they work?
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Soft serve machines freeze liquid soft serve mix and aerate it to give you
frozen soft serve.
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All soft serve machines have the following basic parts:
| 1. |
A hopper (or reservoir/holding tank) on top of the machine that holds the soft
serve whilst still in liquid form. The hopper is refrigerated and keeps the
soft serve at between 2º and 4º Celsius. |
| 2. |
A barrel (or freezing cylinder) where soft serve is frozen down. The sides of
the barrel are usually at minus 8 degrees Celsius, freezing any soft serve
that is in contact with it. |
| 3. |
The beater (scraper-blade assembly), which is driven by a removable
drive-shaft, which in turn is driven by a motor. The beater assembly holds the
scraper blades. Scraper blades scrape frozen soft serve off the inside of the
barrel, where a layer of frozen soft serve is forming, while the whipping
effect of the beater aerates the soft serve. Some machines have removable
plastic blades, some machines have removable metal blades and some machines
don’t have removable blades at all, in which case it is part of the beater
assembly. |
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| 4. |
The freezer door, which seals the barrel and holds the draw handles and draw
valves that regulate the flow of soft serve. Each draw handle has a set-screw
that regulates the flow rate of the soft serve. These set-screws should be set
to deliver 142 - 212 gram of soft serve in 10 seconds. |
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| 5. |
A compressor that freezes the barrel and refrigerates the hopper. |
| 6. |
An electric motor for driving the beater assembly. |
| 7. |
A refrigeration compressor. |
| 8. |
A touch-pad control panel that regulates all the actions of the machine like
‘Auto’, ‘Wash’, ‘Stand-by’, ‘Mix-Refill’ and ‘Pump’. (Putting the machine in
'Stand-By' mode is to put it in 'sleep mode' - usually overnight or in low use
periods.) |
| 9. |
Pump machines also have a pump inside the hopper, which aerates the soft serve
before pumping it into the barrel. |
| 10. |
Gravity machines: Have a mix-feed tube in the hopper, through which liquid soft
serve and air drains into the barrel while dispensing product. The air/soft
serve ratio is controlled by the size of the drainage hole in the mix-feed tube
and the size of the air-orifice at the top-end of the mix-feed tube. When using
the ‘Standby’ mode, the mix-feed tube should be inverted to maintain air/mix
ratio. It should be returned to its normal position only AFTER the machine was
put on ‘Auto’ and AFTER the machine stops freezing, which is usually about 9-10
minutes after it was switched to ‘Auto’.
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