This case study highlights a high-performance 15-ton daily capacity industrial flake ice machine system custom-engineered by Kendall Group for a large-scale marine seafood processing and industrial poultry slaughtering group. The enterprise operates around the clock and requires an uninterrupted supply of highly sub-cooled, bone-dry flake ice to instantly suppress biological heat during rapid processing and prevent product degradation.

The client’s legacy ice-making setup relied on inefficient reciprocating compressors and lower-grade drum materials, resulting in frequent blade jams, severe rust contamination risks, and escalating energy bills that failed to meet their continuous, high-throughput automated production line requirements.

Core Pain Points

Hygiene & Rust Vulnerability: Older evaporator drums constructed from substandard materials suffered from surface pitting, creating severe sanitation risks and metal-shaving contamination in food-grade processing.

Wet Ice & Delivery Line Clogging: Inefficient refrigeration cycles produced wet, slushy flake ice that quickly clumped into solid masses during storage, completely blocking the automated screw conveyor delivery lines.

High Mechanical Wear & Downtime: Unstable rotational mechanisms led to uneven blade friction against the internal freezing wall, causing frequent mechanical blockages and expensive compressor motor strain.

Customized Project Requirements

Strict Food-Grade Compliance: 100% of water-contact components must utilize premium, certified non-corrosive materials to withstand harsh industrial food processing environments.

Continuous 15-Ton High-Load Output: Guaranteed, stable daily delivery of 15 tons of flat, dry flake ice sub-cooled down to -5℃ to -8℃.

Turnkey Skid-Mounted Integration: A fully integrated, pre-piped, and pre-wired skid package for fast on-site commissioning and optimized workshop footprint utilization.

Kendall delivered an industrialized, heavy-duty skid-mounted 15-ton flake ice plant. The system features a robust, space-saving engineering design that perfectly balances massive thermal exchange with uncompromising mechanical reliability.

1. Premium Core Configuration: Genuine Bitzer Screw Compressor

The heart of the refrigeration system features a top-tier, genuine Bitzer semi-hermetic screw compressor mounted on a heavy-duty, vibration-dampening blue structural steel base. This industrial-grade compressor delivers exceptional volumetric efficiency, low noise, and unmatched reliability under continuous 24/7 peak-load demands, significantly driving down the client's long-term maintenance and energy overhead.

2. Food-Grade SUS 304 Vertical Evaporator Drum

The ice-making generator utilizes a precision-fabricated SUS 304 stainless steel vertical drum, guaranteeing absolute resistance to corrosion and chemical sanitizers. Following fabrication, the drum underwent specialized heat treatment to eliminate residual welding stresses. This process ensures the freezing wall maintains perfect roundness over decades of extreme temperature fluctuations, preventing blade misalignment or internal metal wear.

3. Optimized Falling-Film Sub-Cooling Technology

By utilizing our proprietary liquid-film refrigerant distribution system, water freezing on the internal SUS 304 surface is deeply sub-cooled. The resulting flake ice breaks away as dry, crisp, and clean chips with zero surface moisture. This dry property allows the flakes to flow smoothly through the client's pneumatic or automated screw delivery systems without any risk of clumping.

4. Heavy-Duty Skid Integration & Lifecyle Service

The entire system—including the Bitzer screw compressor unit, the massive SUS 304 evaporator, the liquid accumulator, and the automated water dosing pump system—is neatly integrated into a rigid, unified steel chassis. This plug-and-play design allowed Kendall’s engineering team to complete rapid on-site placement, piping hookups, and precision electrical commissioning, transitioning the client into full production with minimal factory downtime.