Up next in 10
This video includes a tour of the freeze-drying plant for TechSource Systems. Matt Pettit (CEO) demonstrates what sets them apart in the development of their commercial freeze dryers including the technology in their racks, removable trays, and tray heating technology.
Check out Part 1 of my visit at TechSource: https://youtu.be/JWUtmzDpQ4Q
Become a Member of this channel and support my efforts to connect the freeze-drying industry through more video content just like this. Thank you!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCicmjUC8pG_3jwFo9m-va1g/join
Join my weekly newsletter for more new and tips on the freeze-drying industry: https://freezedriedbusiness.com/
Subscribe for more videos https://youtube.com/@freezedriedbusiness
Check out TechSource Systems here: https://techsourcesystems.com/
Matt Pettit - [email protected]
Troy Pettit - [email protected]
*Let him know you watched this interview
The Frozen Assets Podcast series is all about exploring the world of the freeze-drying industry and hopefully inspiring you to achieve more in your business by looking at current entrepreneurs and companies in this growing industry. Full Playlist of Frozen Assets Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8uz0_2xUyEIGWHjImLMBkll8M0ykaama
Frozen Assets Podcast (Rate & Review PLEASE!)
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/frozen-assets-freeze-drying-for-entrepreneurs/id1722696670
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
all right now for some live touring of
0:02
Tech Source systems so this is what
0:04
you're saying is a is a rack so you have
0:07
a four system rack this is what you're
0:10
talking about and there's 47 trays that
0:12
you can put in here right there's
0:14
actually 48 heaters but this top heater
0:17
is there just to radiate heat down onto
0:19
the tray below it uh of course this one
0:21
doesn't have all of the heaters in place
0:24
but you can see that that's the way that
0:25
they work what makes ours unique is that
0:29
you can remove them
0:30
and so this is the heated shelf here and
0:34
this is the heater this is uh vulcanized
0:36
onto the back of the uh plate this is a
0:40
hard anodized black hard anodized
0:42
aluminum this is extremely hard wow
0:45
there's um you can see the the traces in
0:49
here uh for the heater the reason that
0:51
we use this plate this type of plate
0:54
there's two reasons one is that the
0:57
surface is is very very uh hard uh and
1:01
so you're not going to get any uhu
1:04
wearing out of this as you put trays in
1:06
and out the other one is this High
1:08
emissivity is going to give off heat
1:10
very very efficiently the fact that you
1:12
can remove this is beneficial uh because
1:16
if you have a product that is uh bigger
1:21
than an inch and a half these are at a
1:24
two and or an inch and A2 pitch if you
1:26
have a product that's larger than that
1:28
you can move every other sh
1:30
and do larger product of course the
1:32
other thing is is that if a heater
1:36
malfunctions then you can replace it
1:39
it's easier to replace than a light bulb
1:41
and I think what's kind of nice too is
1:43
like I don't see a whole lot of wires in
1:45
here you know it's not things that are
1:47
going to be faulty for someone who's an
1:49
amateur like myself other people you
1:52
know people are going to be working with
1:54
these racks who are going to be trained
1:55
by someone who is experienced in freeze
1:57
drying as an owner but maybe they're
2:00
going to be hiring you know 18 24 year
2:03
olds in college running these machines
2:05
stuff like that so it's like there's not
2:07
a whole lot of things that are going to
2:08
really mess up and cause a lot of damage
2:11
right and then the other thing that is
2:13
particularly uh different about uh our
2:16
systems is the embedded uh temperature
2:19
transmitters in the heaters so this is
2:22
broken up into three zones and in the
2:24
middle of each zone is a special
2:27
heater pull this out you can see back
2:30
here there's two temperature
2:32
transmitters these are actually IC
2:33
transmitters okay and they're sending a
2:36
signal to the PLC of what the
2:38
temperature of the heater is these
2:40
temperatures are averaged if one of them
2:43
goes out it ignores the one that goes
2:45
out and so what that's going to do is
2:48
that's going to ensure that you never
2:50
have a section of product that goes bad
2:54
because your temperature sensing has
2:56
gone out the other benefit is each of
2:59
these zones is controlled individually
3:02
so you don't have a single thermac
3:04
couple controlling the entire Zone you
3:07
end up with microclimates in the freeze
3:11
dryer this tends to be too hot this is
3:14
just right playing the Three Bears here
3:16
and this one is too cold so this way
3:18
we're able to control these individually
3:21
this increases your yield your
3:23
throughput significantly now you talked
3:25
about I brought up uh the fact that I
3:27
freeze dry ice cream uh for my own
3:29
business and my countertop unit uh does
3:33
very well but you said that um other
3:35
systems that are built commercially
3:38
aren't built to do ice cream well why
3:40
why does ice cream not work in some
3:42
commercial freeze jars and why would it
3:44
work in yours ice cream is is really
3:48
sensitive to um melt back okay a lot of
3:53
uh commercial freeze dryers struggle
3:55
with this because the the outside of the
3:58
say that you're doing an ice cream
4:00
sandwich the outside will be great but
4:02
then the inside will melt and you'll end
4:05
up with a a hollow hard Chunk in the
4:08
middle of the Ice Cream Sandwich and so
4:10
what we're able to do is we're able to
4:12
control the
4:15
temperature and the vacuum level very
4:18
very tightly so that we never get close
4:21
to that point where it's going to um
4:24
melt back what else can you tell us
4:25
about like how like how does someone get
4:27
this type of rack into the system is it
4:31
very hard to push around um yeah it it
4:33
actually uh pushes around very easily
4:35
once this is all loaded up uh this is
4:38
closed up it um and then you can see at
4:42
the top here I think on the camera you
4:45
can see these rollers in the top of the
4:47
chamber there's guides and so you push
4:50
it up the ramp turn it sideways that
4:53
goes in between the guides and it just
4:55
Glides to the back once it's inside you
4:58
have two connectors here this is the
5:00
heater connector and this is the
5:02
temperature connector you hook this up
5:05
uh to fittings are in the top of the
5:07
chamber and that connects it to the
5:09
control system and when we're talking
5:11
about recipes I just want to note that a
5:14
recipe would be indicated by what does
5:17
the product look like what's the texture
5:20
um how like do you want it to be super
5:24
shrunk down uh like you might see with
5:26
dehydration or do you want it to look
5:28
exactly like the original product like
5:30
we have so a recipe is just really
5:33
refining the freeze drying process so
5:35
that every single one of these trays and
5:38
every single one of your racks is coming
5:40
out with very little waste and so that
5:43
you're getting a very good product every
5:46
time you set that freeze jar up to do
5:47
the cycle yeah and and that's one of the
5:49
things that really is unique about our
5:51
systems is the countertop systems really
5:55
are very very good for producing a very
5:57
high quality product uh there's not very
5:59
very many commercial systems that can
6:02
reproduce that and that's where that's
6:04
where our systems are able to uh say you
6:07
take an apple slice and uh you run it
6:10
through our system comes out it looks
6:12
exactly like an apple slice it's not
6:15
shriveled it's not shrunk uh and that's
6:19
very difficult for other companies to do
6:22
where it's that's that's what we excel
6:24
in awesome and I just finished talking
6:25
about recipes but like what are some non
6:28
food related things that get freeze
6:30
dried that you've been more aware of now
6:33
that people are making a business out of
6:35
it um probably the biggest one is
6:37
cannabis and so uh that's where our
6:41
systems are able to to work better than
6:44
some systems and the reason for that is
6:46
when they're drying the the Cannabis if
6:49
they want to be able to do it for
6:52
extraction then um it it's very very
6:56
efficient you don't have to have the
6:57
worries about hang drying it the they as
7:00
far as uh mold and all that kind of
7:02
stuff but then also if you're if they're
7:05
doing the smokable product we can
7:07
control the vacuum level so the vacuum
7:09
level doesn't get down to the point
7:11
where the uh tpping are removed it keeps
7:15
the tping within the uh the product that
7:17
they that they want to have and so uh
7:20
that's a t that that's a non-food
7:23
application yeah now the inquisitive
7:25
person that I am what's the strangest
7:27
thing you've heard freeze dried probably
7:29
probably the uh uh animal parts is is
7:33
one animal parts yeah for Taxidermy uh
7:37
there's a company back East that does
7:39
strictly turkey heads uh that's all they
7:42
freeze dry as turkey heads for uh
7:45
Taxidermy and so uh same with the feet
7:48
and that kind kind of thing so what does
7:50
someone do with a
7:52
freeze-dried turkey head well they they
7:55
can reattach it to the to the rest of
7:57
the turkey when they're reconstructing
7:58
the Taxidermy bird and it's just a lot
8:02
easier and more realistic uh than trying
8:04
to come up with a fake turkey head also
8:07
I've heard of uh freeze drying pets uh
8:10
so fluffy passes on and a person uh will
8:13
have it freeze dried talk to me about
8:15
the different types of trays for food
8:18
prep that you would then freeze and then
8:20
put on the racks yeah it it turns out
8:22
that a tray isn't a tray you know there
8:25
there's different types of trays most
8:27
people buy
8:30
this kind of a tray here that um has a
8:34
wire inside of this and it's called a
8:37
closed lip Okay and the issue is is you
8:41
can see that there's a gap there so
8:43
you'll get moisture and crud up there uh
8:47
trapped in this area and there's no way
8:49
to sanitize so as you can see like the
8:52
little gaps and believe it or not you
8:54
probably are used to this if you take a
8:55
look at baking sheets that you have
8:57
today um you'll notice that kind of like
8:59
Groove that kind of is bent over that's
9:01
what can get food in here and that's a
9:03
no no for food safety if you really want
9:06
to be pure about food safety measure and
9:08
so what the FDA likes to see is they
9:10
like to see this design where it's
9:12
called an open lip Okay where the
9:15
material is thicker and uh you don't
9:17
have anything that can trap back there
9:19
so anyway that's that's one of the
9:21
things about the trays and then our all
9:23
of our products use the standard
9:26
full-size baking tray and then this is
9:28
the rack that we use on our large
9:31
systems we have systems that use four
9:34
seven or 10 of these racks
9:37
[Music]