Focus on coagulation vats 🔎
Servi Doryl offers a wide range of coagulation tanks for the production of soft cheeses :
✅ From micro-vats for single cheese production
✅ Larger ones that can process up to 670L of milk.
When making soft cheeses, curds and whey are mixed until the vat is emptied by various processes. Conversely, when making pressed cheeses, curds and whey are usually separated directly in the vat.
Coagulator or vat : which to choose to optimize production ❓
ALPMA’s continuous coagulators can process large quantities of milk per hour, and are mainly dedicated to mono-product production. Indeed, on a coagulator, although there are partitions, it is not possible to change the ferments.
➡️ The advantage of a production line equipped with vats is its flexibility. In fact, a multitude of recipes can be produced with different milks (cow, goat, ewe…).
This makes it possible to adapt recipe production according to milk availability.
On a line of 10 vats, for example, you can dedicate 5 to the production of Brie and 5 to Camembert, and the next day re-evaluate the quantities per cheese.
A closer look at Servi Doryl’s range of vats 🔎
Servi Doryl offers several types of vats :
➡️ Individual mini-vats, each corresponding to the volume of a cheese mould. This makes it possible to measure out a quantity of milk, rather than curds, for greater control over the quantity used.
The micro-vats are assembled in blocks, corresponding exactly to the size of the Servi Doryl block-molds used for molding. These mini-vats are injected and offered in polypropylene (PP).
➡️ Vats whose contents are poured into mold blocks by means of a distributor.
➡️ More specific vats where a vat is equivalent to a mold block with the use of a converter divider.
Our vats are mainly made of polyethylene (PE), but can also be produced in polypropylene (PP).
Polypropylene (PP) is mainly used for high-temperature curds that do not require slicing, such as tofu, vromax or paneer (to find out more about Paneer production, click here).
Drawing on our 50 years of experience, we have developed a complete range of shapes to meet the needs of cheese-makers the world over :
➡️ Half-spherical : this vat is specifically designed for the production of ladle-molded Camembert cheeses.
➡️ Semi-cylindrical : suitable for all types of cheese production
- ➡️ Flat-bottomed : suitable for all types of cheese production
- ➡️ Specific : these vats are more open, so that larger volumes can be processed, and to obtain curds with a regular square shape when sliced, to avoid the formation of fines.
Food safety in your workshops : our priority 🔝
For small containers with a maximum of 1 liter of milk, Servi Doryl offers injected vats in X-ray detectable material or metal (to find out more, click here).
Because it is a non-destructive imaging technique, X-ray inspection is becoming increasingly common for the analysis of packaged processed foods, especially those in bottles, cans, jars and pouches.
X-rays can penetrate cheeses to detect defects or contaminants, while preserving their quality.
- In particular, X-rays can detect :
- ✅ Metal
- ✅ Glass
- ✅ Rubber
- ✅ Stone
- ✅ Certain plastics
For larger volumes, Servi Doryl offers the use of blue vats on a case-by-case basis (to find out more, click here).
What are the advantages of blue vats? 🙌
➡️ Blue material has the advantage of being highly visible. So a plastic chip can be easily identified, providing the traceability essential for good food safety.
➡️ Using different colored vats can also help you differentiate between products made from organic and conventional milk.
➡️ Pans can be engraved for identification and traceability purposes.
➡️ Finally, the undeniable advantage of blue vats is the cleaning assessment. The deposit of milk stone is much more visible on a blue vat than on a white one. This visual inspection enables cheesemakers to identify the need to change their cleaning parameters.
Adapting vats to your production process 🎨
Our design office will develop your vats according to the constraints of your production line (buffers, wheels…).
The manufacture of a vat is a high-precision process that can take up to 30 steps.
All our vats can be mechanized. While micro-vats have no wheels, larger vats can be rolled on the floor or on a conveyor.
Maintenance and recommendations to extend the life of your vats 📈
One of the main dangers for your vats is the slicing tool. These tools can scratch the inside of your vat if they are not properly adjusted (point of origin). The plastic could then end up in your cheeses.
Servi Doryl therefore recommends checking these parameters before the milk arrives in the vats, and using the slicing tool dedicated to the shape of the vat.
Vats are usually washed in washing tunnels or in individual tunnels. In the case of an individual tunnel, the vat is returned to a cleaning cabinet.
It’s important to ensure that water containing detergents runs off properly right from the design phase. This is undesirable, as detergents could remain on the vat.
Servi Doryl vats are mainly made of polyethylene (PE), and have the advantage of being washable in washing tunnels up to 75°C.
Thanks to the quality of our vats and the care taken in their use, some of our customers have been using the same vats for over 30 years.
End-of-life recycling ♻️
When your vats reach the end of their useful life, Servi Doryl offers you the possibility of recycling them on a case-by-case vats.
In concrete terms, we offer to collect your vats from a recycler, so as to give them a second life.
