Laser Plate applications for the Dairy Industry

Omega Thermo Products is the world’s largest manufacturer of Laser Plates for milk cooling tanks. In order to deliver quality milk products, it is important that the vessel is cooled evenly and to the correct temperature. In addition, the cooling of dairy products must comply with all kinds of legal regulations. This applies to milk coming directly from the cow as well as for dairy products such as yogurt, custard, cheese or cream which are processed in dairy factories. Omega Thermo Products has decades of experience in the process-oriented design and production of Laser Plates for the dairy industry. 

Milk tanks on farms

When cows are milked, the milk has to be cooled from 95° F to 39 °F within an hour. Depending on the number of times per day that a cow is milked, you calculate how much cooling surface (Omega Laser Plate) is needed to cool the milk within the established time limit.

Many smaller dairy farms have merged into bigger farms with a larger stock of cattle. At these companies, traditional milk tanks are slowly being replaced by larger milk silos.

Directly cool milk with Omega Laser Plates

Our Laser Plates are applied in multiple ways for the dairy industry. In all methods the inner tank is manufactured from Laser Plates. In the case of a horizontal tank, the lower half of the tank is cooled. In smaller, open vessels, the bottom half is equipped with Laser Plates.

To determine the cooling surface for milk silos, Omega often runs a heat transfer calculation. After performing this calculation, we will present a proposal to our customer. This proposal contains the required surface, the baffling design, with pressure drop and the connection size if this hasn’t already been determined by the customer.