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Why Flake Ice Is Preferred for Fishery Business: Benefits & The Role of Brine Pump in Industrial Flake Ice Production
Flake ice manufactured by industrial flake ice machines has long been recognized as the most reliable and practical ice type for seafood preservation, transportation, and processing. Compared with traditional cube ice, tube ice and block ice, flake ice delivers unique structural and performance advantages that perfectly match the strict freshness retention requirements of the fishery and seafood industry.
Featuring a large specific surface area and flexible, close-fitting structure, flake ice achieves fast heat exchange and rapid product cooling. It quickly lowers the core temperature of fresh seafood, effectively inhibiting bacterial reproduction and slowing down oxidative deterioration, which significantly extends shelf life and preserves original freshness.
Flake ice is soft, thin and malleable with no sharp edges. When used for packaging and stacking seafood, it fits naturally around fish, shrimp and shellfish without crushing, scratching or damaging the product’s surface texture and appearance, maintaining high market-grade quality.
Unlike irregular bulk ice that causes uneven cooling, flake ice distributes evenly inside containers and transport bins. It eliminates temperature hotspots and maintains a consistent low-temperature environment throughout the entire batch of seafood, ensuring standardized and reliable preservation results.
Flake ice is loose, dry and easy to scoop, shovel and spread. It greatly simplifies daily icing operations for seafood loading, display arrangement and workshop processing, improving overall operational efficiency for fisheries and cold-chain enterprises.
Thanks to its special flaky structure, flake ice produces far less residual meltwater than other ice forms during use. It avoids excessive water accumulation in work areas, keeps processing and display environments clean and hygienic, and meets seafood food safety standards.
Flake ice can be densely packed and closely wrapped around seafood products. It makes full use of limited cold storage and transportation space without redundant ice accumulation, helping enterprises save cold-chain space and logistics costs.
It supports full-scenario seafood industry applications, including fresh seafood display, vessel transportation, aquatic product processing, sorting and temporary storage, serving as a universal cooling and preservation solution for the entire fishery supply chain.
Flake ice melts evenly and moderately. Its steady melting rate facilitates rapid cleaning and gentle thawing of seafood before deep processing, improving production smoothness without affecting product quality.
Modern industrial flake ice machines adopt optimized refrigeration systems and energy-saving designs. They deliver stable ice output with lower power consumption, helping seafood enterprises reduce long-term operational costs and improve economic benefits.
Do you know an industrial class flake ice machine must work with a brine dosing pump?
The brine dosing pump is a corrosion-resistant precision metering pump, a standard component for freshwater industrial flake ice machines. Its core function is to continuously and accurately inject pre-prepared concentrated brine into the main water tank for ice making, so as to maintain a stable salt concentration of circulating ice-making water. All related working effects rely on this pump.
Precision delivery of concentrated brine
It draws saturated brine from an external brine bucket and feeds it slowly and steadily into the main ice-making tank at an adjustable preset flow rate. The dosing volume can be digitally calibrated to fit flake ice machines with daily capacities ranging from 0.3 tons to 30 tons, preventing excessive or insufficient salt addition.
Synchronized start & stop with the main unit
The pump is electrically interlocked with the circulating water pump. It automatically starts brine feeding once the ice machine initiates ice production, and stops pumping immediately upon shutdown. This keeps the water salinity consistent all the time and eliminates frequent manual salt adding and water mixing.
Pipeline venting and draining
It discharges trapped air inside pipelines to avoid air lock, which would otherwise interrupt brine supply. This function is essential for equipment commissioning and routine maintenance.
Ice made from pure water is overly hard and brittle, easily breaking into fine crushed ice during scraping.
A low and stable salinity level produces tough, thick, dry, uniformly shaped and clean white flake ice, ideal for fishery preservation, supermarket cold storage, concrete cooling and other industrial applications.
Brine forms an ultra-thin lubricating water film between the ice layer and the inner wall of the evaporator cylinder:
- Greatly cuts resistance during ice scraping and eliminates harsh scraping noise;
- Prevents ice from firmly freezing onto the cylinder wall, lowering heavy abrasion on ice cutters, reducers and main shafts to extend the whole machine’s service life.
Appropriate salt slightly lowers the freezing point of water for smoother heat exchange and faster ice formation. Even ice thickness stabilizes the load of the refrigeration system and reduces overall energy consumption.
Dilute brine restrains limescale buildup on the stainless steel evaporator wall, maintaining stable heat exchange efficiency in long-term operation and prolonging the evaporator lifespan.
The pump body and connecting hoses are made of saltwater-corrosion-resistant materials to withstand long-term brine transportation. The flow rate is adjustable to adapt to varying local tap water quality and ambient temperatures.
Gradual decline of brine concentration → fragmented ice flakes, loud abnormal noise during ice cutting, reduced ice output and accelerated mechanical wear.
