Abstract: A method and an automatic plate freezer for freezing food products in boxes or trays, or in containers of low mechanical strength and therefore being deformable, or of nonparallelepiped shape.Such boxes or containers are frozen in a plate freezer within which a moisture-free atmosphere is maintained together with dehumidified cold air circulation. Jets of dehumidified cold air are fed under the base of the containers in the container loading/discharge station to form an air cushion between the upper surface of the plate at rest in the station and the base of the containers, which can thus be easily thrust forward directly by other successively loaded containers insofar as the resistance to the movement of the containers along the plate is very low.

Abstract: Automatic freezer with horizontal refrigerating plates that continuously apply pressure on a product being frozen, in which a series of plates held between a bottom and a top frame linked through rods: with lifting and lowering the above plates in order to position each of them, one after the other, in correspondence with an infeed opening where the product is loaded. The above plates are caught and kept due to double supports, in a proper position corresponding to such opening while maintaining the level of the plate being loaded, even while forces are applied on the plates below it for lowering them. Such forces are applied on the plate below the one being loaded in order to transfer their action on the remaining plates below and also, through the rods, on the plates above the one being loaded, thus obtaining pressure on all product positioned between the plates.

Abstract: Device for spacing apart the refrigerating plates in horizontal plate freezers, comprising spacers and relevant seats borne by the plates, the seats being provided on the lower faces of the plates, and the spacers being prevented from separating from the seats due to the action of gravity.