Dehydrator Trays: Your Guide To Good Freeze-Dried Food Shaped
Dehydrator Trays is also called Silicone Molds Freezer, Silicone Freezer Mold, Silicone Freezer Tray, Soup Freezer Trays, is used as soup ice cube, industrial food dehydeator, silicone freezer pops.
Xiamen Better Silicone Rubber Co., Ltd., a professional manufacturer of food-grade silicone molds, undertook the freeze-drying mold optimization project for Fujian Lixing Food Co., Ltd. The customer originally used PP molds, which had two major pain points: freeze-dried finished products had rough surfaces and failed to achieve a smooth and delicate appearance; in addition, the designated mask pattern on product surfaces could not be fully formed and smoothly demolded.The client intended to verify whether the silicone mold solution could resolve both issues simultaneously.
Dehydrator Trays-The Client's Core Requirements
- The surface of freeze-dried finished products shall be smooth and delicate to solve the roughness issue caused by PP molds.
- A 3D mask pattern of specified shape shall be formed on the product surface, with clear textures and intact edges.
- The mold shall be compatible with the existing freeze-drying process, enabling smooth demolding; the pattern shall not be easily broken or damaged.
Internal analysis of the Dehydrator Trays
This project covers three core processing technologies for silicone molds: high-precision mirror polishing of mold cavities, fine engraving of 3D patterns with demolding angle design, and hardness matching & demolding optimization dedicated for freeze-drying scenarios. For pattern forming, we have developed two solutions for the customer's selection.
Solution 1 (Indented Pattern):
The finished product features recessed mask textures on its surface, with corresponding protrusions on the mold cavity. It delivers low demolding resistance, less risk of product damage and high process maturity.
Solution 2 (Raised Pattern):
The finished product has raised mask shapes on its surface, while the mold cavity adopts recessed engraving. It provides stronger three-dimensional perception and better visual performance.
After communication, the customer decided to develop sample molds for both solutions simultaneously to compare the actual finished product results.
Dehydrator Trays-The Proofing process and scheme optimization
Sampling Process & Solution Optimization To guarantee the surface smoothness of products, high-precision mirror polishing was applied to the cavities of sample molds, and food-grade platinum-cured silicone raw material was selected. The core difficulty of this project lies in balancing the surface smoothness of freeze-dried finished products and the demolding integrity of 3D patterns. Freeze-dried products are friable, and raised patterns are highly prone to chipping and edge defects during demolding. In addition, insufficient mold polishing accuracy or improper material selection will still leave rough marks on the product surface.
We tested multiple solutions successively.
High-hardness silicone solution: It ensures structural rigidity of the pattern, yet lacks sufficient resilience. The raised patterns of friable freeze-dried products tend to scrape and fracture during demolding, resulting in a low yield rate.
Low-hardness + large draft angle solution: It improves demolding smoothness. However, an excessive draft angle blurs pattern edges and weakens the three-dimensional effect, failing to meet expectations.
Final collaborative optimization plan
- Adopt food-grade silicone with medium-low hardness of 40–50 Shore A to balance flexible resilience and structural support.
- Micron-level micro-chamfering is applied to pattern edges to reduce demolding resistance without compromising the three-dimensional effect.
- The mold cavity is finished with ultra-mirror precision polishing. Combined with the high replication performance of platinum-cured silicone, this ensures smooth and delicate product surfaces.
After optimization, the freeze-dried finished products feature smooth and delicate surfaces, completely resolving the roughness issue from PP molds. The mask patterns have clear textures and intact edges with no chipping or edge defects upon demolding, satisfying the customer's appearance requirements and production adaptability needs.
Relative Articals
Custom Silicone Mold
Looking for high-quality silicone molds for freeze drying, chocolate making, candy crafting, ice cubes, and homemade treats? Our food-grade silicone molds are professionally engineered to withstand freeze-drying environments, fully certified by FDA and LFGB, supplied straight from our manufacturing factory.
Freezer-dried mold & tooling materials: Silicone vs. Polypropylene
Silicone Freezer-dried Mold, known as drying tray , as a food demolded tooling, which mainly used in freeze dryer food industry for produce freeze-dried fruid, candy, apply sauce, coffee, vegetable, snacks, beverage etc.
New VOC testing For Food Grade Silicone Freeze‑Drying Molds
Our food grade silicone for freezer tray & freeze-drying molds adopt full-process quality control equipped with VOC & VOM testers, Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004, Regulation (EU) 2024/3190, BfR Recommendation XV – Silicones, FDA 21 CFR 177.2600, FDA 21 CFR 177.1210
No Information
