How Automatic Ice Harvesting Supports a 10-Ton Block Ice Operation

At 10 tons of block ice per day, making the ice is only part of the production job.

The finished blocks also have to be released from the machine and moved into the next stage of handling and distribution.

For our commercial ice supply project in Bahrain, this daily workflow was particularly important. The customer needed approximately 10 tons of block ice production per day for local distribution and seafood-related applications, while also looking for a more practical way to handle ice harvesting.

We supplied a Koller DK100 direct cooling block ice machine with an automatic rise/fall harvesting system.

For this project, automation—not simply tonnage—is the feature worth looking at.

What Happens When 10 Tons of Ice Has to Leave the Machine?

A 2-ton and a 10-ton ice operation do not create the same handling workload.

As production increases, repetitive operations that appear manageable at lower capacity can become increasingly important to the daily workflow.

The Bahrain customer wanted to simplify the harvesting stage.

The DK100 uses an automatic rise/fall system to release the finished blocks, reducing the repetitive manual handling required during this part of production. 10 Ton Koller Ice Block Machine…

That is particularly relevant because the customer was producing ice as a commercial product.

Every block needs to move beyond the machine—to storage, loading, distribution or an end-use customer. Harvesting therefore sits between ice production and the rest of the business.

A faster freezing process alone does not create an efficient ice plant if finished ice becomes difficult to handle after each cycle.

One Machine, Three Block Sizes

The DK100 is rated at 10 tons per 24 hours and supports 25 kg, 30 kg and 50 kg block options.

Its compressor configuration is 56 kW, with water-cooling or evaporative-cooling options available according to project and site requirements. 10 Ton Koller Ice Block Machine…

For this Bahrain customer, the block-size range also supports the distribution side of the operation.

Different buyers may have different handling, transportation and end-use requirements. Larger blocks can remain solid during storage and transportation and can also serve seafood-preservation applications. 10 Ton Koller Ice Block Machine…

But this project should not be reduced to a list of specifications.

Its more useful engineering lesson is the relationship between production capacity and material handling.

Once an ice plant reaches commercial scale, the question is no longer only:

“How many tons can the machine freeze?”

It also becomes:

“How will those tons move through the plant every day?”

For the Bahrain project, automatic harvesting is one part of that answer.

Designing Around Daily Operation

The completed system provides the customer with 10 tons/day of rated block ice production for commercial distribution and seafood-related demand. 10 Ton Koller Ice Block Machine…

More importantly, the DK100 connects that capacity with a harvesting method designed for a higher-volume commercial workflow.

That distinction matters when we configure block ice projects.

Two customers asking for the same daily tonnage may still need different solutions depending on block weight, handling method, storage, distribution and site conditions.

For our Bahrain customer, the DK100 combines three elements that work together: 10-ton daily production, 25/30/50 kg block options and automatic rise/fall harvesting.

The capacity tells us how much ice the machine can make.

The harvesting system tells us something equally important:

how that ice leaves the production process.