Who takes the plate out of the freezer, and what do they look at?

The person who will fit the plates takes them out and checks three things: closure colour, time in the freezer and the state of the plate. A wrong-regime plate can be spotted on the road but not corrected there.

15 May 2026Updated 28 September 2026

Short answer

The person who will fit the plates into the container takes them out; if the person removing and the person fitting differ, the handover happens on a trolley with the count said out loud. Three things are checked: whether the closure colour matches the melting point chosen for the run, whether the plate stayed in the freezer long enough to freeze through, and whether the edges are sound.

If the person removing and the person fitting differ, the handover point is defined: plates go onto a trolley, the count is checked against the work order, and only then move to the container. Naming one owner per run shows whose hands a wrong plate came from.

Closure colour comes first. On GEBHARDT plates the melting points are told apart by closure: -3 °C red, -14 °C yellow, -18 °C green, -21 °C blue. A run that leaves on the wrong regime cannot be corrected on the road, because changing the plate means going back.

Freezing is the second check. A plate must be frozen at least 5 °C below its melting point: about -26 °C for a -21 °C plate and -19 °C for a -14 °C plate. Freezing takes 8 to 24 hours and there must be an air gap between plates. A plate taken out early has an unfrozen core and shortens the hold time in the container. A plate with a crack or swelling on the edge does not go on the run.