Extrusion: Control Equals Quality
No one individual extruder configuration or type, whether single or twin-screw, is compatible with all snack processes and raw materials. Since success, failure, or product life cycle in the market place, depend on the quality of the product, snack food manufacturers must be able to determine product quality and understand which extrusion-processing parameters and ingredient interactions influence that quality.
The ability to control extrusion-processing parameters determines how reproducibly and consistently product quality can be maintained.
Reading Bakery Systems’ Low Pressure Extruder
Completely redesigned to improve safety, efficiency and ease of cleaning, Reading Bakery Systems‘ Low Pressure (LP) Extruder is one such equipment that enables consistent and accurate production of a wide array of products including hard pretzel shapes, sticks, braids, sushki and co-extruded products. Product changeover is as simple as exchanging one compression head and die for another one with a different shape.
Nico Roesler, North American Pretzel & Snack Equipment Sales Manager, Reading Bakery Systems shared with us some of the advantages and working principles of their equipment.
“The RBS Low Pressure Extruded Snack Line consists of the Low Pressure Extruder, Guillotine Cutter for sticks and nuggets, pretzel cooker, salter or seeder and convection oven and dryer. We offer a variety of manual and automated mixing and dough handling options. The Low Pressure Extruder, Pretzel Cooker and Advanced Oven Technology are all proprietary to RBS.”
Featuring interchangeable compression head and die assemblies, the LP Extruder series offers a flexible, efficient and cost-effective solution for a wide variety of snack shapes and sticks. The machine is able to process a variety of doughs from pretzel dough, potato-based dough to even meat-based dog kibble.
“All of our interchangeable compression heads and extrusion dies are designed and manufactured in house with decades of experience to ensure the best quality piece shapes,” Roesler explains.
Flexibility and Precision
RBS offers several different widths of the Low Pressure Extruder, as well as a modular oven length, to fit a range of production capacities. Depending on the product, common options include pre-feed rollers to help feed stiffer doughs, and co-extrusion systems for popular filled snacks, with cheese, chocolate, peanut butter, and other fillings.
Multi-unit LP Extruders can process up to 3,000 pounds of dough per hour. With the consolidation of companies in the snack food business, these automated, high-capacity lines are in high demand. Snack manufacturers are looking for automation and advanced controls to make a lot of product with less people.
“We also offer a digital pressure sensor that is tied back to the PLC system. The machine can then automatically adjust the speed of the extrusion augers to maintain a consistent extrusion pressure for accurate dough piece weights. These speed changes will have a minimal effect on the overall line output, but rather will make the overall dough piece weights more precise,” Roesler explains.
What really sets the RBS LP Extruder apart, according to RBS, is the interchangeability of the forming dies. Product changeover is as simple as switching one compression head and die for another. “It’s an easy, low-cost process that takes just minutes, but enables countless product possibilities. From hard pretzel shapes and sticks to bread snacks and other extruded products, the LP Extruder allows snack makers to test new product ideas, expand product lines, and increase throughput – more reliably and cost-effectively than ever before,” Roesler concludes.
You can read the rest of this article in the November / December Issue of European Baker & Biscuit magazine, which you can access by clicking here.