All About Versatility

Promoting the flexibility of their systems, be it in terms of recipes, size, output or tasks, has become a key marketing tool for bakery equipment manufacturers. Versatility; certainly, as long as it is combined with rapidity to satisfy bakers’ increasing productivity needs. Annie Launois reports.

In today’s market, it is important for bakers to have the flexibility to produce a wide range of products from a single plant and to change very quickly from one product to another. As Keith Graham, marketing manager, Baker Perkins, said: “In terms of the tinned bread for which Baker Perkins equipment is used, this means flexibility in terms of recipe and ingredients, and size of loaf.”

At Baker Perkins, flexibility begins with the mixer, where the Tweedy system comprises a fully integrated weigher, mixer, tub hoist and control panel to handle mechanically developed dough. According to Baker Perkins, these systems are ideal for bread using wheat or wheat/rye flour blends, and for bakers seeking innovation and originality by using a wide variety of different flours, grains and other ingredients.
Moving on to the divider, Baker Perkins told European Baker that its Accurist2 also offers flexibility in terms of output. Depending on the number of pockets chosen, output can range from 840 to 14,400 pieces per hour, and piece weight from 175 to 2,500 grams.

Machines are available with between two and eight pockets to achieve the combination of piece weight and output required. Two, three and four pocket machines can be specified with an extra set of interchangeable dies for four, six or eight pocket operation, enabling both high and low weight products to be made on the same unit.

Moulding Technology

Baker Perkins added that its Multitex4 dough moulder has also been designed with flexibility in mind to suit a wide range of dough weights, and different product configurations. All adjustments for the sheeting head and moulding table have graduated scales or notches so that settings can be made quickly, accurately and repeatedly to ensure rapid change-over and ‘right first time’ start up, without the need for fine-tuning by skilled operators.

The moulder can easily be configured to produce single, four or even six-piece dough assemblies, and two sets of captive change parts can be swapped for quick change-over, typically between four-piece and single piece production. The captive change parts can be quickly removed and replaced with a different set for even more flexibility.

Ovens

Portuguese firm Sopaco produces mainly electric ovens, cyclothermic ovens, automatic fermentation chambers and stainless steel furniture for bakeries and shops. When I mentioned flexibility to Sopaco’s Pedro Cunha, he told me that Sopaco’s electric modular ovens are the most flexible baking ovens that the company manufactures. The oven can be equipped with one to up to five decks, enabling the equipment to be adapted to each baker’s production needs. As each deck is independent, temperatures can be set according to the products to be baked, for instance, pizzas on the 1st deck, bread on the 2nd deck, pastry on the 3rd deck etc.

Cunha added that Sopaco’s cyclothermic system ovens also offer flexibility to their customers. Conceived to work with a gas or oil burner, the cyclothermic ovens come in different sizes (from 4.5 to 18 square metres).
All decks are set at the same temperature but the oven operator can easily increase or lower the temperature within minutes (3C per minute), allowing the baker to bake different types of bread within a short period of time.

Automatic Systems

Belgium firm Beldos NV manufactures semi- and fully-automatic systems for the food industry (bakeries, kitchens, catering, etc) including single- and multi-head depositors, decorating machines, transfer pumps, slicers, continuous mixers, conveyors, and cake lines.

The company is able to provide solutions for products with any type of viscosity – from liquid and semi-liquid products to soft paste and heavy paste, and products which include particles such as fruit
up to 2.5 cm³.

Beldos told me that their filling machines are probably the equipment that is the most versatile. Indeed, Beldos claims that its filling machines are ‘universal’ as they can be fitted with easily exchangeable nozzles. The company offers more than 100 standard and custom made nozzles and attachments for virtually any product. The main advantage of Beldos’ nozzles is that they can easily be changed – in just a few seconds, according to the company, without any special tools and skills – enabling the machine to be ready to work with the next product extremely quickly.

Its Bellift 275 depositor, for instance, comes with the following options: injection nozzle double attachment, diving nozzle, handgun nozzle, diving nozzle + cream cover head, horizontal nozzle, vertical nozzle, nozzle 90, and handgun nozzle + spreader and icing attachment.
Another product that offers much flexibility is the Belcake 670 Advanced depositor, which can be fitted not only with all the above mentioned nozzles, but can also be used for mid layer icing, top/side icing and decoration of cakes.

Flexibility Features

Dutch firm Rademaker believes that its Crusto Bread line is a perfect example of flexibility. On this line, bakers can produce a wide variety of products, ranging from free-standing loafs to buns, to high water absorption artisan bread, with a range of weights (from f.e. 30 g – 1 kg), measures, types of dough, with or without bottom- and/or topping decorations on the dough.
According to Mascha Maasland, marketing and communication manager, Rademaker: “This differs very much from a range of bread products produced on conventional, dedicated bread lines. These conventional lines, which have a layout like: dough divider/rounder/proofing cabinet/final moulder, are normally very limited in handling high water dough, dark or heavy dough types like multigrain, etc. These types of dough will create problems in conventional proofing cabinets because of sticking and/or pollution. What’s more, the range of weights that can be handled on the Crusto Bread line also creates much more flexibility for the modern bakery that has to offer a great variety of products to their customers in these times.”
Rademaker’s Crusto Bread line consists of modular units, which enables fast product change-overs, and tools can be easily changed to produce a different product, according to the company. All units have a length of 1.500 mm and are interchangeable. For example, the rotating knives can be changed easily to make a wider or smaller product.
The ability to quickly change recipes often comes down to automatic controls. Spooner Industries provides a range of provers, ovens and coolers for the food industry. According to the firm, the design of their ovens allows a wide range of equipment to be baked on the ovens whilst minimising production downtime. The control system plays a key role in achieving this. As Spooner Industries sales and marketing director Steve Newell explained, the oven recipe control system sets the baking parameters for any given product. The product is then tracked through the oven, with the ability to automatically change settings for the arrival of the new product. This PLC control system allows automatic variation of bake temperature, air velocity and bake time for the given recipe.

Similarly, on Rademaker’s Crusto Bread line, as Maasland explained, the saved recipes make it easy to start a new production fast.

“Different recipes can be run and saved on the Crusto Bread line, or on every Rademaker line for that matter. You select the preferred recipe and the production lines runs. For different products, one Crusto Bread line is satisfactory, compared with multiple dedicated lines, which results in a shorter return on investment.”

Offering a high level of flexibility in terms of maintenance and the possibility to upgrade their systems is also important for bakeries. As a result, many equipment manufacturers offer modular design to answer their customers’ future needs.

The Rademaker equipment, for instance, can be easily integrated into existing production lines, according to the firm. The Crusto Bread Line consists of a large number of standard units. “According to the clients’ requirements, we can build the line, and upgrade it later on, to make it suitable for producing different products, with fast product change-overs,” Maasland added.

Making Modules

Similarly, Spooner Industries told European Baker that its equipment is designed in a modular format to enable ease of installation, easy access for maintenance and ease of upgrade for future potential increases in production rates.

Rudy Van der Linden, Beldos general director commented: “The Beldos solutions are flexible and will suit any size of business. Our machines can be used as stand-alone units for small production and can be integrated into production lines for industrial production. They are designed to grow together with the client’s success.”

It is for the very same reason that producer of bakery and food processing equipment and systems Rondo, claims that the Rondo Modular Laminating Concept (Rondo MLC) for continuous production of dough bands and billets ‘offers a versatile and flexible solution to bakeries worldwide’.

Rondo MLC consists of five modular lines (Feeding Line, L-Block Line, U-Block Line, L-Laminating Line, U-Laminating Line), which are, at any time, easily expandable to a fully automatic laminating line. It is important to note that the control system is also modular, enabling new modules to be easily attached to the existing ones, without modifying or exchanging the control system.

According to the firm, being truly modular, the Rondo MLC closes the gap between artisan and highly automated industrial production. Jörg Sonnabend, Rondo marketing services manager commented: “Rondo MLC covers a whole range of basic systems. This equipment offers plenty of opportunities and solutions for bakery businesses. MLC systems are modular and are therefore simple to integrate into existing work processes in bakeries. Thanks to this modular design, an existing MLC installation can also be extended at any time. In a way, you can say that the capacity of an MLC expands with production.” Equipment would not be considered flexible if it could not be cleaned quickly and easily.

The Tweedy System

With Baker Perkins’ Tweedy System, rapid changeover is achieved by minimising clean-down time between batches: programmable cycles include automatic wash down, eliminating the possibility of flavor cross-contamination. Beldos claims that the cleaning of a machine used for similar products within one shift only takes a few minutes. The customer only needs to pour warm water in the hopper and pump the water through the machine. After wiping the hopper clean, a new range of products can be started.

According to Rademaker, compared to dedicated lines, on the Rademaker Crusto Bread line a cleaning reduction of up to 50 percent can be achieved. A few features of the Crusto Bread line to make cleaning quickly and easily include belts that are equipped with a quick release system; the bottom of the machine is high enough to easily clean the floor underneath; transport conveyors have an open construction for easy cleaning; and bearings are positioned on the outside, so they can be easily (dis)assembled.

Also, the line takes up less space than a dedicated line, which means that it needs less cleaning while scrapers make sure that materials don’t stick to the units.

Rapid access for cleaning and maintenance is also a priority at Spooner. Walkways are provided inside equipment where appropriate together with maintenance platforms and lighting.

Newell said: “Spooner also offers a revolutionary access system for the ovens, allowing for immediate access to both sides of the oven through parallel retraction of the upper half of the oven enclosure. This design has been used very successfully by Spooner Industries in a wide range of other process industries, and is now being incorporated in the latest designs for the baking industry.”

Every day, bakery equipment manufacturers are pushing the limits of what their equipment can perform. As Van der Linden, Beldos, concluded, “When they buy a new machine, our customers want to ensure a perfect return on their investment.”