Meeting All Needs

One thing that was quite apparent at iba 2012 was the number of manufacturers – equipment or ingredients – who were touting ‘flexibility’ as something that was being requested by customers.

It makes sense. As bakeries and suppliers in every region across the globe adjust and fine tune themselves to best align with their customers’ needs, changes are made to production lines, marketing strategies and operation schedules.

These days, just about every aspect of bringing bread, cookies or cakes from grain to shelf in a timely and efficient manner is up for scrutiny from bakers, particularly those who are now wary of investing in new, and sometimes large and costly, projects.

Operational flexibility and user friendliness, says Dutch company Daub, are key drivers for the company’s Research and Development team. “Every new machine concept must meet the toughest ergonomic requirements before it is released form production,” said a spokesman.

“Factors like maintenance simplicity, service access and long-term durability are also important in the design process.”

Daub’s extensive experience in the bakery world has resulted in a range of machines that deliver an optimal blend of product quality, operational versatility and cost effectiveness.

The range comprises dough dividers, divider-rounders, moulders and bread slicers – all designed to contribute to the efficiency of the bakery trade.

Rademaker, another Dutch specialist in food processing and bakery equipment, see efficiency and flexibility more as a question of the amount of products that can actually be sold and what these costs are.

It also includes how many rejects there are, how much waste, how often there is a line standstill, how many people need to operate a line, how well trained and thus expensive they must be, etc.

For example what the costs are to clean the line effectively is also important.

Process Optimization

“That’s why we have developed a new butter pump that can be opened very easily and completely with a few quick releases and can be cleaned clinically in one to one and a half hours,” said Marc van Rooijen, marketing and communications.
“Most pumps need twice or three times as long to do that. This wasn’t as important in the past as it is decisive these days.”
Energy costs are also an increasingly important aspect in saving operational costs.

Motors with the lowest possible energy consumption are obligatory nowadays, and are taken for granted. Mean time between assist and mean time between failure are periods when the line can not be used and are reducing the potential output of the line, which is a direct reduction of the potential turnover. 

Van Rooijen said: “Durability is one of the main targets for our engineers. But also the amount of give away (butter/filling and dough) is a reduction of the margin, so another priority is accuracy because less deviation means less give away.
“All these aspects cause a Rademaker line to be the best return on investment and have always been the core competence of the company. This often underestimated added value will even get increased attention. It is our aim to continuously increase the customers’ margin.”

Flexible Bakery

Tromp, another Dutch equipment manufacturer, believes flexibility in the bakery industry stretches from maximising productivity from an individual unit through reduction of energy consumption over a whole plant to long term business development.

Robert Done, UK sales manager, said: “Bakeries are concerned that capital investment in a new plant comes with the opportunity to expand production as their business develops.

“This means that both the original outlay and later expansion are achieved with maximum effectiveness and efficiency.”
Tromp has developed its latest Uniline T-600 make-up line for puff pastry and yeast dough products as a basic system, which can be extended at any time in terms of both output and product potential. Production efficiency can be enhanced by converting from semi-automatic to fully automatic production.

A basic Uniline T-600 consists of cutting, water spraying, depositing, folding and guillotining units. A variety of modular units can be fitted onto the line to widen the product base: a sheeter, semi-laminator, automatic strewer, automatic scissors, conical rollers and stamping dies for different shapes, and a gear wheel depositor are among them.
“All these options can be added individually or in multiple: the objective is that production facilities should be as efficient as possible as a company progresses,” said Done.

“Functional Islands”

German company MIWE took the line at iba that it is no longer enough to set up ‘functional islands’ in a bakery – there needs to be a flexible and functional inter-relationship which would allow all components of the bakery line to achieve full potential.

Press officer Charlotte Steinheuer pointed out that the company’s new Ideal T e+ oven saw the company’s developers enhanced the energy efficiency of the gas-fired Ideal and simultaneously improve the oven’s excellent baking performance even further by optimising two key features – the flexibility and fineness of the temperature controls and the performance of the steam device.

“Our baking system solutions offer maximum performance and flexibility of the products to be manufactured. Whether fully or semi-automatic: Every concept is developed from a thorough analysis of the customer’s vision, requirements and options,” she said.

The company has highlighted the fact that the world of baking has become very multifaceted – particularly in the area of in-store baking.

The Store Concept

There are many ways to differentiate a store concept and a unique selling point on the market. MIWE has ‘systemised’ its various business models, under consideration of the image they project, the technology used and even with regard to the various convenience levels of the dough pieces used. As a result, the company can offer manufacturing concepts based on real-life success stories which have fulfilled all objectives, including environment, economy, and the required product quality.
MIWE is proud of its energy efficiency capabilities after being awarded prizes for its roll-in e+.

Said Product Manager Thomas Stannek: “It was important to us to respond to customer requirements from the market and come up with practical solutions. The result is an extremely energy-efficient oven which makes producing high quality baked goods possible at low costs.”

The new MIWE roll-in e+ is a rack oven that MIWE optimised further. With its revised MIWE air control, the now even more finely dosable environmental control system, it gives the best baking results, the highest degree of evenness, the greatest possible flexibility and shortest possible recovery cycles for the bakery. And furthermore, it has better energy-saving capacity compared to the already energy-efficient models of the roll-in family.

Swedish company Revent see an oven – the heart of any production facility – as an expensive investment which needs to be durable and meet all needs.

Tom Halve, Revent design manager, quite correctly points out: “Smaller bakeries often make different products with higher versatility and bigger, more industrial bakeries sometimes make just one single product.

“We feel that a customer should be able to bake any type of product in a Revent oven.Our ovens’ recovery time and their influence on production efficiency have been known for years, but we find that test baking a client’s product in our test bakery often gives them more than enough reassurance.”

Down under, but selling all over is Australian manufacturer Auto-Bake with its energy-efficient Serpentine design.
In addition to providing key modular components of Serpentine industrial baking lines, Auto-Bake offers total turnkey solutions for a fully integrated automated baking system which offers the baker more flexibility.

Auto-Bake’s turnkey baking systems incorporate custom-configured elements from the Auto-Bake range, coupled with ancillary equipment — including depositors and make-up equipment — from a network of proven suppliers around the world.
In consultation with its customers, Auto-Bake selects the optimum equipment to suit the desired application and fully integrates the system from both an engineering and baking standpoint.

Amanda Hicks, marketing director, said: “Auto-Bake technology delivers significant advantages in energy optimisation and conservation.

“Firstly, it employs the two most efficient heat generation systems – direct fired gas or thermal radiant – together with the highest rated insulation available.

“To further minimise energy usage, surplus high temperature air is constantly recycled. Ultimately though, the compactness of Auto-Bake’s patented Serpentine design proves the decisive advantage, with a ratio of radiant surface area to internal baking area typically one tenth that of an equivalent tunnel system.

“As repeatedly demonstrated in field trials, the resultant energy savings for Auto-Bake clients can be as much as 30 per cent.”