Baking&Snack - April 2013 - 77

EQUIPMENT
Ingredient Handling

Using electronic scales on silos
provides better recipe control and
inventory management information.
They enable automated trending
and sound alarms to flag problems
before they become critical.

Advances in controls, dust management and delivery
help bakeries score better on proficiency.

Pfening

by Shane Whitaker

B

Because many raw materials present a variety of operational issues,
automated ingredient handling
systems that assist in making bakers more proficient can be real
game-changers.
“Whether that be through the
control of ingredient temperatures,
process air conditions, cleanability
of equipment, ease of maintenance,
or process and production controls, ingredient handling systems
can assist in making bakeries more
efficient,” said Jason Stricker, Shick,
Kansas City, MO. “Each of these
areas can lower overall operating
costs throughout the facility.”
A well-thought-out ingredient
system reduces operational errors
and, therefore, wasted materials,
noted Dominique Kull, manager,
bakery supply systems, Buhler, Inc.,
Minneapolis. Product quality also is
more stable using automated ingredient systems, and these systems may
allow bakeries to decrease the amount
of ingredients per batch, he added.

Reducing waste
Automated ingredient handling
systems result in greater precision in
ingredient delivery. “This increase
in accuracy can result in an overall

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reduction of ingredient usage over
an extended period,” Mr. Stricker
said. “An automated system also
reduces the amount of bag handling
and, thus, the potential for product
waste due to spills in the material
handling process.”
From recent experience, bakers
certainly know that raw material
costs can vary considerably with
rapid fluctuations. Also, specialized
flavors, extracts and vitamin additives carry high prices and warrant
careful handling.
High-accuracy feeding equipment and specialized conveying
transfer systems ensure the exact
amount of ingredients — be they
majors, minors or even micros
— are delivered precisely to the
process, observed Sharon Nowak,
global business development manager, food and pharmaceuticals,
K-Tron, Pitman, NJ. “It is imperative that the ingredient handling
and dosing systems be extremely
accurate with minimal losses and
high yields,” she said.
To maximize uptime, automated
delivery systems allow bakeries to
make quick and easy changeovers
for recipe control, which can be
extremely beneficial when dealing

with multi-ingredient recipes, Ms.
Nowak added.

Command and control
The primary advances in ingredient handling systems continue to be
in the area of controls. “Electronic
scales on silos, hoppers, bulk bag
unloaders and even bag dumps provide much better recipe control and
inventory management information
than old paper-based systems,” said
Bill Kearns, vice-president of engineering at The Fred D. Pfening Co.,
Columbus, OH.
Automated tending and alarming
with weighing and delivery systems
can flag problems areas before they
become serious. “Bench scales with
HMI prompts and acknowledgements
can dramatically reduce operator
errors and improve quality,” he added.
To reduce waste, bakeries need
to properly size the equipment and
understand the products being handled. Two fundamental issues that
Nathaniel Davis, applications engineer, Zeppelin Systems, Odessa, FL,
encounters in proposals for automated ingredient handling systems are
speed/line capacities and accuracy.
“In the baking world, time is money,”
he said. “The more batches that can

April 2013 / Baking & Snack / 77
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Baking&Snack - April 2013

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