Baking & Snack - November 2017 - 104

LINE SPEEDS

Maximum efficiency on
a divider requires that
all machines on the line
be synchronized.
Reiser

divide into the proofer or into the oven? There are
things you can do early in the process to be more efficient in reducing the transfer points and saving space
and time."

Measuring each mile marker
While speed comes to mind when maximizing a line's
throughput, equal importance should be placed on
longevity. Mr. Lindsey related to the age-old story of the
tortoise and the hare. "Slow and steady wins the race,"
he said.
A machine running at full capacity is more likely to
wear down faster. Running it just under capacity protects from wear and allows it to increase throughput
over the long term. "It doesn't do us any good to design a new piece of equipment that won't meet existing speeds," Mr. Lindsey said. "You always want to be
above that because you don't want bottlenecks. So, if
you know that the capability is X, you design in 20%
above that so you have some safety built in."
That gap between steady performance and maximum capability is also useful when mechanical failures occur elsewhere on the line. In packaging, for
example, if a bread company is running three baggers
at a rate of 100 loaves per minute, and one machine
goes down, it could increase the speed of the other
baggers to 100% capability to make up for that lost
production until all machines are back online.
Other advances at the end of the line include TNA's
new ropac 5 high-speed case packer. Because baking
and snack products must now be packed into a larger
variety of cases, bags or wraps, the speed at the end of
the line must keep up with everything upstream. The
ropac 5 is capable of up to 300 bags per minute. "Smaller
pack sizes remain a key driver in the US packaged foods
market and food manufacturers need equipment that
can really help them step up production speeds," said
Michael Green, group general manager, TNA.

104 Baking & Snack November 2017 / www.bakingandsnack.com

While high speeds are the ultimate goal, Mr. Zelaya said new
equipment should typically operate at no more than 80% of
its full capacity to help it
run smoother and extend
the lifetime of the equipment. Handtmann offers the
Handtmann Communication
Unit (HCU) to find the right
balance between optimized
production and longevity of the
machine. It's another way to simplify what sounds
complex by letting all the machines on the line communicate directly with operators and line supervisors.
"It's a unique tool for controlling, monitoring and
optimizing production," Mr. Zelaya said. "It reduces
the work of the company management team, quality
assurance and the production management in the face
of cost pressure, greater dynamics and complexity."
Handtmann also offers an HMI diagnostic system
that provides immediate feedback to the operator
when something is preventing the equipment from
running, such as an empty hopper, an activated safety
interlock or shut-down equipment downstream. This
minimizes the time required to troubleshoot the issue
and get back in production.
Sensors, fuel meters on ovens, and moisture sensors in ovens allow operators to be in multiple places
on the line at one time.
"When operators start watching these types of
devices, and the trend lines of these are steady, then
your process is probably running at its best performance," Mr. Zaleski said. "If you're looking for process upsets, you need more sensors on the operational
system that can report to operators without them
running up and down the line."

Up and running
There are planned and unplanned contributors to downtime. The planned category includes preventative maintenance, product changeover and sanitation. Unplanned
downtime involves breakdowns of specific portions of
equipment and other malfunctions. But one often overlooked form of downtime is product changeover.
"A baker should look into the time it takes to change
from one product to another," Mr. Riggle said. "How
easily can the tooling be properly and consistently installed? Are tools involved? Is it repeatable in
configuration?"
To aid with this, Rademaker introduced a Product
Tooling Assistant on the HMI with Unique Fit Tooling
on the production line. When a component is selected

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Baking & Snack - November 2017

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