Baking & Snack - February 2004 - 35

PAN HANDLING. "What sets us apart from
most bakeries are our dough and pan handling systems," Mr. Grosvenor stated.
Henderson was laid out with an APV
Woodson storage-and-retrieval system
for bread and buns pans. The system also
encompasses Stewart pan stacking and
unstacking, lidding, depanning and return.
According to demand, the pan system automatically stages the correct pan for the
batch being made up, adding and removing pans to maintain optimum flow rates.
It completely eliminates manual labor for
handling pans. A Henry Group pan cleaner
removes remaining bread crumbs before
pans recycle back to the moulder station.
"An important benefit from this system is
that it allows us to assign just one operator to
bread and one to buns, with each responsible
for that line's pan system, proofer and oven,"
Mr. Grosvenor said. "In the design of the pan
system, you'll notice that a power rail along
the side replaces the customary festoon of
cables. Radio signals transmitted to the robotic shuttle cart control its operations. Also,
the laser guiding the cart places it within
2 mm of pan stacks for accurate pick up."
PROCESS ADVANCES. "We really need
both bread final mixers to keep up with the

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bakery's computer system. Tracking such
data gives the bakery complete traceability,
according to Mr. Grosvenor.

IN-STOCK

ᮡ All bread and bun pans are managed by a
robotic pan system. The laser-guided system
assures cart movement accurate to ±2 mm.

oven," Mr. Lopez reported.
Each final mixer releases its doughs into
a separate Peerless chunker, which feeds a
Peerless dough conveying system. For bread,
the vertical conveyors carry dough up to an
overhead supply belt that starts, stops and
moves automatically to maintain a consistent level of dough in the hoppers above
the two AMF ADD rotary dividers. The bun
dough conveyor sends dough into a holding
hopper above an AMF Accupan Millennium
bun system. Bread is portioned at 180 pieces
per minute and buns at 780 pieces.
Neither system requires an intermediate proofer. After dividing, bread dough
pieces travel single file on Intralox plastic-link belting. Two minutes later, pieces
drop into IBC remanufactured cross-grain
moulder/panner stations, equipped with
magnetic pan indexers. Similarly, rounded
bun doughs drop directly from the makeup
system's refrigerated-bed rounding table
through sheeting rollers and into waiting
bun pans.
"We can eliminate intermediate proofing
because of the rotary extrusion dividers,"
Mr. Grosvenor explained.
Henderson's bread line takes advantage
of an APV Baker conveyorized proofer
and oven system. Pans enter and exit the
proofer at the same level, easing the transfer
to the oven. Travel within the conveyorized
proofer follows a tower-in-tower pattern.
Loaves get about an hour of proofing and
20 minutes of baking. Buns also use conveyorized proofing and baking technology.
They receive a 60-minute proof and bake
for 7½ minutes. Actual dwell times in both
the proofer and oven differ by variety and
are controlled by PLC.
Between the proofer and the oven, a
Stewart Systems lidder can be engaged
for sandwich bread. The Burford watersplitter-and-butter-topper employs a new
design that extrudes butter topping along
the split created by the system's water jets.
The butter is held at 70°F (21°C) and stays
in place within the slit.
"The butter doesn't run down the pan
or become atomized," Mr. Grosvenor observed. "It's just like squeezing a tube of
toothpaste: The extruder lays a bead of butter paste across the bread."
Mr. Lopez added, "This method gives us

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February 2004 / BAKING & SNACK / 35

Baking & Snack - February 2004

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