Baking & Snack - March 2009 - 99

CONTINUOUS MIXERS

103

Bye Bye
Batches
Bakeries and snack manufacturers
looking
ooking to improve automation,
information
nformation management and
process control should investigate
continuous mix systems.

BY SHANE WHITAKER
oes each of your mixing operators believe he or
she is the best ever, tweaking mix times, adding water or changing other variables to create perfect doughs? And while each of their
doughs may be fine, they may end up requiring further
fine-tuning downstream to ensure the final baked foods
are within the company's specifications. And when the
next shift takes over, additional modifications will need
to be made as the next mixing operator makes their ideal
dough, leading to waste as operators adjust equipment to
process the different doughs.
If your batch mixing operation is experiencing this or
similar consistency problem, continuous mixers may be
the answer. Continuous mixing is "a verifiable series of
steps, automatically sequenced, that produces a continuous stream of high-quality dough. Repeated all day, identically and automatically," as defined by Jim Warren, director of mixing system sales for Reading Bakery Systems,
Robesonia, PA, the parent company of ExACT Mixing.
On the other hand, he described batch mixing as "a
series of steps an operator takes, in precise sequence, intending to produce a single batch of high-quality dough.
Repeat as needed - identically - all day."
Mr. Warren added, "Continuous mixing offers a consistent, uniform dough stream to a production line at the
same rate that it is being used. This permits more consistent dispersion of ingredients, a uniform dough all day,
simpler dough feed equipment and tighter control over
the entire process."

GREATER CONTROL. Automation, information management and process control are three benefits that while

complicated to achieve with batch mixing are relatively
simple with continuous mixing, according to Mr. Warren.
In regard to automation, ingredients are fed into the
continuous mixer automatically and at accuracies difficult to obtain in a batch process. "Even minor ingredients
can be delivered at accuracies of ±½%," he said. "In some
cases, continuous mixer users have been able to reduce
levels of minor ingredients because they are delivered
more accurately and dispersed more evenly."
In addition, records are collected concerning all aspects of ingredient metering, and this information gathered by the metering system is used to determine that the
dough is correct even before it is mixed, according to Mr.
Warren. "This moves quality control from the end of
the process, a lag indication, to the front of the process,
where it can be used more proactively," he said. "This also
has significant implications for cost savings eliminating
bad doughs, inconsistent products or packaging room
inefficiency. The information can also be used for inventory control and real-time yield measures."
ᮡ The clam-shell barrel is a new feature to this continuous mixer,
allowing greater access for sanitation, as well as process evaluation.
EXACT MIXING, A DIVISION OF READING BAKERY SYSTEMS

March 2009 / BAKING & SNACK

Baking & Snack - March 2009

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