Baking&Snack - August 2011 - 82

TORTILLA PROCESSING

A Brand New Look
To add appeal to tortillas, manufacturers may want to sear grill marks into their products. Heat and Control, Hayward, CA, may have an answer as it has successfully adapted its Rotary Brander — which was designed for meat, poultry, seafood and vegetables — for use with tortillas. Available as a portable, free-standing unit or mounted to a transfer conveyor, the Rotary Brander sears parallel grill marks on tortillas to create a unique appearance and flavor. “We also build direct-flame searers and infrared ovens that can give products distinctive and appetizing surface finishes,” said Caleb Reyes, the company’s regional sales manager for corn products systems. “These machines help processors expand their product offerings beyond traditional tortillas and tap into new markets.” ▶ Tortilla manufacturers can sear grill marks into their products using this unit, which is available as a free-standing machine or mounted to a transfer conveyor.
HEAT AND CONTROL

that of two older divider/rounders at less than half the cost, Mr. Campbell said. “Portion accuracy is better, and it does not require major rebuilds on the divider every two years like Europeanstyle divider/rounders,” he added. “The KX-T is available in multiple-pocket configurations from four to six to eight and even nine pockets.” Casa Herrera, Pomona, CA, also offers extrusion dividers with up to nine ports, but Ron Meade, the company’s CEO, spoke eagerly about newer, more robust PLC systems that provide much greater real-time feedback on tortilla lines. “The human-machine interface features are getting friendlier all the time,” Mr. Meade said. “The trouble▼ This dual packaging system features vision inspection systems with rejection units prior to the counter/stackers and bagging or wrapping machines. The line can be set up so one counter/stacker feeds the bagger while the other sends stacked tortillas to the wrapper (not shown), or both stacks can send to either the bagger or wrapper.
ARR-TECH

shooting features are a tremendous benefit and help detect fuse failures and other internal electrical issues that had to be diagnosed through timeconsuming inspections by a plant maintenance engineer in the past. This capability dramatically reduces downtime for a production line.” Although flour tortillas can be diecut or hand-stretched, most wholesale producers rely on tortilla presses, which use heated platens to flatten dough balls. However, the heated platen on a press can warp or deflect over time, and tortilla producers often have to shim the press to ensure the tortillas’ diameters remain in spec. After two years in development, Casa Herrera’s Genesis 52 flour tortilla press comes with a new hydraulic system and controls and doesn’t require shimming, according to Mr. Meade. “We control the speed of the cylinders, the gap of the pressing plate and the individual 4-corner adjustments on the fly, with the touch of a button,” he said. “To my knowledge, we are the only manufacturer that offers this feature.” The hydraulic system uses linear transducers on cylinders to allow repeatability and exact location of the press platen, and operators can adjust any of the four corners of the 52-in.by-52-in. press by 1/1,000th of an inch. “We can accomplish changes on the fly that would typically create a period of downtime,” Mr. Meade observed.

He also noted that this is the largest press the company has manufactured, and in the past, Casa Herrera had been reluctant to build a press of this size because of its inherent problems and need for shimming. “Through some research and development, we were able to come up with something we feel was a real enhancement to anyone running tortilla presses,” Mr. Meade said. Lawrence Equipment, South El Monte, CA, recently introduced divider and press enhancements created in part to improve the producer’s capacity to make a wider variety of products while keeping waste at 1% or 2% and without compromising speeds, according to Glenn Shelton, vice-president of sales and marketing. A patent-pending vacuum head design allows producers to quickly replace a pressing plate so it can be better optimized for the products they want to make. Lawrence has also developed a Mega press with an extended infeed to accommodate two prepress programs simultaneously. J.C. Ford introduced a press that incorporates its “no shim” system for making quick, easy adjustments to individual tortillas or areas of the press pattern, according to Mr. Armstrong. “This system uses a series of jacking bolts located in the frame above the top platen that are used to apply pressure to different areas of the press platen, making the product under

BAKING & SNACK / August 2011

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Baking&Snack - August 2011

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