Baking&Snack - July 2013 - 82

TECH SHOWCASE: TORILLA PROCESSING

Continuous tortilla forming and frying
Since Heat and Control, Hayward, CA, patented its
TacoForm continuous tortilla forming and frying
system for taco shells in 1985, the company has continued to develop variations of the fryer for other corn
tortilla products such as tostadas and specially shaped
fried tortillas. These fryers continuously form and fry
large capacities of consistent tortilla products to meet
consumer demand for creative new foods, according
to Caleb Reyes, regional sales manager for processing

systems. Heat and Control’s
TacoForm fryers are part of
complete systems that include sheeters, toaster ovens, conditioning conveyors
and, if needed, finished
product alignment, inspection and packaging equipment.
(800)227-5980 • www.heatandcontrol.com

Masa sheeter with thickness control
JC Ford’s Automatic Thickness Control (ATC) system features masa scanning laser sensors to monitor
and record the sheet’s thickness throughout operations. As the data is processed, servo motors automatically adjust the rollers, said Kyle Armstrong,
sales manager at the La Habra, CA-based company.
“Increasing ingredient costs have created an even
greater demand to hold tighter tolerances and maintain product weights,” he observed. “The system’s
servo motors coupled with heavy-duty gear boxes
and eccentric roller positioning maintain masa thickness up to 5/10,000ths of an inch.”
Overshooting target product weight by just 0.5 g per
tortilla on a line producing 6,000 doz per hour and run-

ning 16 hours a
day, six days a week
would cost approximately $100,000 per
year, Mr. Armstrong
estimated “To help
businesses control
their overages,” he
said, “we enhanced
our corn tortilla and tortilla chip sheeters to offer increased roller integrity. Our patented ATC system with
eccentric roller positioning will help maintain product
weights and eliminate operator interaction.”
(714) 871-7361• www.jcford.com

Gentle, accurate divider/rounder
Rex Industry III AW (accurate weight) divider/rounders
from Koenig Bakery Systems, Ashland, VA, offer ±1%
weight tolerance for 100% of the production rate. The
8-row machines produce dough balls for flour tortillas as
small as ¾ oz (22 g) at hourly capacities up to 19,200 pieces
at 40 strokes per minute. Manually changeable dividing
ledges enable changing the weight range. Storage compartments for the ledges are integrated into the machine.
The enlarged rounding units permit a long and gentle
rounding process for optimum product quality. The

transfer belt between the
dividing and rounding
drums can be folded up
on both sides so it can be
cleaned and maintained.
Large stainless steel area
doors also can be unhinged
for simple sanitation and
maintenance access.
(804) 798-7983 • www.koenigusa.com

Compact triple sheeter
Designed for high-capacity die-cut tortilla lines running
at speeds of up to 200 ft per minute, the Libra triple
sheeter from Moline Machinery, Duluth, MN, provides dough reduction in a compact, efficient format.
It features three sets of solid stainless steel rollers and
two intermediate transition rollers. The opening gap for
each roller set can be easily adjusted during production
for efficient and controlled reduction. Individual roller
scrapers include clamp retention for improved control
and easy sanitation.

/ Baking & Snack / July 2013

The knife-edge infeed
transfer is designed for
smooth transition between infeed conveyor
and sheeter. The triple
sheeter’s easy-to-use
touchscreen operator
interface contains a “cascade” control logarithm that
simplifies product changeovers.
(800) 767-5734 • www.moline.com
www.bakingandsnack.com

http://www.heatandcontrol.com http://www.jcford.com http://www.koenigusa.com http://www.moline.com http://www.bakingandsnack.com

Baking&Snack - July 2013

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