Baking & Snack - December 2023 - 66

Maintain a clean operation with less labor
DIVIDING
Strong sanitation and maintenance programs are essential
to a commercial bakery. But with the current labor shortage,
these teams are often understaffed, leading to critical errors
such as product recalls, broken equipment and more.
Today, however, many dividers are designed to help
shorthanded bakers quickly clean their equipment and keep
production humming.
Royal Kaak provides a cleaning trolley for its dividers.
" With that the heaviest parts of the dividing mechanism
can be taken out of the machine for cleaning without physically
lifting those parts, which always brings a risk of dropping
them on the floor, " Luuk Hooijmaijers, sales manager,
Royal Kaak, explained.
Easy access to the product path also greatly reduces sanitation
times, noted John McIsaac, vice president of strategic
business development at Reiser.
" We know that you must have access to the product path
to truly clean a machine, " he said.
Ken Hagedorn, vice president, bakery sector, Handtmann,
observed that many bakers have switched from traditional
piston dividers to extrusion dividers in part due to the ease
of washdown and cleaning between products, especially
when deep cleans and removal of allergens are required.
" Our machines are hygienically designed and built to
meet the highest sanitation specifications whereas most of
your standard bakery equipment isn't designed or constructed
to a USDA washdown spec, " he said.
Optimal divider performance is always achieved by closely
following the manufacturer's cleaning and maintenance
instructions, said Jerry Murphy, vice president of sales,
Gemini Bakery Equipment. This includes adequate cleaning
intervals and periodic preventive maintenance inspections.
" Keeping an adequate supply of spare parts on hand and
contracting for yearly inspections by a trained factory technician
go a very long way to keeping equipment in its best
operating condition, " he said.
WP Bakery Group USA offers two sets of removable components
for its dividers, allowing for quick changeovers as
one set can be cleaned while the other is installed.
" On our bagel divider we have modular pockets for
the pistons that can be removed and replaced, " said Nate
McDermott, director of customer service and technical
sales of WP Bakery Group USA. " It is a food grade plastic,
which allows you to maintain a sharper edge on the piston
pocket and results in better weight accuracy. "
Mr. Hagedorn noted skimping on maintenance and sanitation
only diminishes quality and accuracy down the line.
" Bakers will run equipment until they destroy it, and they
don't realize that for the last leg of life of the part they're
probably giving product away, " he said.
66 Baking & Snack December 2023 / www.bakingbusiness.com
tions and weights, but the accuracy can vary. "
Jerry Murphy, vice president of sales, Gemini Bakery
Equipment, observed the tradeoff between speed and flexibility
will come down to the amount of punishment a
dough can tolerate while still maintaining a quality product.
" It
cy and finished product characteristics and quality, "
he emphasized.
Bakers must also decide between an extrusion or volumetric
divider for their line, both of which come with
their own benefits and potential downsides.
Mr. Hagedorn noted that extrusion dividers, with
precise control of servo motors, can typically run faster,
and more accurately, than traditional volumetric dividers.
However, Mr. Murphy pointed out that these greater
speeds can add more punishment to the dough.
" Between those two options, you always want to use a
volumetric divider for any products that have bulk fermentation
prior to dividing, more delicate doughs with
high absorption rates or those that require a fine dough
structure, " Mr. McDermott said.
Bruce Campbell, vice president of dough processing
technologies, AMF Bakery Systems, observed that the
number of changeovers is the main factor in choosing
between a volumetric or extrusion divider.
" If the bakery has more than 20 changeovers a day
requiring a different type of dough, then a volumetric
divider may offer more efficiency since the dough loss
is less than a twin-screw extrusion divider, " he said.
" However, the efficiency of the extrusion divider still
may offer a net dough savings. "
The latest dividing technology, however, is letting
bakers enjoy the best of both worlds when it comes to
speed and versatility.
Reiser, for example, offers its HPE and HPR series dividers
for high-speed production, handling applications
ranging from pizza dough, bread and rolls to multi-lane
tortilla dividing.
" Our ability to fill our double screws with a controllable
amount of mechanical action and vacuum can produce
a variety of product crumb structures, " Mr. McIsaac
explained. " Our systems process dough quickly, and our
speeds are unmatched, but we are able to handle a range
of doughs that previously could only be done with pocket
dividers. We like to think of the Vemag as a continuous
pocket divider - without the oil, doubles and timeconsuming
rebuilds associated with pocket dividers. "
Similarly, the vane pump system of Handtmann dividers
can handle a wide range of products, limiting
stress on the dough and ensuring accuracy.
" If your feeding system isn't doing much damage, it
opens up a spectrum of products that you can do, " Mr.
Hagedorn said.
is all about dough rheology, dough consisten
http://www.bakingbusiness.com
Baking & Snack - December 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Baking & Snack - December 2023
