World Grain - September 2007 - 39

FEATURE: THREE BECOMES TWO

duction capacity of 320 tonnes per day
and a combined mill (wheat, rye, barley)
with a daily capacity of 150 tonnes.
Plant Manager Rune Johnsen said the
biggest challenge was minimizing production downtime, which ended up being just a little more than two weeks.
The revamping of the mill took place
in two phases. While the new wheat mill
line was being installed in August 2005,
Norgesmollene was able to keep its two
existing lines in operation, he said. The
combined mill was completed about a
year later.
"Everything went as planned, and the
result was very satisfactory," Johnsen
said.
He said the newly renovated mill takes
in a mixture of different wheat varieties
with help from flowbalancers on the intake cells. Once in the cleaning house,
the wheat goes through a Combicleaner,
indent cylinders and dampening. It then
goes through a scourer for second cleaning before entering the automated mill,
which is operated using Buhler's WinCoS control system.
After the flour is milled, it is pneumatically conveyed 230 meters to the top of
the flour silo, where it is eventually sent
to packaging or bulk loading, or for further mixing.
Johnsen described the design of the
mill as "very compact and space saving."
Norgesmollene was most pleased
about the improvements that were made
in regard to sanitation in the new mill,
which features stainless steel gravity
spouts throughout.
"We don't have any flour collecting auger; instead we collect the flour in small
collecting bins for hygienic reasons,"
Johnsen said.
Most of the wheat milled at Vaksdal
- about 50% to 70% - is sourced locally, he said, with the rest coming from
imports. Grain storage capacity at the
plant is about 50,000 tonnes, and is
shared with a local feed producer.
The Vaksdal mill, which Johnsen says
has a utilization rate of about 90%, produces a wide range of products, primarily for the Norwegian market.

"We produce wheat, rye and barley
flour in different granulations - both
whole grain and sifted," Johnsen said.
"We also produce durum semolina, flour
mixes and pasta in Vaksdal."
Johnsen noted that like many other
countries, Norway's milling industry
went through a period of consolidation
during the 1990s and into the first part

of this decade, although that trend appears to have subsided a bit.
"The capacity is now very stable,"
Johnsen said.
Total flour consumption in Norway in
WG
2006 was about 300,000 tonnes.
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World Grain - September 2007

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