BEMA Offers Look at Complete Production Lines
Visitors to the expo floor at BEMA Tech '99 could see enough examples of the latest in bakery production equipment to outfit several bakeries. While some suppliers specialize in certain pieces of equipment, others offer the capability to provide customers with complete production lines. These exhibitors definitely made an impact on the 75,000-sqft of exhibit space.
Baking Machines (Livermore, CA) featured its latest technological advancements including a high-speed dough ball divider/rounder and rotary no-stress bread dividers. The centerpiece of its exhibit, however, was its Conveyor-Fed Stress-Free Bread Production System.
The company designed the Stress-Free system to produce various types of specialty breads including artisan, foccaccia, French, Italian and ciabatta. It consists of three components: The RDB-1500 Stress-Free Rotary Bread Divider, the RB-40 Bread Rounder (optional) and the SRM Series Bread Sheeter/Reverse Moulder. Each component features Delrin components to gently handle the softer, stickier doughs of many specialty breads. The line can be purchased as an integrated system, or separately to interface with other manufacturers' equipment.
Celebrating over 80 years in business, the C.H. Babb Co., Inc. (Natick, MA) showcased its automated baking systems for hearth and pan baked products. Among the equipment designed and build by the company are oven loaders/unloaders, final proofers, sheeters/molders, specialty conveyors and environmental rooms. The centerpiece of its offerings, however, may well be its custom-built tunnel ovens.
The company offers direct-fired, indirect circulating and air-impingement ovens individually tailored to the needs of its clients. If a client has a product that requires more than one of these baking methods, the company can accommodate them with a custom-engineered hybrid system.
All ovens are manufactured with welded structural steel featuring a continuously welded frame and, where feasible, coped angles for added strength. In addition, each is divided into separate zones controlled by a computerized temperature controller allowing for individual zone control from a remote panel. Featuring a free-standing NEMA 4X electric control panel to perform all UL-required safety interlocks, the company's ovens are said to meet or exceed all U.S., local and regional safety and fire standards.
Although it offers a wide variety of packers, slicers and electronic product inspectors, Clock Associates (Portland, OR) specializes in english muffin production lines. Newly improved for this year's BEMA expo is the company's scorer-spliter-slicer. With just a single 12-ft. stretch of conveyor space on an english muffin line, this machine accommodates all three functions, reducing both floorspace requirements and repeated product transfers.
The device features a pair of circular blades that rotate and score the product just prior to forking. This scoring station tilts for easy maintenance and sanitation. After scoring, the muffins are fork-split by four, variable-speed, xylan-coated fork rings. The variable-speed, fully adjustable unit is said to be capable of handling up to 300 pieces per minute. Both the scorer and splitter rings retract for bakers requiring center-hinge sliced muffins.
DBE Food Equipment, Inc. (Concord, ON) custom designs and manufacturers automated production lines for bread, rolls, pizza, bagels, pastry, cookies, buns and baguettes. At the expo, the company featured its automated roll-in proofing system for industrial bakers. Each custom-built system features precision controls for temperature and humidity as well as the company's signature air-flow distribution system which is said to ensure excellent quality & consistency.
Each proofer features 1.5-in insulated stainless steel panels mounted to a 5-in x 5-in galvanized square tubing structure which also functions as the internal duct system. Each row of ducts features airflow control dampers. The unit's power system is mounted on the roof along with the external air injection and internal return air duct systems. Both of these components feature stainless steel construction. In addition, the roof duct system is said to be balanced to provide consistent air pressure throughout the proofer.
In addition to indoor/outdoor flour-handling systems, KB Systems (Bangor, PA) offers complete production lines for tortillas and bagels, including dough feeding systems and divider/proofers. On the BEMA expo floor, the company featured its KB Matic Variety Roll Line. The company designed this production line to produce a variety of round and elongated rolls and automatically place them on a pan or peel board. The line's divider is available with four, five, six or eight pockets for production capacities ranging from 6,000 to 18,000 rolls per hour.