Food & Pet Food

Flours, Starches & Bakery Ingredients

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Coperion is expert in processing solutions for flours and starches
Coperion is expert in processing solutions for flours and starches
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Coperion ZSK Mv PLUS twin screw extruders for pre-gelatinized flour and starches
Coperion ZSK Mv PLUS twin screw extruders for pre-gelatinized flour and starches
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WZK Two-Way Diverter Valve with smooth and easy to clean product contact surfaces
WZK Two-Way Diverter Valve with smooth and easy to clean product contact surfaces
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High efficiency product transfer, weighing and dispensing, and extrusion for the bakery and tortilla industries

Two of the greatest challenges in the processing of raw materials for baked goods or in the manufacture of finished bakery products lie in the control of overall production and ingredient costs. Raw material costs for ingredients such as wheat, semolina, starch, sugar, etc. can vary considerably with rapid fluctuations. Specialized flavors, extracts and especially fortification via powdered vitamin additives can be costly additions to all types of bakery products.

The material handling and feeding systems provided by Coperion and Coperion K-Tron offer cost effective, automated solutions for the transfer and storage of these ingredients. Whether transferring raw materials from railcar, truck or bulk bag to silo or accurately dispensing and weighing ingredients to either a batch or continuous mixing process - each of our material handling solutions is custom developed according to the process application and with focus on maximum accuracy and efficiency.

Coperion’s easy-clean and pressure resistant rotary valves are often used in flour milling processes. These specialty valves enable to isolate these systems in the event of a pressure rise or explosion.

Finally, Coperion’s highly efficient line of ZSK extruders is ideal for the production of modified pre-gelatinized starches and flours, which offers considerable cost reduction over the use of traditional mixing boilers and roller dryers, thus saving in production costs.

Features and Benefits

  • Coperion ZSK Mv PLUS food extruders ensures highest product quality and throughput rates for the processing of flours and starches
  • Coperion K-Tron’s line of high accuracy loss-in-weight screw feeders and weigh belt feeders are ideal for vitamin fortification to the blend as well as feeding difficult products such as lime to the tortilla nixtamalization process.
  • Coperion K-Tron’s high accuracy loss-in-weight or gain-in-weight batching systems are ideal for precise delivery of macros, minors and micros to the bakery mixing process.
  • The versatile pneumatic conveying systems engineered by Coperion and Coperion K-Tron’s experienced systems group are available in a wide variety of pneumatic transfer methods, chosen based upon the most efficient means of transfer for the product and the environment.
  • The components and equipment offered by Coperion and Coperion K-Tron are available in a wide variety of executions and can be designed to comply with BISSC (Baking Industry Sanitation Standards).
  • Coperion’s PSR and ATEX rated rotary valves are ideal for integration into high pressure explosion protection milling systems for pressure isolation between the feeding mechanism and the product collector discharge point.
  • Specialized systems for the processing of baked goods or bakery raw materials, including material transfer, comprise components for containment of allergens as well as hygienic dry or wet clean designs.

Application Examples

The bulk material is conveyed from the silo to a group of scale hoppers fitted with Aeropass valves

Increased savings on raw ingredient costs through accurate batching and material transfer

A typical bakery manufacturing system encompasses a variety of processes including mixing, forming and finally baking. Traditionally, manual batching methods were used for material handling and transfer to the mixing process. Today, the automated transfer methods for raw ingredients developed by Coperion and Coperion K-Tron, combined with our highly accurate means of batching, reduce overall manufacturing costs and time and result in major savings on the individual raw ingredients.

The application sheet linked below outlines a typical bakery system and shows how automization can improve overall efficiency and lever revenue.

Download the application sheet for more information:

Application expertise in extrusion

Cost savings on production via extrusion

In comparison to conventional methods of using a stirred kettle and roller dryer, production of flours and starches with a twin screw extruder provides significant cost benefits. Excellent product feed characteristics allow the ZSK Mv PLUS to achieve very high throughputs even with small machine sizes. Investment and operating costs drop significantly compared to conventional production methods or to processes using less advanced extruders. Production capacities of up to approximately 5000 kg/h for pre-gelatinized flour and 2500 kg/h for pre-gelatinized starch can be achieved.

 

The overall consumption of tortillas has grown at a steady pace in recent years due to their increasing popularity in various cultures and countries as a favorite snack and meal option. In the US tortillas have emerged as one of the fastest growing bakery products – second only to sliced bread. In the production of both corn and flour tortilla, pneumatic transfer via pressure or vacuum is used as a method of delivering raw ingredients from their sources to the mixers. Volumetric screw feeders accurately feed the lime to the nixtamalization process of corn tortillas. Since tortillas are rapidly becoming a mainstream staple, they are often fortified. In these processes loss-in-weight screw feeders are used for accurately feeding micronutrients (e.g. iron, zinc, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin and folic acid) to the corn and wheat flour tortilla premix.

The application sheet linked below examines the details of the corn and flour tortilla manufacturing process and the use of Coperion and Coperion K-Tron equipment to improve the efficiency of these processes.

Download the application sheet for more information:

Comprehensive Product Range

Coperion twin screw extruder ZSK 54 Mv diagonal

Food Extruders

CONTINOUS PROCESSING OF Flours and starches AT HIGHEST THROUGHPUT RATES

The Coperion ZSK Mv PLUS food extruder achieves extremely high throughput rates in small machine sizes owing to its unique product feed intake design. In addition, capital investment and operational costs are significantly reduced compared to traditional methods using mixing boilers and roller dryers.

Food Extruders

Feeding

Efficient Batching and Dispensing of Food Ingredients by Loss-In-Weight or Gain-in-Weight Methods

The Coperion K-Tron line of feeding equipment includes twin and single screw feeders, weigh belt feeders and even liquid loss-in-weight feeders. These feeders provide the highest degree of accuracy when dispensing into continuous or batch bakery processes. Batch weighing systems are available based either on gain-in-weight methods with volumetric feeders or scale hoppers, or on loss-in-weight methods implementing gravimetric feeders.

Volumetric and gravimetric feeders
Coperion K-Tron bag dump station in food finish with Coperion ZXD rotary valve

Material Handling

Easy-Clean Components for Material Handling of the most challenging ingredients

Coperion and Coperion K-Tron’s line of material handling components includes rotary valves and diverter valves, bag dump stations, pneumatic transfer receivers, cyclones and batch weigh hoppers. All these components are available in a wide variety of construction materials and design executions in order to suit any process. The reliable and durable technology includes options for wear resistance as well as certified valves for clean-in-place.

Process Equipment

Plants & Systems

Innovative Process Designs developed by Highly Experienced Global System Engineers

The bakery, tortilla, and ingredients material handling systems provided by Coperion and Coperion K-Tron include state-of-the-art technology and provide in-depth recipe control. Each project is custom developed to fit the application. We put our substantial expertise and longstanding experience to work for designing the most up-to-date material handling solutions with single source management and maximum reliability.

Plants & Systems
Coperion service technician

Service

Superior Global Service

Our global service personnel possess extensive material handling and process design knowledge for these special hygienic applications and are available 24/7 to assist you with your flours, starches, and bakery process needs.

After Sales Service

Typical process flow diagrams

The bulk material is conveyed from the silo to a group of scale hoppers fitted with Aeropass valves
The bulk material is conveyed from the silo to a group of scale hoppers fitted with Aeropass valves
Application expertise in extrusion
Application expertise in extrusion
Corn flour process diagram
Corn flour process diagram
This project supplied two storage silos with gravity sifters. The silos received bread or pastry flour from bulk trucks. The flour is sifted and then pressured conveyed to existing storage silos. This project also included two new day bins. The day bins received the sifted flour from the storage silos and are pressure conveyed to existing scale hopper systems in the plant.
This project supplied two storage silos with gravity sifters. The silos received bread or pastry flour from bulk trucks. The flour is sifted and then pressured conveyed to existing storage silos. This project also included two new day bins. The day bins received the sifted flour from the storage silos and are pressure conveyed to existing scale hopper systems in the plant.
This project was provided to a gravy and mix plant that had an existing system with filtering issues on top of the silo. Our design provided a new silo filter at ground level and a small system to re-circulate any carry over material back into the silo. The system also included a sack dump station to reintroduce broken 50 lb. bags into the system.
This project was provided to a gravy and mix plant that had an existing system with filtering issues on top of the silo. Our design provided a new silo filter at ground level and a small system to re-circulate any carry over material back into the silo. The system also included a sack dump station to reintroduce broken 50 lb. bags into the system.

Frequently Asked Questions

With ingredient costs going up, bakeries' margins are getting tighter. How can ingredient handling equipment contribute to reducing the costs of products and waste?

Raw material costs for ingredients such as wheat, semolina, starch, sugar, etc. can vary considerably with rapid fluctuations. Specialized flavors, extracts and especially fortification via powdered vitamin additives can be costly additions to baked goods. For these reasons it is imperative that the ingredient handling and feeding systems be extremely accurate, with minimal losses and high yields.

Many of our current bakery and tortilla manufacturing customers are installing highly automated facilities to allow for the production of a more consistent product with higher quality. The use of Coperion K-Tron systems, complete with high accuracy feeding equipment and specialized conveying and product transfer systems, ensures that the exact amount of ingredients, whether it be majors, minors or even micro ingredients, is delivered precisely to the process.

Whether feeding into a batch or continuous mixing system, or an extrusion process - bakery applications call for highly accurate feeding systems. Coperion K-Tron feeding systems for both batch and continuous processes incorporate highly accurate patented digital load cells to ensure precise ingredient delivery and resultant superior product quality. In addition, the use of an automated delivery system allows for quick and easy changeovers via recipe control, which can be extremely beneficial when dealing with multi-ingredient recipes.

Furthermore, overall systems design plays a key role in minimizing waste and optimizing operational costs. Specific equipment is available with design options for easy cleaning or quick turnaround, providing customers of Coperion K-Tron and Coperion with an additional advantage. Specialized designs are available allowing the containment of, for example, allergens. Automated PLC control systems, complete with recipe control, are engineered into the system design and allow bakeries to produce more consistent goods in a shorter time.

Process solutions for the food industry

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Coperion and Coperion K-Tron are dedicated to providing the newest food processing technologies with an emphasis on reliability, food safety, and efficiency in process design. Our extensive experience and knowledge in the design and implementation of twin screw extruders, ingredient feeders, materials handling components, pneumatic conveying systems and packaging solutions are recognized throughout the world.

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