Upgrades to dough machine said to boost TCO for plant bakers

Benefits such as reduced oil usage combined with longer component life are claimed for the modified Accurist2 dough divider for high-output plant bakeries.

The manufacturer said the new features such as six pocket machine; a new lightweight die and maintenance and hygiene modifications will allow extended running time and easier maintenance and cleaning.

Keith Graham, marketing manager for Baker Perkins, told this publication that the new six pocket feature will allow a 20 per cent increase on throughput for larger baked good manufacturers.

And he said that the new die and the modification to enable better distribution of costly food grade lubricant can be retrofitted to both the Accurist 2 version and the original Accurist model.

“The new components reflect the company’s ongoing efforts to ensure its machinery remains competitive, while simultaneously improving reliability for the sector in a tough economic climate,”​ said Graham.

The company stated that a self-cleaning feature disposes of dough that passes the die face rather than allowing it to accumulate, and the re-design has reduced the number of difficult-to-clean recesses in the die.

“The ram and knife have been made lighter which makes cleaning easier and reduces the risk of damage,”​ it added.

In addition, said Baker Perkins, the upgrades to the Accurist2 has resulted in there being a single divider that meets the output requirement for the largest lines, even though its size is the same as previous versions.

“We made the sides narrower but deeper to enable high output while retaining the exact same dimensions of machinery so layout flexibility and portability of the divider to suit cleaning needs are not affected,”​ explained Graham.

He added that tests of the upgraded components in a commerical bakery operation demonstrated their effectiveness in term of throughput gains.

According to Bakery Perkins, the key development in the design of the Accurist2 was the introduction of servo-control drive to the ram motion that simplifies operation and maintenance.

Graham holds that a high percertange of its competitors' dividers rely on spring-loading mechanisms that have a tendancy to exert too great a pressure on the dough and can potentially damage its structure.