Bühler on track with continuous mixing process
According to its financial report, the Swiss company increased its investment in R&D by 10% – to around 4.5% of total turnover – and launched over 50 innovative technologies last year.
One such technology was the continuous mixing process - including the JetMix - developed at the company’s new Bakery Innovation Center (BIC) in Uzwil.
The company will be showcasing the next step in its development - the ContiMix - at iba later this year.
Fine and creamy dough
The JetMix was developed to enable uniform hydration of each flour particle within seconds.
The machine’s 360° nozzle arrangement promotes even flour distribution and exact dosing of the components at a push of a button.
Bühler also developed an Internet of Things (IoT) dashboard for the JetMix that provides advanced analytics, real time KPI’s and trending graphs, as well as predictive maintenance. Control can be remotely accessed from anywhere at any time, and failures of vital components detected immediately.
According to the company, tests with muffin dough showed the technology reduced mixing time and thus energy costs by half.
Additionally, by directly filling the baking tin, the required equipment is reduced substantially. In processing, say, wheat bread dough, hydration was increased by 7% and mixing times decreased by more than a third.
“The data collected from the first installations on customer site and the customer feedback are very encouraging,” Daniel Troxler, marketing director, Consumer Foods, Bühler, told BakeryandSnacks at ProSweets, held in Cologne, Germany, at the end of last month.
A step further
While the JetMix is suited for liquid doughs and batters, Troxler said the Buhler team has taken the technology a step further with the ContiMix for heavier doughs.
“The ContiMix is a new technology with a twin screw extrusion technology,” said Troxler, refusing to add more at this stage but noting the technology is perfectly synergized with the batch mixing technology developed by Haas.
“This is a perfect match,” he said of Bühler’s acquisition of the €300m ($375m) Austrian manufacturer of equipment for making wafers, waffles, cakes and cookies is a perfect match.
“We have so much in common – goals, customers and interests.
“Now we can supply everything to a customer whichever which way he wants to go,” he added.
The ContiMix technology will be unveiled at iba, to be held in Munich, Germany, from September 15-20.
