Companies in the market for new or improved mixers for snack and bakery dough applications have displayed a recent focus on specific features and benefits. These include efficiency, cost savings, pre-hydration, handling of ancient grains, automation of processes, and stepped-up sanitation and maintenance, especially in the wake of COVID-19.

Automation is top of mind for customers of Shaffer Mixers, part of Bundy Baking Solutions, Urbana, OH, says Andrew McGhie, director of sales. Among the purposes involved is ensuring that machines tilt to the proper angle and then automatically discharge dough, he says. Also, “Internet of Things” solutions more and more often take data from different equipment and consolidate it into one supervisory control system.

Notes McGhie: “A lot of customers are striving to figure out, ‘What is the best use of this? Will it help me to manage, improve my processes, improve my product quality?’” They’re also looking for improved sanitary design, the ability to mix many different products on the same equipment, and the ability to handle artisan bread, he says.

Buhler Inc., Plymouth, MN, has been responding customers to interested in efficiency and cost savings, consistency of product quality, sanitary design, sustainability, and connectivity, says Jessica Davis, sales account manager, bakery and ingredient handling.

Efficiency and cost savings go hand-in-hand and remain perennial concerns. Customers are looking for shorter mixing and fermentation times, lower energy use, and increased water absorption, says Davis. Other specific priorities include a controllable and reproducible process, stainless steel construction, clean-in-place (CIP) systems, and the ability to monitor and control system parameters, all while receiving real-time data for analysis and predictive maintenance.

Bakery Concepts International, Harrisburg, PA, distributors of Rapidojet, has seen a strong desire for continuous mixing, as well as a trend toward pre-hydration, according to Ken Schwenger, president. “There’s an interest in the ability to substantially reduce the time required for grain soaking,” he says.

Schwenger has also seen a marked trend toward use of ancient grains and other clean-label or differentiating initiatives. “There’s an increasing need for pre-hydration of grains and bran, those sort of things,” he says. “Because there’s an increase demand for whole grain, natural, and organic.”

Bakery Concepts International has upgraded the internal software within its Rapidojet line, which ranges from mixing 1,000 to 5,000 kilograms per hour on average across different sizes of machines, to increase the accuracy of dry and liquid output, Schwenger says. The company also has been working to boost the level of hydration available for gluten-free doughs, which require 20 percent more hydration to get the same dough feel and machineability, he says.

Rapidojet does not require a metal mixing tool because the mix falls vertically into the mixing chamber with large exposed surface area, and then is shot through with high-pressure liquid, which leads to a more-homogenous mix, Schwenger says. “We’re using the machine for continuous mixing of gluten-free products, like corn masa,” he says. “Because there is no metal mixing tool, we can run every single hydration level, from an extremely fluid 5 percent solution, all the way to almost any free-flowing dry mix.”

Reading Bakery Systems has been offering instant hydration for the past few years, a process that reduces the amount of energy required to hydrate dough from 30 percent of the batch mixer’s capacity to more like 1 percent, Warren says. “You’re putting in flour that has already absorbed the water,” he says. “Because you’re hydrating instantly, you’re not seeing the increase in temperature that you normally would see in the hydration process.”

More recently, the company has boosted the size of its Hydrator brand of mixers, from the ability to handle 3,000 to 4,000 pounds per hour all the way up to 20,000 pounds per hour. “Now, you can do it for very high-capacity lines,” Warren says. It’s used for breads, buns, and pizza doughs—basically any flour-based product that you make at that high of a rate.”

Shaffer has been upgrading its Double Sigma mixers to better handle the disparate groupings of ingredients that go into health food bars and similar products, McGhie says. The company also has developed a version of its chunker with multiple cutters. “With a nut and fruit bar product, you’re usually worried about damaging an inclusion,” he says. The feature allows dough portioning as it comes out of the handling system to get an even fill.

Shaffer also has gone to high-pressure, 2,000 psi CIP systems for its mixers that can be turned on while the agitator is rotating to clean the mixer and drain the water away. “The 2,000 psi does a great job of cleaning the bowl,” he says. “And because it’s high pressure, it doesn’t use as much water. It still has to be finished up by hand.”

Buhler offers the JetMix Hydration System, which can be used in lieu of a standard dough mixer and provides the capability of dosing up to three different dry ingredients, Davis says. She notes that the JetMix is ideal for sourdough products, using a gentle, 360-degree water jet that hydrates each individual flour particle as it passes through the machine. SF&WB