In Japan and elsewhere around the globe, the products tend to be available at retail, typically as single-serving packs at a convenience store, Philip says, while in the U.S. and Canada, they’ve been gaining traction at foodservice. “They’re in schools and places like that, in other types of cafeterias,” he says.
To address customers’ desires for integrated equipment, Hinds-Bock has hired an automation engineer who’s specifically tasked with weaving together packages, Gregg says. “His job is to make sure those are linked into one central control panel, where if the customers want to adjust the line … all the equipment is integrated through one control system,” he says.
Hinds-Bock has been rolling out a variety of different types of depositor nozzles to meet customer needs for customization in that area, Gregg says. One moves side-to-side horizontally to ensure that the product is sheared off cleanly, for example, while another moves up and down for much that same purpose. “We’ve learned over the past three years that because so many bakeries are changing their formulas, and changing the recipes, we need to test their customers’ products,” he says. “We physically test the product and determine which type of nozzle works best for their recipe.”
Handtmann has released a Rotary Dividing Solution for pizza and bread dough which “supports consistent dough quality with a short product path that creates less friction,” McGady says. The system’s rotary blade, adjustable for different dough densities, is designed with an undercut function that guides each portion to an accurate placement on the conveyor belt. “The rotary blade and conveyor belt speeds are also controlled separately to optimize downstream processes, and a variety of inserts are available in customizable shapes and diameters,” he says.
The company also has introduced the DS 552 Depositing Solution, which provides gram-accurate spot or continuous depositing of pasty to viscous fillings on laminating lines, McGady says. Configurable between two and 24 lanes for portion sizes between five and 500 grams, the servo-driven flow divider delivers up to 200 cycles per minute, he says, while the valve-free dosing “requires no safety housing, [and] provides easy access to the modular system for simple nozzle and product changes, making thorough cleaning fast and increasing equipment availability.”
Finally, Handtmann has released two new divider models, the VF 820 and VF 828 S. These machines are precise and reliable, with an adjustable vane cell design with gram-accurate dividing, a product path a fraction of the length of traditional designs, and minimal product-to-surface friction, which maintains inclusion integrity and overall product quality, McGady says.
“They also feature standard metal detectable non-metallic parts in food contact areas, a hygienic design with no microbial traps, fast-train external surfaces, and an option UVC ambient air sterilization system,” he says. Operators thus can confidently “divide, deposit, fill, form, or extrude product with almost no waste and no fear of underweights.” SF&WB