Features in demand
No matter what size line customers are in the market for, they want a smart design with plenty of flexibility, says Gilles Maller, vice president sales & international, Clextral, Firminy, France. “Between the extruder and the dryer, they want to be able to include equipment to make co-extruded products and also bread snacks,” he says. “They want to be able to adapt the line with flexibility, integrated controls, and the ability to control perfectly those transition periods.”
Reliability and remote support are other key attributes that customers of extrusion equipment want to know about, Maller says. “They want to make sure you become completely operator independent,” he says. “All lines can be connected to the [operations] center in the U.S., North America, Asia, or Europe. Remote support has been important during the pandemic.”
Cleanability has been a consistent request from customers of Handtmann Inc., Lake Forest, IL, according to Ken Hagedorn, vice president, sales and marketing. “That’s really important,” he says. “You have to have really good sanitation standards. The Handtmann machines are built to comparable USDA washdown specs to those used in the meat industry.”
Customers also are looking for solid weight control that’s accurate and guards against damage to the system, Hagedorn adds. “In the long term, it’s an easier machine for maintenance, and it’s less costly,” he says. “When the cleanability is good, your changeover is quick—it will take five to 10 minutes to make a changeover from product to product.”
Bühler Group, Plymouth, MN, hasn’t seen major changes in customer requests, mostly tweaks to technical details, says Mike Shaw, sales account manager – snacks and cereals. “Extrusion has not changed in years. It’s the same machines,” he says. “The base machine is going to have the same functionality. People are trying different types of ingredients.”