Patent Nr. 1401347
Since over 40 years, Agriflex Srl is leader manufacturer of installations for the handling of raw materials. Thanks to our in-house research department, we have successfully conceived, built and patented our innovative system for the flour cooling.
Let us introduce it to you as follows: dough temperature control is a key factor in obtaining constant and ideal quality in the production of bakery products at industrial and small business level. Infact, the cooling process of the flours allows the slowing down of the dough rising, suitably adjusting it to the times of each production line.
Among the methods currently used for this purpose, often with high costs and poor results, one of the most common and popular is lowering the dough temperature by adding ice.
The limitation of this method is in the empirical approach used both to determine the amount of ice to be used relatively to the detected temperature and the reduced quantity of water to pour in the dough since it is obtained by the melting of the ice.
Some people cool the dough by mixing liquid nitrogen, although this method is quite expensive and therefore impractical.
Others mix the flours using lamellar flows of cold air, but this is a poorly efficient method, due to the reduced specific heat of the air and the risk of changing its humidity.
Finally, another cooling method uses screw heat-exchangers: while conveying flours to the mixer, their movement mixes them with liquid nitrogen or C02 that is injected for cooling purposes. Unfortunately, despite being excellent for flour conveying, the screw is not equally effective in mixing flour, this means that a large number of screws is installed, increasing both plant and operating costs, due to the difficulty of cleaning and maintaining such cumbersome heat exchangers in efficient working order.
The innovative flour cooling system patented by Agriflex offers various, significant advantages:
- high energy efficiency thanks to the direct exchange and consequently reduced operating costs;
- high effectiveness thanks to the considerable temperature reduction;
- complete system automation that, thanks to the reduced thermal inertia and the absence of accumulations, ensures the correct temperature of the dough, compensating the temperature variations of the other components and ambient temperature;
- ease of maintenance since all areas can be easily cleaned.
The Agriflex Flour Cooling System is easily retrofitted on existing installations and it is highly suggested in various productions.
Agriflex is also recognized on the market for the production of micro dosing stations: tailor-made solutions for storing, weighing and dosing micro ingredients.
Agriflex micro dosing stations are designed and manufactured according to the customer’s requirements. They are particularly ideal for use in the biscuit, bread and confectionery industries and for food products in general.
Micro ingredients are usually managed in three steps: loading into the container, dosing and conveying to the point of use of the ingredients that are added to the main ingredients of a dough or mixture. The aforesaid steps can be fully automated, manual or both. Depending on the production process, Agriflex can provide the best and most efficient tailor-made solution. The micro dosing station can consist of different containers, each having internal mechanical parts suitable for the characteristics of the ingredients. The quantity of micro ingredients to be added may vary from dozens of grams to several kilograms.
Agriflex micro dosing stations guarantee:
- the accurate dosing of products when preparing the recipes and consequent reduction of raw material waste
- perfect incorporation into the main system
- high automation that guarantees quick dosing
- lower management costs
- accurate traceability and reduction in human errors Agriflex conceived one model of micro dosing station for difficult-to-flow raw materials such as:
- raisins
- lecithin
- almond flour
- whole egg powder
- candied fruit
- pine nut
- pistachios
- etc
The dosing system guarantees perfect integrity of the dosed ingredients as well as accurate dosing.
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