The secret of quality pastry originates in the laminating process, which is a process that Rademaker masters perfectly. Rademaker uses its experience in sheeting technology to develop innovative, stress-free dough sheeting and handling processes, capable of handling a broad range of dough, butter and fat types. Capacities range from 250 – 10.000 kg/hour, consistently produced hour after hour, day after day, and year after year.
Rademaker Sigma® Laminators are well known for the unmatched quality of your laminated dough products. Being the first in the industry, the previous generation was already designed for wet cleaning (D4W©). On top of this, the new generation brings an even higher level of hygiene. Meanwhile numerous improvements such as enhanced process control, low maintenance and simplified operation result in a serious reduction of your cost of ownership.
Key Benefits of the new Sigma® Laminator:
- Hygienic design adapted to exceed up to date standards
- Fast & Easy cleaning
- Cost reduction due to significant service & maintainability improvement
- Efficiency improvement resulting from advanced process control and width increase
- Best possible level of user friendliness
- Strongly reduced energy usage
Rademaker designed their new Sigma® Laminator that is again ahead of the competition. The Dutch company looked very closely to the market requirements and gathered valued input of their customers to set up key development aspects. These aspects are the foundation of the new Sigma® Laminator.
Hygienic Design
The new Sigma® Laminator is designed according to the Rademaker Sigma® design guidelines. These guidelines are directly derived from various high end requirements for hygiene & clean ability such as the GMA standard and Ehedg recommendations. With excellent machine surface finishing , tilted surfaces, rounded frames, all blue plastic parts, minimized hinges & bolts and numerous other items, the line is living up to the highest industrial expectations. New standard feature is also the application of life-time lubricated bearings in the product-zone.
Apart from unmatched product quality and practically zero risk for contamination, the overall combination of the above improvements is resulting in extremely low cleaning time, very high levels of uptime and strongly reduced maintenance. Needless to say that also this new Rademakers line is fully designed and approved for wet cleaning (D4W) which was introduced in the industry by Rademaker already many years ago.
Process Efficiency & Functionality
The overall set-up of the new Rademaker Sigma® Laminator is designed for high production efficiency. This is enabled by easy to remove tools, exchangeable scrapers & bins and various options to minimize required cleaning efforts. Furthermore, the system is equipped with automatic settings allowing for a “one-button” action bringing the total machine in the perfect cleaning or drying status.
An open design with best possible visibility of the process has been the focus for the system design. Rounded edges and covers which can be fully opened on both sides of each unit are applied throughout the system.
The new Sigma® Laminator is designed with wider rollers (+50 mm) and conveyors (+100 mm). Apart from a higher output this is resulting in improved dough support, reduced risk for micro-damage and stress in the outer dough edges. Final result is even less thickness variation and improved consistency of the layers than before.
Easy Service & Maintenance
Accessibility of the system is strongly improved in order to allow for easy service & maintenance. The service & maintenance requirements are reduced by optimal material selection resulting in minimal wear in combination with a minimized variance spare parts. Reduction of maintenance effort is achieved by carefully focusing at the increased lifetime of all sensitive items. For instance bearings used in or above the product zone contain lifetime lubrication so they do not need to be replaced. Greasing nipples and other parts that require regular maintenance are located in easily accessible places outside the production zone. Cleaning and maintenance require less time, production can go on without interruption. All conveyor belts are equipped with quick belt release mechanisms to reduce downtime during cleaning and to keep maintenance to a minimum.
User Friendliness
Great care is given to the new user interface. The central interface size is increased to 12 inch and larger sizes of 22 and 32 inch screens are also possible. Furthermore, the touch panel position can be easily adjusted to the proper working height. An iPad control is available to enable remote operation at any position in the line.
This allows the operator to walk alongside the line to monitor and fine tune the dough production process, making it a timesaving and user-friendly operational tool. The advanced control system features fully automatic speed adjustment and enables the different sections to operate independently. While the last dough part of the production run is processed towards the end of the line, the beginning of the line is ready for cleaning or for the production of another product.
Process Control
Process control by means of intensive data handling & communication is becoming increasingly more important in industrial production processes. Our control platform enables OMAC based data exchange with neighboring (third party) equipment. Furthermore advanced data processing enables on-line monitoring and optimization of Overall Equipment Efficiency (OEE). Furthermore the smart use of the combination of process- & recipe information allows easy and fast start-up and reduction of flour usage. The existing cascade system & automatic belt speed adaptation (DDIC / Dough loop) is adapted to fit the increased hygiene demands but remains part of the new laminator design. Finally the number of sensors is reduced to guarantee for the optimal control with minimal risk for downtime due to malfunction.
Conclusion
Over 35 years of Rademaker expertise can’t be improved so easily. The new Sigma® Laminator is a sublimation of technological excellence gathered over time resulting in an even better product quality than before at a significantly lower cost of ownership.
