Bakery mix-up has great results

As part of a £2.5 million project to improve its production flexibility to accommodate its broadening portfolio of bakery ingredient premixes, British Bakels looked to Matcon for a solution.

Matcon proposed a more agile system to cope with recipe variety and small batch runs, some of which include allergens.

British Bakels’ original powder blending facilities were based on two vertical conical fixed mixers with capacities of 1500 and 2000 kg. The mixers are fed via a conveyor system from silos holding bulk flour and sugar; other ingredients are added from large bags and sacks via conveyors. The mixers are directly coupled to the packing lines, which pack the bakery premixes into bags.

As the company’s product portfolio grew, British Bakels realised it had no spare production capacity, even with 24/7 operation. In addition, the inline production process was not flexible enough to cope with smaller batch runs.

Each mixer took four operators around three hours to clean, resulting in 22% downtime for cleaning alone. The company would campaign manufacture to cope with demand, creating expensive inventory as completed batches were stored in the warehouse.

Matcon’s solution included equipment with a small footprint that fits into the existing production area and runs alongside the existing fixed mixtures, which are now dedicated to the high-run, high-volume lines.

The Matcon system processes the small batch runs in which a variety of recipes are handled, including allergens.

Based on ‘lean’ philosophy, the Matcon system separates the processes of filling, blending and packing by using intermediate bulk containers (IBCs) to transport material throughout the manufacturing process, allowing each procedure to take place simultaneously. This means the packing line is no longer held up while the mixer is loaded, mixed and cleaned, and the mixing line does not need to wait for the packing lines to complete the batch.

The Matcon IBC blender, which has significantly reduced cleaning time at British Bakels.

IBCs are prepared offline in preparation for the blending process. The 3-in-1 Sack Tip Unit provides a closed transfer of material from sack to IBC, improving housekeeping and reducing the risk of cross-contamination. All ingredients are sieved and passed over a permanent magnet during the filling operation to give further quality assurance.

Blending takes place within the IBC itself. The IBC is loaded onto the Matcon Blender, which tumbles it on an asymmetrical 360° axis to create a homogenous mix. Because the ingredients are blended within the IBC itself, there is no need to clean the blender between recipes, even when allergens are used. This flexibility has enabled British Bakels to develop its gluten-free ranges.

The Matcon Blending System has reduced overall mixing time required for recipes that have both liquid and solid fat additions. British Bakels’ previous fixed mixers took an hour for the process, as the fat needed to be whipped together with the sugar before the other ingredients could be added. By using the supplementary intensifier on the Matcon blender, this can now be achieved in a single-stage process, taking just 12 minutes per batch.

The through-floor discharge, which feeds to the FFS packing line.

The bakery premixes are packed into bags using an existing auger vertical form-fill-seal packer. The IBCs are loaded onto a Matcon Discharge Station where they feed directly into the packer, without the need for additional equipment to regulate the flow.

The action of the Matcon Cone Valve within the IBC and the operation of the Matcon Discharge Station safeguards against product segregation and helps the more ‘sticky’ recipes to flow, optimising the packing line’s efficiency and ensuring that the final product meets British Bakels’ quality standards.

The new system has reduced downtime due to cleaning from 22 to 6% and increased capacity overall. By significantly reducing the inventory, £175,000 of cash has been released.

Even with the ‘unique’ products on this line, the facility now has 88% equipment availability - a significant increase from the previous availability of 68%. Since fewer operators are required to manage the Matcon system, British Bakels has reduced its labour cost by 25%.

Overall, manufacturing time has reduced by 55% with the new system as mixes with fat content are completed in a single-stage mixing process. British Bakels is understandably delighted with the results to date.

“We can now offer an enhanced product range, better flexibility of pack sizes, along with significantly enhanced quality assurance and customer service,” said Simon Dawson, operations and engineering manager at British Bakels.