Diversity with a common denominator

The competence of Haas-Meincke A/S extends from cookies to croissants – the common denominator being the ovens, especially the re-engineered IFC.

Haas-Meincke must simply love cookie monsters, since hardly anyone works so unstintingly as the engineers in Skovlunde just outside of Copenhagen on the question of how to manufacture particularly large numbers of cookies quickly and efficiently. They shape batters – even multicolored ones – on belts, cut hard cookies from laminated dough sheets, or use shiny molding rollers to give soft doughs the special appearance by which cookie enthusiasts recognize their favorite goodies. And they ensure that copious replenishments roll off the belt. Whereas in the past molded cookie lines had working widths only just reaching 1000 to 1200 mm, Meincke now offers plants with working widths up to 1800 mm, and even 2000 mm are no longer far off. With high speed, of course, the very latest hygiene designs and almost a flying product change, because in the cookie industry the combination of high line availability, perfect hygiene and simple control are also what decide a line’s efficiency.

The cracker lines are the second main pillar at Haas-Meincke. Sheeting lines, gauge rollers, cutters, recycling conveyors –and off they go like the cookies, off into the oven and, if required, after that into equipmentthat turns them into little sandwiches and/or decorates them. At the last Interpack Meincke showed a new „Jumbo line“: a very high-end equipment with massive production output (up to 6000 kg/hour) and the highest degree of sanitation and operability (open design/quick change over/on-the-fly set-ups).

But the product field for which Haas-Meincke works expanded long ago. Macaroons, soft sponge cakes, cupcakes and sponge cake rolls in all sizes are just as much their topics as crunchy cereal snacks, and they have already even helped a

Haas-Meincke A/S

The Danish company Meincke was founded in Skovlunde near Copenhagen in 1953 and has belonged to the Austrian Haas Group’s “Biscuit” division since 2009. Haas was in turn taken over by the Swiss Bühler Group in 2017. Haas brings together in this division the parts of the company dealing with cookies, crackers and cakes. Haas-Meincke produces industrial plants to manufacture soft and hard cookies, pizza, crackers, sponge cake rolls, bread, cereal products and fine pastries in Skovlunde near Copenhagen. The ovens are made in Rødkærsbro on the mainland of Jutland. The “Biscuit” division comprises two other factories in Leobendorf near Vienna and Etten-Leur in the Netherlands. The division’s sales in 2016 were approx. EUR 107 million, and it employed around 300 staff. The division builds and installs around 100 projects each year. More than 1,500 of the division’s production lines are operating worldwide today. There are subsidiary production works in Brazil, China and India.

few bread products and bread-like products into a production line, regardless of whether it’s crispbread, cinnamon buns or bagels.

Their primary common denominator is their range of ovens, consisting of indirectly heated convection ovens (IFC) and all combination of hybrid ovens using directly gas fired and/or radiant sections in the first sections.

A fully newly re-engineered version of the IFC oven will be on show at the iba trade fair in Munich. The baking chamber’s insulation is reinforced by a layer of air, which ensures that the oven’s outer skin stays completely cold. Together with Copenhagen Technical University, they have also developed a new heat exchanger whose air dampers can now be adjusted independently of one another, thus allowing very efficient air flow control, which in turn considerably improves heat exchange.

All the ovens are supplied in working widths of 800 to 4400 mm and subdivided into sections two meters long. As a rule, a heating zone consists of several such sections. A blower draws air out of the oven to achieve a uniform distribution of heat in the oven. The exchange of air is in turn controlled via holes above and below the belt carrying the products, thus achieving a uniform baking result across the whole width of the oven. Fast temperature change and adjustment and thus efficient heat transfer is possible because air is blown directly onto the products. Haas-Meincke also offers a facility to control the air humidity in the oven as an option for all oven types.

Each 2-meter section is fitted with a large door for inspection, cleaning and servicing, and these are on both sides of the oven at an oven width of 1500 mm and above. Depending on the customer’s preference, the oven’s cabling is either integrated into the oven or mounted externally.

For improved cleanability, the baking compartment height has been enlarged by 50 mm, thus creating more space under the belt. There’s no longer any need for anyone to suffer a dislocation to remove product residues that have fallen down and would otherwise be a fire risk. There is also a wash-down model of the oven, mainly for the US market.

The purpose of the gap control, an option available for all Haas-Meincke’s ovens, at the start of the oven is to raise the efficiency of the line (less waste and energy-saving). If the measuring instrument detects that there is no product currently running through the oven, all the flap valves are for example shut tight and are not opened again until product is on its way in. The energy recovery concept pursues a similar goal, including by ensuring that moisture leaving the oven with the hot air does not simply escape through the flue. Instead, the heat is transferred via a heat exchanger and into the incoming fresh air supply.

Again at the iba trade fair in Munich, Haas-Meincke is showing a high-speed wire-cut system that is not only able to process heavy doughs, but also leaves intact lumpy inclusions such as nuts or chocolate chips. The machine’s top, usually a fixed installation, is fully demountable on this machine and can be pushed onto a so-called roll-on-roll-off stand. This allows either a complete exchange or removal for cleaning to take place at lightning speed, which is an aspect that is important especially to safeguard against cross-contamination during a product change. With a 2-meter working width and 300 strokes/ minute, the 6110 is in the high-performance class among wire-cutters.

The subject of protection against unintended input of allergens is at the very top of the priority list in the cookie and cake sector, which is why some of the machines in Haas-Meincke’s pilot plant look as though they are still incomplete. But that’s not the case at all. In fact, when ordering a plant, a number of customers immediately include an extensive specification sheet dealing with sanitary design, and often this includes omitting covers and claddings that make no sense from the safety point of view. Visibility and accessibility for cleaning also top the priority list, and sometimes it’s even necessary to install transparent plastic or safety glass instead of steel doors and claddings. Then the easier accessibility frequently also has a beneficial effect during a product change, because now only complete assemblies are swapped. With the new GF3 rotary molder, a full changeover of the web can be completed in only 13 minutes, where 30 minutes is usually the „good benchmark“ level“. +++