FRITSCH Group: Progress in the world of bakery

Progress in the world of bakery

+Topic 1: new compact bread line ‘PROGRESSA bread’ In 2022, FRITSCH will be bringing out the PROGRESSA bread, a compact and innovative bread line for retail bakers.

The Little Machine That Could

The trend towards breads and pastries made from soft doughs with long pre-proofing times of up to 24 hours, and often a high rye content, poses major production challenges, especially for medium-sized retail bakers. To be able to produce as many different products as possible at consistently high quality, a production line simply has to be uncomplicated to retool, easy to clean, and ready to expand if necessary. “For many lines, processing soft doughs requires adding greater amounts of separating agents like oil, for example, to be able to make the dough sheet as true to weight and shape as possible,” says Michael Gier, Manager of the FRITSCH World of Bakery. “But increasing the amount of oil has a negative impact on the baking results of the end product. Also, the effort of cleaning increases, and so do the downtimes when changing products,” explains the experienced dough technologist. With the PROGRESSA bread, FRITSCH will be introducing a new solution in the spring of 2022 that is as space-saving as it is efficient. “With this very compact machine, we close a gap in our portfolio and cater above all to artisanal and mid-sized bakers,” says engineer Fred Dorner, Head of Research & Development at FRITSCH. Depending on product size, the machine can process between 800 and 2,000 kilograms of dough per hour. The advantages of this new and

FRITSCH Bakery Technologies GmbH & Co. KG

Bahnhofstr. 27-31 97348 Markt Einersheim, Germany Phone: +49 93 26 83 0 Fax: +49 93 26 83 100 E-mail: mail@fritsch-group.com Website: www.fritsch-group.com Blog: www.passionfordough.com

innovative solution had only ever been seen in industrial lines before. “With our new PROGRESSA bread, even small-scale bakers can produce a wide range of products with extreme precision when it comes to weight and gentleness in the case of the dough, all while minimizing the use of separating agents and the effort of cleaning,” Dorner explains the results of the development.

Developed in close coordination with customers

The developers and dough technologists of FRITSCH are constantly in close contact with their customers, in two ways. They visit the customers and learn through talking on-site about their individual needs in producing breads of all different kinds. Then, there are the many different machines and lines at the FRITSCH World of Bakery for testing and experimenting with new recipes. Here, the FRITSCH experts transform their customers’ ideas and needs into real solutions, and help in the continuing development of the lines. “For the new PROGRESSA bread, we looked at comparable systems on the market. From them, we were able to figure out where there is need for improvement so that we can, even better, meet the customers’ needs,” Fred Dorner describes the approach of the R&D team. FRITSCH’s own proven industrial line IMPRESSA bread, fitted with the FRITSCH Soft Dough Sheeter (SDS) developed specifically for soft doughs, also served as the inspiration for the PROGRESSA bread. “We adapted a forming system from the industrial line to the new line on its smaller scale, and the result is the SDS nano. Then, combining this with the SDR (Soft Dough Roller) downstream allows the dough sheet to be conveyed scrap-free to the guillotine,” says Michael Gier. The big advantage of the SDS nano is that it also flours the dough sheet from all sides. “From above and below, all that means is dusting the dough sheet and the work surface. To flour the sides of the dough sheet, we use fold-up belts,” Michael Gier describes the workflow. This flour-dusting on both sides means there is no need to use oil at all. This allows not only greater precision in producing the dough sheet, but also reduces the cleaning effort.

Great collaboration with the colleagues from MULTIVAC

The R&D team presented the first ideas for the compact bread line in October 2020, and discussed them with many different customers in the early phase. They were keen to cover as many of the bakers’ needs as possible with the new solution. Above all, the precision in the dough sheet form in terms of thickness, length and weight is of great importance for downR stream processing. A specially assembled interdisciplinary team of experts worked almost exclusively on the new development of the bread line for a year. “The specialists represented our entire range of expertise, and so we were able to carry out the first test before the end of 2020,” reports Fred Dorner. The fact that FRITSCH had been part of the MULTIVAC Group for two years benefited the developers at a crucial point. As a packaging manufacturer, MULTIVAC has a great deal of experience with precise weighing systems. “We were able to benefit from this knowhow as we cooperated with our colleagues on further developing our system,” says Fred Dorner. The weighing system of the new bread line is equipped with two weighing units. The dough sheet is first weighed immediately before the guillotine. Once the desired weight is reached, the guillotine is released and the dough sheet is cut into individual pieces for further processing. The second weighing is done immediately behind the guillotine. If the weight of the dough pieces deviates from the target weight, the cutting process is corrected accordingly.

ITSCH © F Dough sheet in perfect shape thanks to the SDR

Oil-saving and quick to clean

This extreme precision in dough sheeting, however, is only one of many advantages that bakers

can achieve with the new technology of the compact PROGRESSA bread. As a trained baker with a passion for dough, Michael Gier looks closely at how customers work with their machines. “The design of a system decides how quickly and easily employees can remove or clean individual elements or parts,” Michael Gier says. The principle is to achieve as many functions as possible with as few parts as possible. During the development, great importance was therefore given to ensuring that all parts are easily accessible and simple to remove. “There are no motors or other electrical parts, such as sensors, in the drive compartment of the line,” explains Fred Dorner. “This means the machine can be dismantled quickly and, for the most part, cleaned quickly and thoroughly with the steam jet.” Another big plus of the PROGRESSA bread is that the amount of oil needed for processing the dough sheet has been reduced to a minimum. The only oiling is the on-demand spraying of the hopper on the SDS nano to ensure a uniform flow of dough. This prevents oil inclusions in the dough, which in turn guarantees excellent baking results of the finished breads. On top of that, it lowers the cost of oil consumption and reduces the effort of cleaning. The hopper is filled according to the FIFO principle (‘first in, first out’) to ensure consistent dwell times of the dough in the hopper and thus consistent pre-proofing of the dough sheet. Continuous fill level monitoring ensures that the lifting tipper automatically feeds in new dough as needed, when the dough in the hopper falls below a defined fill level.

High product flexibility for downstream processing of the dough sheet

Floured on all sides, the dough sheet is transferred from the SDS nano to the FRITSCH Soft Dough Roller (SDR), which rolls it out extremely gently. Thanks to proven satellite head technology, a highly uniform dough sheet is produced, free of

shearing forces and separating agents. Once the dough pieces have been cut to precision by the guillotine, with the help of the double weighing system, they are ready for further processing. Manual processing is just as possible, for example, as using a belt rounding device for breads or a baguette wrapping table. “There is even the option of using the weighing unit as a conveyor table only, and transferring the dough sheet to R © F ITSCH another FRITSCH processing line, for example, using a spreading belt with a longitudinal cutting device to produce multi-cut rolls,” says Fred Dorner. “With the PROGRESSA bread, bakers can process pre-proofed doughs as well as doughs with a high rye or water content in Perfectly weighe the same quality as on a largescale line,” emphasizes Michael Gier. But the new bread line can also d dough pieces be a useful addition to the existing machine parks of industrial customers, thanks to its performance profile: being only five metres in length, it can be integrated effortlessly into almost any existing production hall. Topic 2: Smart Production Insights

24/7 LIVE in Production

Until now, it was just the dream of every production manager or shift supervisor in mediumsized to industrial-scale baking companies to have an overview of the most important performance data of the equipment in as close to real-time as possible. Not to mention the downtimes caused by minor malfunctions, or even the maintenance status of the equipment. Now, all this is possible with the Smart Production Insights (SPI) from FRITSCH. “We always wanted to give our customers a live insight into their production and thus ensure the highest degree of transparency,” says Wolfang Stegmaier, Project Manager for Digital Development at FRITSCH. “Our customers were already doing a lot on and around their equipment and processes in the past to get their production running as efficiently as possible,” Stegmaier explains. Now, with the continuous capture of

data and visualisation of key performance indicators in real-time, it will be possible to achieve further improvements still in overall equipment effectiveness. An important part of what the Smart Production Insights do is catch, record and report even minor disruptions that occur repeatedly during production. So far, it has been impossible for production or shift managers to respond to these brief disruptions, because they are not even detected. “Often, these are only fleeting problems that interrupt production for a maximum of two to five minutes. But if that occurs multiple times throughout the entire shift, then it all adds up to unplanned production downtime in the end,” says Stefan Eydel, Data Analyst at FRITSCH, outlining the problem. “From the data now presented by SPI, customers can now determine exactly what causes such disruptions, and take suitable actions to prevent these unplanned equipment downtimes,” the data specialist says.

SPI requires very little hardware and software

Digitalization doesn’t happen without the communication of data. It is no different for using the Smart Production Insights. “Customers require constant Internet access to ensure data flows from the equipment to the cloud. Internet access is also required for the remote maintenance that FRITSCH offers for its lines. Remote maintenance allows the FRITSCH experts to inspect the performance, fault and maintenance data of the lines via the Internet and to offer the necessary support. SPI is not only available for new lines, but can also be retrofitted to many existing lines.

Greatest possible transparency allows targeted improvements

The overall equipment effectiveness can be called up on the dashboard, for example. This is represented by a bar and a percentage figure. Additional bars also indicate the availability of the equipment, performance in terms of the number of pieces produced and even their quality. “Also, from a simple tabular overview, the production or shift manager can immediately recognize how the equipment has been operating in the last 24 hours,” says Wolfgang Stegmaier. “They can not only compare the results between different shifts, but can also follow the current production live,” Stegmaier reports. Realistic production results allow manufacturers not only to plan everything more precisely, but also to be more reliable in delivery times for their own customers. Equipment effectiveness can be improved further still by targeted analysis and troubleshooting, combined with the overview of upcoming maintenance times.

Started at FRITSCH, continued with MULTIVAC

The first steps towards digitalization had already been taken at FRITSCH in 2018. The structures for data collection from the controllers were defined and a dashboard was developed. The system was revealed to customers for the first time at IBA 2018. “After the takeover of FRITSCH, the system was developed further by the digitalization specialists of MULTIVAC,” says Stegmaier. “For this, they used a platform they had developed, and continued developing the system under the name Smart Production Insights, up to the point where now it is available to customers as a fully matured product,” the project manager explains. In the course of digitalization, Wolfgang Stegmaier, Stefan Eydel and the entire team at FRITSCH will continue working on further digital products. “An important source of information for us is of course the reviews of our customers, who day after day produce millions of rolls, pretzels, croissants, breads and fine pastries on our lines,” says Stefan Eydel. As they did during the development of SPI, the FRITSCH team can continue to rely on the proven expertise and cooperation with the colleagues at MULTIVAC, since they are all working towards the same goal: to continually improve the service for customers, so that they can achieve the highest possible efficiency on their lines. In the years to come, with the insights gained through data analysis, unplanned equipment downtimes will become a thing of the past. +++