Extruders - Import export

Long-lasting staple products Though food-extrusion is often associated with "fun" products like snacks and breakfast-cereals in a wide variety of shapes, sizes, colours and flavours targeted to children, the technique is also employed for some staple foods. One such product category is that of "flat-bread" or "crisp-bread". "Flat-" or "crisp-bread" is essentially an extruded strip that is cut into specified length and dried to a low enough moisture level to enable a long shelf life under ambient conditions. The advantages of the extruded flat-bread are - Option of using various blends of different cereals to achieve desired taste, texture and nutritional value Long shelf life without special storage environment Easy transportation and use for different occasions Diverse uses; can be eaten with various toppings, or asa sandwich with a filling in between two slices.

Sweet creamy fillings in a moulded, crisp extrudate shell The latest in sophisticated products from direct extrusion are the co-extruded, centre filled products. In these products a soft filling with a pumpable viscosity is metered continuously, using a suitable pump, into an extruded pipe, simultaneously while it is being extruded. A special design co-extrusion die is used for this purpose. The result is an extruded pipe filled with a creamy mass. This pipe can then be moulded into various shapes continuously with the help of special moulding rollers. Raw-materials: It is important to choose a proper combination of the extrudate raw-materials and the filling mass in these kinds of products to ensure that they combine harmoniously in the final product to give a compatible eating experience to the consumer.

The SOMOS® RDF dryer is used for drying hygroscopic polymer pellets. It consists of compact RDF modules which can be flexibly combined, are capable of autonomous operation and have drying capacities of 10 kg/h to 250 kg/h per module. The modules are available in 7 sizes with a volume of between 30 l and 600 l and a drying are volume between 10 m3 and 180 m3, each one being individually controllable by its own controller. Alternatively, when interconnected, they can be controlled using a common operator control unit. Each module has an integrated air generator, so ruling out complete failure, as may occur with a centrally supplied drying system.

FUNCTIONAL PRINCIPLE The SOMOS® Gramix TwinDos dosing system supplies twin screw extruders in the "underfed" mode required for such extruders. Optimized hardware and control software ensure extremely short system response times, the weighing electronics operating with 24 bit signal resolution. For example, the system even responds automatically to changing regrind consistencies and optimizes itself by appropriately readjusting the metered components. No software adaptation (e.g. using appropriate material characteristic curves) is required for this purpose. The closed dosing system releases little dust and can be installed directly on the processing machine, so saving space.