Flow-through process

With all of the building on one level, Mr. Golenson and Michael Galenson, director of operations, Highland Baking Co., laid out the Spartanburg bakery according to flow-through principles. Raw materials flow in one direction as they are turned into finished goods.

The bakery now runs two lines, and operations fill 20 hours a day on a Monday-to-Friday schedule. Preventive maintenance takes place on a scheduled basis, some during running hours.

“Sanitation is done the same way: around the clock,” Mr. Galenson added.

The Shick USA bulk flour system handles white flour stored in a 150,000-lb silo.

The bakery currently receives its variety flours in 50-lb bags on skids, and rack storage holds all dry ingredients until called for use. Flour passes through a Great Western Manufacturing sifter before it reaches the use hoppers above the mixers. Operators batch minor and micro ingredients in the staging area next to the mixer battery. Ingredient water is conditioned by an AJ Chemical water treatment system. The building also contains coolers for storing temperature-sensitive ingredients such as butter and eggs.

Highland’s attitude of stick-with-who-you-know applies to ingredient suppliers, too. Spartanburg uses the same flour miller that supplies Northbrook.

Prepared in 1,600- and 2,000-lb horizontal mixers from Shaffer Manufacturing, a Bundy Baking Solution, doughs transfer to the makeup lines. The mixers feature glycol cooling jackets with coolant supplied by an Engineered Cold Systems glycol system, the same one that cools the freezer.

The bakery uses sponge-and-dough methods for preparation of pan bread on the Gemini/W&P pan bread line and for the Rondo stress-free sheeting line. Straight doughs are supplied to the Gemini 10-pocket round roll line and to an Adamatic variety makeup system. Sub rolls and hamburger buns were on the production schedule when Baking & Snack visited Spartanburg.

Baking pans, seven sets for buns along with strapped bread pans, are held in storage close to the makeup lines. Like the trough greasing system, Mallet & Co. supplied Highland with its bread pan greaser.

Kicked out of the final mixer into a stainless steel dough trough, doughs are raised by a Gemini/ABI hoist to be dumped into the roll line divider hopper. The company recently added a Gemini 8/10 pocket divider to handle hamburger buns on the same makeup line.

“We made the 8/10 conversion a few months ago and shifted to ‘space saver’ pans to produce 30 buns per pan instead of 24,” Mr. Barnhart explained.

Ronnie Williams, chief engineer at Spartanburg, noted that the divider head was swapped out and extra output lanes added. The new head has two pistons that can be selectively blocked to allow Highland to use it in either 8-across or 10-across configuration.

To the oven and beyond

After traveling through the line’s intermediate proofer, dough pieces drop into the moulding section and move out to be panned. A reciprocating conveyor, installed in a protective housing, lays pieces down row by row into waiting pans. Sub rolls are deposited onto peel boards lightly coated with corn meal by a Bettendorf applicator. Line operators manually insert the filled pans or peels into mobile racks and push them into one of the two Pfening 5-by-7 proof boxes.

“Hand-racking ensures that all cups are filled and out-of-spec rolls are removed,” Mr. Barnhart explained. Hamburger buns are handled similarly.

Emerging from the proofer, hamburger buns can be topped with seeds as they pass through a Burford seeding system. Operators put the filled pans onto the Alitech tunnel oven. This line also includes a Gemini/ABI pretzel dipping system for Highland’s signature pretzel rolls.

According to customer spec, buns can be sprayed with egg wash or bakery shine before baking using a Burford spraying system.

Proofed sub rolls and other goods that require crust scoring pass through a Perfect Score system. Unloaded from their racks, the filled peels enter a Gemini/ABI moving-wing hearth oven loader. The system’s low-tension mesh belt “picks up” the rolls off the peels and pulls them forward onto the wing-like loader as it moves away from the peels. On the return trip, the loader’s belt releases the rolls onto the hearth of the second Alitech tunnel oven.

After baking, hamburger buns leave the oven and pass through a Gemini depanner. The buns move along to cooling operations while bun pans return to the makeup line.

Sub rolls released from the oven hearth at the end of the oven travel to a separate cooler. The relatively low ceiling of the building limited the height of the GF spiral cooling towers, so the bakery uses three on the sub roll line and two on the hamburger bun line. All employ ambient conditions to bring products to the proper temperature for packaging.