Bakers and snack manufacturers inevitably come up with new products to make. These products may not have been even an twinkle in the baker’s eye when they purchased a piece of equipment or a new production line. Before they are often willing to invest in new equipment that is perfectly suited to the new product’s specifications, bakers test the waters to see if the volume is there to support a new mixer. Stretching a mixer to handle a new dough or batter requires some flexibility. 

“If there’s a likelihood of producing a variety of products with very different characteristics, opting for a versatile mixer is a wise decision,” said Mélanie Gay, marketing and digital development, VMI. “Versatile mixers can efficiently adapt to different doughs while allowing for quick adjustments for changes in speed, organization and output.”

She pointed to VMI’s range of mixers with removeable bowls and interchangeable tools as an example. VMI’s quick-attach system for its tools on planetary and spiral mixers allows bakers to move from bread production with a spiral to cookies with a paddle attachment quickly. Parameters such as time and speed will also need to be adjusted.

“This adaptability enables bakers to diversify their production with minimal effort and process modifications,” she said. “By investing in versatile and adaptable equipment, bakers can better meet the changing demands of the market while optimizing operational efficiency.”

Versatility, however, is limited to doughs or batters of similar characteristics, pointed out Terry Bartsch, executive product manager, dough systems, AMF Bakery Systems. A baker wouldn’t mix a dough or batter that doesn’t require gluten development in a triple roller bar horizontal mixer, for example. But within a mixer’s lane, whether it’s developing gluten or simply incorporating ingredients, the equipment can handle a wide range of products.  

The agitating tool on a mixer is key to determining which variety of doughs or batters it can create. Their design, speed and sometimes even the direction they’re moving can impact the dough or batter and can be tweaked during production for different results, Andrew Adreani, business development manager, Escher Mixers, a Middleby Bakery company, pointed out. 

“Changing the agitating tool changes the way ingredients are blended and can affect the combined structure of the resulting product,” he said. “Mixing is not only making a uniform substance, but it is also the activation of dry ingredients with the addition of wet ingredients that starts a transformation process.” 

Jim Warren, vice president, Exact Mixing, Reading Bakery Systems (RBS), noted that for continuous mixing, bakers have two primary adjustments that can be made: shaft design and shaft speed. These two can be changed to customize a mixer to a specific dough. RBS offers five styles of continuous mixers for high-shear, low-shear, high-development, low-development and two-stage mixing. 

Once the shaft is designed though, the adjustment that can be made from one production run to another is shaft speed, which is the case for both batch and continuous mixers, Warren pointed out.

“This means that similar families of products can be made on the same mixer by adjusting the energy input,” he said. “For example, most cookies could be made on one mixer without adjustment, however, cookies and bread could not be made on the same mixer without considerable changes to the equipment.”

If there are enough similarities between two products that they can run on the same mixer, shaft speed, water temperature, jacket temperature and production rate can all be added to the recipe in a PLC so changes are automatically made, which reduces the reliance on operator intervention and the need for training.

Zeppelin’s CODOS continuous mixing system has five variables that influence dough quality and can be adjusted: temperature, mixing and kneading speed, floor and rest time. Adding a pre-hydration system like the company’s DymoMix, which is appropriate for certain products, will also influence mixing time, floor time and temperature. 

“Creative adjustments can extend capabilities,” said Genevieve Zoe Dewald, sales and marketing analyst, Zeppelin Systems USA. “For example, the latest mixers can have their tools and mixing speed reconfigured to achieve a delicate folding action, enabling the production of artisan bread doughs that require gentle handling. You can combine a pre-mixer or pre-hydration stage upstream of a continuous mixer, which allows for consistent and controlled dough hydration, quality and temperature.” 

While agitators in a horizontal mixer are not interchangeable, agitator speed and mix times can be modified. 

“Usually on horizontal arm mixers, agitators are designed for a certain type of dough, and reconfiguring it during production is not possible,” said Marc Ferree, global account manager, Shaffer Mixers. “However, we often work with our customers to offer solutions to their mix issues, from minor speed and mix time changes to reconfiguring the mixer offline, which can be more time consuming.” 

Bartsch noted that on AMF’s triple roller bar mixers, bakers can make minor adjustments to the roller bar configuration by adjusting the roller and breaker bars inside the mixer. 

“Operators can make adjustments to the bearings for the roller bar and breaker bar to provide a tighter roller bar to bowl sheet clearance for more dough development,” he said. “By changing the location of the breaker bar, bakers can ensure a smaller dough interacts more consistently with the breaker bar.” 

Speed, however, is a way to adjust to a different dough’s needs, whether simply incorporating ingredients or developing a dough. 

“Some higher absorption doughs will do better by running them faster,” Bartsch explained. “Compared to a bread or bun dough, which is typically run at 70 rpm, an English muffin dough is run at 80 rpm because there’s a lot more water being incorporated into the dough.” 

AMF Bakery Systems designed its Fusion Snax Sigma Mixer to offer snack producers maximum flexibility with consistency for making a wide range of snack products such as cookies, crackers, pretzels, gluten-free products and specialty snacks. The flexibility and consistency come down to the single sigma arm agitator’s shape, which was designed for efficient ingredient incorporation and consistent dough quality. AMF’s Dough Guardian technology also provides operators with an easy way to change parameters on any of the company’s mixers.

Variable frequency drives have also changed the game when it comes to control over a mixer’s speed, on both horizontal and spiral mixers. Historically, mixers were built with only two speeds: low and high. Today, mixers can be set up to mix multiple speeds/steps in a given recipe, like three steps at three different speeds.

“With firm doughs such as for pizza, bagels or pretzels, you can mix low, then high and go back to an intermediate speed to maintain the amps and not overwork the mixer,” said Damian Morabito, chief executive officer, Topos Mondial. “Once the dough is developed, you can go down to the lowest speed for an extra minute to get the final development without overheating the dough or the mixer itself.” 

This article is an excerpt from the June 2024 issue of Baking & Snack. To read the entire feature on Mixing, click here.