Dupon contacted Austria-based Franz Haas to trial its machinery because it was looking for technology with continuous performance, 24 hours a day, five days a week.
Rolled sugar cones
The equipment is designed for industrial production of rolled sugar cones with a sugar content of around 40% to 55% of the flour content.
The technology includes frames, baking plates, baking tong chains, batter depositing, heating, drives and controls.
Dupon operations director Jordi Juncosa said he joined forces with Harald Zeller, a project engineer from Franz Haas to work together on the project from the start of the process.
The company needed something that offered high capacity and consistent quality, and was flexible enough to change between recipes.
Dupon has been running the lines for five months now.
“A high output rate is insufficient if the quality is lacking,” said Juncosa. “The big advantage of the Caiman equipment is consistent quality is warranted even at very high output rates.”
Design team challenges
The team faced a number of challenges during the design including a long and twisted feeding conveyor that was causing high friction, and the unusual length of the production line.
As a result, Zeller installed two conveyors to transfer the product from one line to another, with a passageway built to allow quick access between the lines.
“Easy changeover times were especially important for Dupon,” added Zeller.
“Depending on customer demand, the firm needs to offer a variety of taste options. With Franz Haas technology, Dupon can play with recipes because the Caiman lines accept different recipes with little modification or change in parameters.”
Other features of the machinery include an oven head where batter is deposited onto the lower plates of baking plate pairs, which are then mounted onto a baking tong chain and the upper and lower plates close and travel through the baking chamber.
The baking plates can also open at the oven head and there is a mechanical take-off system that transfers the baked wafer sheets to a rolling device where they are rolled into cones.
The rolling device then discharges the finished cones to a feeding conveyor that delivers them to the cooling zone.
The Caiman-D is suitable for heating with all kinds of gas. The baking tong chain is driven by servo motor, directly connected to the drive shaft at the oven head. The electronic programmable control (PLC) offers automatic PI temperature control and maintains constant baking temperatures.