Storage, continuous mixing and dough forming in bread, fresh pastry goods & cake production

Bread is made with three basic ingredients: grain, water, and baker’s yeast. The harvested grain is ground according to the type of bread being made. All three parts are ground together to make whole wheat and rye breads. Bakeries store the grain in storage silos until it is needed. In the baking factory, water and yeast are mixed with the flour to make a dough. Additional ingredients such as salt, fat, sugar, honey, raisins and nuts are also added. Sifted flour is poured into an industrial mixer, with, temperature-controlled water. A pre-measured amount of yeast is added. Depending on the type of bread to be made, other ingredients are also poured into the mixer. Modern mixers can process up to 2,000 lbs (908 kg) of dough per minute.

Most of the basic ingredients are solids/grains which are normally stored in silos. Here a FMCW radar transmitter (OPTIWAVE 3500) is the first choice for level measurement and inventory control. Liquids are dosed using OPTIMASS 1400 Coriolis mass flowmeters, which can also measure the flow of conductive liquid products like edible oil. Based on the improved functionality of the OPTIMASS Coriolis meters, it is possible to switch from the non-conductive batch processes to continuous inline processes. Pre-dough, or other semi-solids flowing in a pipe, can be measured and dosed using single straight tube (obstructionless) Coriolis flowmeters such as the OPTIMASS 7400.