Industry events
2nd Regional Flour Milling Seminar 2018
L
– Bangkok, Thailand
by Vaughn Entwistle, Managing Editor, Milling & Grain
oy Krathong is one of the most picturesque festivals in Thailand where people gather around lakes, rivers and canals to pay respects to the goddess of water, by releasing beautiful lotus shaped rafts, decorated with candles, incense, and flowers onto the water. On the night of the full moon, Thais launch their krathong on a river, canal or a pond, making a wish as they do so. The krathong symbolise releasing of the negativities of the past year, and embracing the positivities of the year to come. Through a happy coincidence, the Second Regional Flour Milling Seminar was held at the Marriot Marquise Queen’s Park in Bangkok, Thailand on November 19, 2018, during the festival of Loy Krathong. The seminar was organised and sponsored by Swiss milling company, Bühler, in collaboration with Bunge, a major agribusiness and food company that is also involved in food processing, grain trading and fertilisers. According to Andreas Hummel, Bühler’s Area Sales Manager in Thailand, there are some 19 flourmills in Thailand and Myanmar. Bühler enjoys a 90 percent market share in Thailand, and a 60 percent market share in Myanmar. So, it wasn’t surprising that the conference attendees at the conference included some 70 flour millers from Bühler mills across both countries.
A full day of important information
The seminar opened with remarks from Mark Ledson, Bühler Managing Director, Thailand and William Syers, Distribution Director for Bunge. Most of the lectures were given in English, although the organisers had thoughtfully provided headphones for translations from English to Thai and vice-versa.
Performance boost through maintenance
First up was Dirk Eifert, Senior Process Engineer with Bühler, who gave a very persuasive presentation about the cost savings 118 | February 2019 - Milling and Grain
inherent in pursuing Planned Maintenance versus, what he termed, reactive maintenance. Reactive maintenance typically occurs only after something has broken down, which results in inevitable downtime with a loss of production. Planned maintenance, by contrast, can take place when production is slow or when one line is shut down. Similarly, mills typically focus their maintenance efforts on rolls and sieves, often servicing them only after damage or excessive wear has occurred. But this can be a false economy, as increased roller wear reduces flour quality and results in a loss of ash flour, moisture, and yield. Also, tightening rolls to compensate for wear adversely impacts throughput capacity. Moreover, it is cheaper to reflute the rolls more often than to over tighten rolls, a strategy which dramatically increases energy use/costs. To help keep mills running efficiently, Bühler now offers a preventive maintenance service, which covers everything from sieve conditioning and tightening to inspection, cleaning and thermal treatment. The service is carried out by Bühler-trained technicians to ensure the certification required by mill operators.
New equipment in milling solutions
Dominique Kull, Bühler’s Head of Technology South East Asia, provided a preview of new products on the market. Here are a few samples:
Pesa Mill
Atta Flour is the flour of choice for many Indian people living around the world. Typically, Atta is manufactured in roadside mills using stone milling wheels, often under less-thanhygienic conditions. To meet this need, Bühler has produced the PesaMill™, the first industrial process technology for the production of whole wheat Atta flour, providing a completely authentic taste and exemplary sanitation. The turnkey units are shipped preassembled in their own container, and feature an energy efficient electromechanical design versus pneumatic flour conveying.