Focus on hygienic design

Spooner Vicars (part of the Middleby Group) has launched a new rotary moulder. The APEX Sport can handle a wide range of doughs, from detailed surface designs to deep-moulded shortcakes with fruit inclusions. The newest design focuses primarily on hygienic design.

+The company eliminated machine threads wherever possible and gave ample clearance under the machine for cleaning. Using direct drive motors allows the removal of many guards, as there are no transmission pieces such as chains and belt, thus allowing easy access for cleaning. The machine has three drive motors, allowing individual adjustment for the feed roll, die roll and belt.

+ Powered Feed roll: this allows the roll to be speeded up or slowed down, allowing precise filling of the die cavity

+ Powered die roller: this will be set to match the linear speed of the oven belt

+ Powered product belt. Dan Christie, Sales Manager Spooner Vicars, explains: “With many rotary moulders, the product belt is clutch-driven between the die roller and rubber roller. This is fine until the belt slips and then you apply more rubber roll pressure which creates product tails. When it is on its own drive, you can back off the rubber roll pressure and still drive the belt.”

According to the company, the die drive does not require a gear, which brings the total cost of buying dies down and makes product changes fast. Dan Christie: “The machine comes with a belt tracker as standard, whereas with many manufacturers this is an option.” The feed roll has an adjustable gap for different dough viscosities. This gap is the distance between the feed and die rolls. The gap adjustment along with the knife adjustment can be manual or motor driven for settable recipe control, as the machine also comes with PLC controls.

Operation of the rotary moulder

Dough is put into the machine hopper, which sits on the top over the feed and die roller. The die roller rotates clockwise and the feed roller counterclockwise, allowing product to be pushed into the die engravings (cookie shapes). A knife which runs along the entire width of the die scrapes off any excess dough. At this point the belt contacts the surface of the die and the rubber roll slightly presses the dough (cookies) unto the belt surface. The belt then pulls the product out of the die roller and transfers it to an oven belt for baking. +++