Baking & Snack - October 2010 - 33

34
mixers and an AMF fermentation room for maturing the sponges. Final doughs move into the
AMF rotary divider and Accupan intermediate
proofing and moulding system. A Laramore flour
reclaim system keeps dusting flour contained.
Yet the operating speeds of the bun line conveyors belie the high output numbers. "BakeTech actually slowed the equipment speed but increased
the output rates," Mr. Buxton noted. Such results
come from a seemingly simple approach: running
a specially engineered large bun pan the wide way
and traveling as straight a path as possible.
A unique aspect to the Bardstown bun pans
is their "inverted" design. In other words, the
support band set around the edge is positioned
level with the pan's base instead of its top rim. Such
placement not only strengthens the pan but also
provides a good indexing point, according to Mr.
Benton. The cups never extend into the pan below
when stacked, thus protecting the cups from damage
by incidental contact. Mr. Buxton observed that the
inverted placement of the band improves support so
bigger pans can be built. The pans are made specifically for Flowers by American Pan and are designed
for Flowers' larger bun lines.
Because of its size, the pan determined nearly everything about how the bun line was designed, laid out and
operated. The line was laid out to run straight whenever
possible, with only curving turns. The BakeTech conveyorized proofer, oven and transport systems carry the
pans on stabilized chain-mounted grids, equipped with
magnets to hold pans in place.

COOL AND WRAP. Removed from pans by a Stewart
wide-way depanner, the buns climb up to a BakeTech
overhead conveyor where they cool for 15 minutes. Laid
out in racetrack style, the BakeTech wide-way bun cooler
can double up on rows of buns, thus conserving space
and energy for the chain-driven system. A Stewart overhead conveyor with a center multitier drive carries bread
loaves, which require up to 50 minutes to cool because of
their larger mass.
Although located side-by-side at the far end of the
bakery, the packaging departments for bread and buns
involve separate technologies. Improvements in AMF
bread baggers, for example, allowed the Bardstown team
to go with four machines instead of the five that are usually installed, according to Mr. Benton.
Bread wrapping is fully automated from the horizontal
switches that feed the wrapping stations through AMF
slicing and bagging systems, Burford twist-tying units
and AMF basket loaders. Bun wrapping encompasses
both retail items and bulk buns for food service clients.
Current volume at Bardstown supports four UBE retailpack lines and three LeMatic lines, each consisting of a
slicer and a bulk wrapper.
Both wrapping areas send packaged products to
AMF basket loaders, one per wrapping line. Here, the
individually packaged loaves or bags of buns travel onto
orienting tables. Following programmed instructions,
the basket loaders group the packages into optimized
patterns and transfer the entire assembly into a waiting
plastic basket tray.
Every delivery basket is supplied clean to the wrapping room. As baskets return to the bakery, an AMF tray
unstacker separates and routes them to two AMF tray
▲ Bread packaging is fully automated at Flowers Foods new facility in
Bardstown, KY.
◀ The automated bun line can produce more than 10,000 lb per hour of
5-in buns using extra-wide pans that actually show down the process while
maintaining a high capacity.

BAKING & SNACK / October 2010

Baking & Snack - October 2010

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Baking & Snack - October 2010