Powdea helped reduce flour dust in Saarioinen’s dough manufacturing
In the flour dust project carried out with the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, the focus was on the dough room, which mixes the dough swallowed by the bakery’s machines. The amounts of dust were measured so that the workers had backpacks full of sensors on their backs. The measurements showed that the exposure to flour exceeded the permissible limit values.
The formation of flour dust in dough making cannot be avoided
“The formation of flour dust in dough making is natural due to the fact that almost all the ingredients are fine and highly dusty powders. When several different types of powdery ingredients are needed for the dough, harmful dust formation cannot be avoided,” says Tuomo Kousa, CEO of Powdea.
-To solve the problem, equipment suppliers have implemented various dust removal solutions aimed at limiting dust emissions. In automatic dispensing, arranging efficient dust removal is particularly challenging because the entire portion of flour is dropped into a dough bowl at once. In this case, the flour dust tends to escape even the smallest gap, even if there is a lid on the pot with a dust extraction, Kousa continues.
Powdea’s AntiDust hood for the dust control
Powdea modernized the transfer and dosing of flour to Saarioinen, the goal of which was to remove the dust nuisances of the previous equipment.
Thanks to the new Anti-Dust ™ flour scale supplied by Powdea , flour dust no longer exists. The previous filter with a filter bag was replaced with a new Powdea hose filter and a new Anti-Dust ™ lid was installed on top of the dough trolley. The Anti-Dust ™ pot lid, which moves to the cylinders, lowers tightly over the pot when the balance is emptied, closing it completely. In this case, the dust generated during emptying remains in the pot and cannot escape.
-That doesn’t let anything go through, says Ilkka Kihlakoski from Saarioinen. “The gap between bowl and the scale is also completely closed, so there is no dust in it,” Kihlakoski continues.
