Powdea carried out a complete overhaul of the dough-making control system at Antell’s bakeries in Oulu. At the same time, the dosing of water to the dough stations and the flour silos were renewed by adding weighing equipment and new auxiliary unloaders. The aim of the reform was to improve the reliability of dough making and to integrate dough making into the production management system used in the bakery.
New operating panels for production lines
The modernization of the control system included the conversion of the old PC-based dosing to logic control and the replacement of the old operator panels with new 15-inch touch screens. Thanks to the new operating panels and the easy-to-use recipe dosing automation developed by Powder Technology, the implementation of the new control system went smoothly.
Manual weighing as part of a production control system
The weighing of manually dispensed substances was integrated into the production control system in the control system reform. The product recipe is picked up from the recipe list and the ingredients to be added manually are dispensed accurately by weighing under the control of a horizontal display. The handwriting display of the powders is very quick and easy thanks to the visual pointer that shows an illustrative substance-specific tolerance. After dosing, the baker acknowledges the dose, in which case the dosing event is registered in the database completely automatically. The scale can then be tare and pick up the recipes for the next substance to dispense.
With Powdea’s fluidization equipment, get rid of vaulting rye flour silos
In connection with the reform of the control system, Powdea also implemented other reforms to improve the operation and reliability of the dosing system. The customer’s inner silos were modernized by installing new Powdea Fluid ™ auxiliary unloaders in the rye flour silos, which got rid of the problems with rye flour.
Better silo filling control with silo weighing
In connection with the renovation, all flour silos were equipped with weighing equipment. Powdea supplied the sensors with their mounting kits and horizontal equipment, which the customer installed on the silo leg structures according to the instructions. Thanks to the silo weighing, the amount of powder in the silos is precisely known, so the need to fill the silos is easily predictable.
A new control system was introduced over the weekend
The introduction of the control system took place over the weekend, so that the reform could be carried out without disrupting production. The old silo dosing control center, water dispensers and production line operating terminals were dismantled on Friday morning and a new control center and new terminals were installed. During Saturday, equipment tests of the new new control system were carried out and the bakery’s production was started with new control automation as planned on Saturday night.
