Food installation engineering – more quality, lower costs: too good to be true?

By Agriflex

The frenetic increase in the prices of raw materials such as cereals, maize and sugar is the cause of concern for public opinion world wide, shocked by the continuous increases in the prices of food (bread, pasta ...) that provide basic nourishment for billions of people. Consumers are dismayed and feel impotent when faced with the speculation that lies behind the phenomenon: the recent, dramatically unproductive FAO convention held in Rome back in June, before dozens of heads of state, made the situation quite clear.

The major food industry specialized in the transformation of these products has to increase its prices to make up for a drop in production as well as lower profit margins. Inevitably there is a risk that the situation can become critical, also on a merely industrial scale.

The solutions adopted by AGRIFLEX S.r.l. guarantee the same level of quality and reliability, place particular emphasis on containing the costs of the plants and running costs, helping our customers limit the investments and reduce operating costs.

This challenge, launched by AGRIFLEX a few years ago, containing the prices of its installations, was based on a meticulous policy of reduction of corporate costs, creating a productive structure which was much more streamlined and efficient.

But what can a mature sector in which it seems almost everything has already been invented still do? How can we contain the increase in production costs when faced with increase of 50, 60 or 100 % in the cost of raw materials?!

And, in particular, how can we do so without the risk of lowering the levels of quality, both in terms of food safety and the quality of the product, and in terms of functionality and reliability of the equipments, essential requirements to survive on the market, including the respect of regulations, both concerning food and other applications, and the attention to quality and full customer satisfaction?

AGRIFLEX’s answer is based on thirty years experience, which has made it possible to assess and experiment many different constructional and plant engineering solutions. This experience, all things equal, leads us to put the emphasis on simplicity, which always pays off in terms of the most efficient functional character for the lowest possible cost.

simple … it can be prepared in a few days, and installed in a few hours

versatile …. it can be installed in any environment, of any form

hygienic … the content is aired, the silo can be washed/sanitized

economic …. it costs less than half!!

A concrete example: major industry has almost always used large outdoor monolithic silos made of stainless steel or aluminium for storing large quantities of flours and other powdery raw materials, and the cost of these silos has doubled in the last few years. The fabric silos technology used by Agriflex for dozens of years has made it possible to increase storage capacity: today Agriflex can offer fabric silos with a capacity of up to 70 tons. Another winning choice is automation. The amazing progress in this field has been used to the full by Agriflex, developing dedicated software for the plants, complex in the structure and development, but simple and easy to use for plant users. This is an investment that pays off in the short term (savings on new installations), and also in the medium and long term (drastic reduction in operating costs).

A further example is represented by the micro-ingredients dosing units; equipments built specifically for the bakery, confectionary and ice-cream products related industries, and obviously many more applications.

In extreme synthesis, such equipments are dedicated to the storing, weighing and dosing of a series of ingredients in powder form that are normally added to the main ingredients of a dough, in variable quantity, from some tens of grammes to a few kilos.

We have built units for as little as just two or three ingredients, up to as many as 18! … and it is possible to move to even higher.

Such systems guarantee:

• processing reliability and food applied safety
• weighing precision and constant formulas
• thorough automation with high savings in the handling costs

On a more wide-eyed range, our products in brief :

• Indoor silos in fabric or stainless steel, capacity up to 70m 3
• Outdoor silos in stainless steel or in glass fibre, capacity up to 120m 3
• Pneumatic conveying systems, pressure or aspiration type
• Mechanical conveying systems
• Electronic dosage systems
• Micro-dosage handling: either dry, granules or liquid form. We produce automatic or semi-automatic systems with high dosage precision; with a limited number of containers for the products to be dosed.
• Computerised programmes for the production handling
• Big-Bag emptying structures
• Bags emptying structures
• Working with Agriflex means safety in the systems, from design to build all the way up to the maintenance of the systems for the storage, transport, automation and dosage of the food industry, plastics and chemicals applications.

Being used to develop the best solutions to our customers, in recent years we have also included in our range, with very satisfactory results worldwide, Automatic natural Liquid Yeast Fermenter to make bread, pizza, etc.

Quality: the high percentage of natural yeast used, confers an organic development of the dough, even without adjuvants and it gives the means to eliminate brewer’s yeast. The outstanding advantages are: improved bread preservation, “freshness”, taste and fragrance enhancement, a more regular alveolar structure and thinner crust, mould and stringy bacteria formation resistance, cost reduction (exclusion of adjutants and brewer’s yeast).

Semplicity: the natural yeast for the next processes is obtained by adding water and flour. The fermenter, thanks to its automation and controls, ensures that the PH and the temperature of the natural yeast is kept steady for the next processing so as to secure a linear quality.

In relation with the storing, transport, dosing and automation of raw materials, we believe that Agriflex can study the best solution for your needs, for your specifications and for your production targets. Our internal CAD department is at your disposition, providing personalised solutions and propositions. Hundreds of customers have submitted their requests to us and as many have confided in our company to build their installations. Very prestigious names have bestowed their trust upon us in the past nearly 40 years; let us work for you, too!

Contact details:
AGRIFLEX S.R.L.
Via Barsanti 6/8
47100 Forli FC (Italy)
T: +39 0543 796153, F: +39 0543 725152, E: info@agriflex.it
www.agriflex.it