The food and beverage industry absorbed a significant financial hit as the result of the economic carnage generated by the COVID-19 pandemic. From shuttered restaurants and food production facilities to the worst supply chain disruptions in recent memory, businesses that operate on razor-thin profit margins found themselves swimming in a sea of red ink. The pandemic especially hit commercial bakeries hard because of the double whammy of shuttered plants, and when they finally opened for business, supply chain disruptions made it impossible to keep up with renewed customer demand.
One of the ways commercial bakeries can boost profit margins during a difficult economic period involves switching from batch mixing to the continuous mixing method.
Leading up to 1994, batch mixing dominated the market for bakery mixers. In 1994, Exact Mixing introduced the continuous mixing method that has changed the way bakeries produce the dough used for baked goods. Fourteen years later, Reading Bakery Systems added Exact Mixing to its growing stable of brands, which provided us the capital we needed to expand our line of continuous mixer models.
Why Do Continuous Mixers Have a Competitive Edge Over Batch Mixers?
Batch mixing requires the completion of the dough blending process before the addition of the ingredients for a second batch of dough. This means the operators of batch mixers have to wait about 15 minutes for one batch of dough to clear before adding the ingredients for a second batch. On the other hand, operators of continuous mixers constantly feed accurately measured ingredients into the mixing chamber for immediate processing. Continuous mixers produce much more dough in less time all because of automated technology.
Automation allows your commercial bakery to save money on labor costs by requiring fewer employees to monitor each batch of dough. Because of automation, your business also saves money by lowering food costs. Our automated continuous mixers produce a constant stream of uniformly developed dough that always consist of the same size, shape, weight, and texture. Evenly hydrated dough leaves the mixer for formation into usable-size buns and loaves without the need for your commercial bakery to install additional equipment.
What is the Right Continuous Mixer for Buns & Loaves?
Exact Mixing offer five continuous mixer models, with each model specializing in creating a certain type of dough for baked goods. The Exact Mixing HDX Continuous Mixer specializes in manufacturing super high absorption, highly developed dough at low temperatures for items such as buns and bread loaves. As a two-stage dough processing system, the HDX Continuous Mixer mixes all ingredients during the first stage with a double-screw mixer. The second stage of the dough-mixing process involves achieving the proper development level by using a single-screw mixer.
The HDX Continuous Mixer ensures accurate and uninterrupted measuring of ingredients, as well as prevents cross-contamination because the dough is never exposed to environmental substances. When you use the HDX Continuous Mixer to produce dough for your industrial bakery, you can ramp up the production rate to exceed 10,000 kg an hour. This mixer’s standard specifications include stainless steel construction, liquid jacketed and insulated mixer barrels, and a pneumatic cutter at the exit of the mixer to cut dough into easy-to-form pieces. The automated dough handling system sends processed dough to downstream equipment.
If your commercial bakery blends the ingredients for dough used for baked goods like buns and bread loaves, then the HDX Continuous Mixer from Exact Mixing fully automates your dough-processing system. The result is much higher yields to meet the largest production orders, while at the same time reducing operating costs by fully automating your production system. Discover more features of the HDX Continuous Mixer by contacting Exact Mixing online or by calling our headquarters at 610-693-5816.