Modernisation
Edinburgh’s Oatcakes Still Take the Biscuit
29.05.2008 | Author / Deskman: Flexicon (Europe) Ltd / Praktikant VTT
Considerable investment was the vital ingredient to the success of a newly formed bakery venture which had been targeted by modernising the process plant within the 24,000 sq. ft. factory facility.
There are many among us who may not appreciate that Edinburgh is famed for its 3 Bs – Bookbinding, Brewing and Biscuit making. Bookbinding, sadly, has been assigned to the archives and there is now but one brewer resident in Edinburgh. Had it not been for the guile and foresight of four astute individuals who negotiated a management buy-out from United Biscuits back in 1996 to form Simmers of Edinburgh Ltd. (Simmers), and just one other surviving biscuit manufacturer, biscuit making too would have followed bookbinding into the annals of Edinburgh’s history.
As part of the modernisation program in its 24000 sq ft factory facility, in 1998 Simmers approached bulk solids handling specialists Flexicon (Europe) Ltd. to review the process of handling the raw materials. At that time, 35 kg bags of oatmeal in pin-head, medium and fine grades were manually lifted from incoming pallets onto plastic pallets of up to 20 bags per load and transferred, over 30 m, through the warehouse into the process area. Here, 8-bag batches of various combinations of pin, medium or fine grain particles were split by tear tabs and manually emptied into a floor located, 800 mm high mixer vessel to await smaller volumes of ingredients for mixing to a determined recipe.
Disadvantages in this operation were dust emission hazards, manual bag handling difficulties, product wastage through spillage and residue left in bags, quality control, final disposal of spent bags and the higher cost of purchasing raw material in small bags. After consultation, Flexicon designed, installed and commissioned a bulk bag discharge system for the handling of 1 t bulk bags of medium cut oatmeal.
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