MC Mühlenchemie is reinforcing its 360° service for pasta makers with a technology upgrade. Its flour treatment experts have taken a new dryer into operation at the pasta lab in Ahrensburg, Germany. This enables simulation of industrial pasta production with almost 100 percent accuracy, so that pasta makers can test how different flour treatments and process parameters affect product quality under realistic conditions.

Pasta production is a complex process that depends on many factors. Adaptations to constantly changing conditions, like new consumer desires, different flours, and growing cost pressure, are unavoidable. In the development of new recipes and production processes, getting the theoretically predicted results in practice is a challenge. Tests at industrial scale are typically uneconomical, since they require large amounts of raw materials. The consequences are long, drawn-out development processes with high error and reject rates.

MC Mühlenchemie’s new pilot dryer simulates the conditions of a commercial pasta dryer, but at smaller scale. Unlike conventional laboratory dryers, the system offers a dynamic environment that exactly replicates the process flow of industrial pasta fabrication.

Individual drying times for optimum results

The new dryer is designed to be flexible for different kinds of pasta, and enables precise control of the drying process. An integrated scale monitors the drying curve in real time and supplies information on drying progress. This data enables MC’s technologists to individually adjust parameters like temperature, moisture, airflow, and drying time, and so improve the quality and efficiency of production.