The ability to make a variety of innovative shapes of filled co-extruded pillow snacks and cereals is being introduced by Baker Perkins with crimping technology new to Interpack. The technology on show is a production line comprising a twin-screw extruder, co-extrusion die, 6-pump feed system, and a pillow crimper.

Pillow crimper
The new pillow snacks can be made in attractive patterns such as hexagons, ‘cats face’, chevrons and waves, which are formed in the pillow crimper. When standard shapes such as squares are produced, outline definition is much improved compared to previous generation equipment.

The pillow crimper can handle up to eight lanes of product simultaneously, forming filled tubes into individual pillows. Easily interchangeable cutting roll sets allow pillows to be made in a wide range of shapes and sizes. The pillow crimper can be retrofitted into lines including any make of extruder.

These co-extruded products can be marketed as snacks, breakfast cereals, confectionery or pet food products. Sweet or savoury cream, fruit pulp, paste or chocolate pralines are typical fillings. Roll orientation enables product from 12-120mm in length to be produced, allowing filled bars to be marketed as individually wrapped count lines.

Crimp depth is adjustable to allow sealed pillows to remain in continuous ribbons for downstream processing, if required, but still allow for clean breaking into individual pieces.

The pillow crimper offers improved visual access to the process, with ease of maintenance and operation. Machines already in production are working effectively 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Cream feed system
This system, being shown at Interpack for the first time, provides accurate metering of fillings for co-extruded snacks and cereals. A 6-pump version will be on show: modular design allows a range of machine sizes from 2 to 8 pumps to be provided.

The system features one pump per product stream, allowing each to be adjusted independently for precise weight control.

A jacketed and agitated stainless steel tank maintains the cream in an ideal state for pumping into the cereal tubes. The open design of the all-stainless steel unit provides excellent access for cleaning and maintenance.

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For more information
Go to www.bakerperkinsgroup.com/filledpillows

Contact us
Or call our Customer Services on:
+44 1733 283000 fax +44 1733 283008
Email on bpltd@bakerperkinsgroup.com