Confectionery cooker

APV Baker's Microfilm confectionery cooker has been upgraded to provide more production flexibility and ease of operation. The cookers are for sugar and sugar-free high boiled and hard candies, including those with the addition of milk and cream.

Compared with traditional methods, the Microfilm delivers greater product variety, better quality and higher efficiency. As a result they are being increasingly used for low boilings such as caramels, toffees, chews and fudges, high-solids jellies, and gums - as well as hard candy - in both depositing and non-depositing applications.

PLC control is now standard with touch-sensitive HMI screens for operator control. Features include on-screen trending of process parameters that helps operators to improve real-time process control and provides information for troubleshooting and longer-term process development.

Recipe control and system alarm management are also included.

Other design improvements include good visibility of product at the point of discharge, a hygienic stainless steel frame and a special discharge pump designed to efficiently handle high-sugar syrups.

Design improvements have also been made to help routine maintenance.

The 'Microfilm' is claimed to be the only cooker that applies a continuous vacuum directly onto a thin, swept film during cooking. This results in extremely rapid cooking with minimum process inversion.

The cooker has hinged blades, which sweep the inner surface of the tube. The sugar is spread in a very thin film and moved through the cooking tube by a combination of gravity and the design of the hinged blades.

Depositing lines incorporating the cooker have an output capability of up to 1400 kg an hour from a single cooker and a single depositing head.

This is achieved by the largest depositors in the range with a width of 1.3 m and provides high-quality candies with one or two colours, soft centres, layers and stripes.