GEA Bakery Plug&Play

To assist the bakery industry overcome complexities in the installation process, GEA has been offering the possibility of preassembling modules at the production facility in Verona, Italy. The aim of plug&play ovens is to speed up the installation process, in order to reduce production downtime at the facility.

In order to create a plug&play service, the GEA engineers carried out a theoretical study on a 65 m-long and 1.2 m-wide oven. Considering that there are many factors in place such as conveyor belt, fuel and heating system used, a good estimate of the time needed to install the disassembled oven is around 45 days. With the plug&play option it is now possible to reduce the installation time to as little as 20 days.

The benefits of the plug&play option were recently demonstrated during the installation of a large oven for a user in Indonesia. The 24 m oven is reported to have taken four weeks instead of eight to install thanks to the pre-assembled modules.

Plug&play ovens can reduce labour costs: the total number of people working on the line is reduced, both for mechanics and electricians. In particular, the need for highly specialised personnel is no longer fundamental, as the most complex operations are carried out during the pre-assembly of the modules at GEA’s production site.

By installing plug&play ovens, the baker no longer comes into contact with the rock wool used to insulate the baking chamber. Without rock wool management, it is no longer necessary to isolate the production environment to avoid the risk of contamination with other production lines in operation during the installation process.