While attending iba 2018 in Munich last month, we interviewed our own Dr. Michael Euler about the WP Kemper Kronos Digital Mixer, the first automatic spiral mixer in the world. Imagine a mixer that frees up the master baker’s time and allows less skilled workers to mix the dough — with consistent results every time? We’ll tell you a bit about the mixer first. Then, please see below for a video and transcript of the interview.
The intelligent KRONOS DIGITAL mixer
The intelligent KRONOS DIGITAL mixer adapts independently to the condition of the dough and stops the mixing process automatically at the optimum point in time. This guarantees dough in reproducible, always constant dough quality, irrespective of the raw material properties and ambient conditions, as well as the training and experience of the responsible employees.
The KRONOS is very easy to operate: once started, it performs all other tasks automatically. The mixing process is continuously controlled based on the measured dough properties. The blending and mixing phases are adjusted or ended automatically. And each measurement is also documented for the purpose of quality control.
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KURT: I’m over at the mixing area and there’s a really innovative change in mixing technology. We have Dr. Euler here who will explain it more fully.
DR. EULER: Yeah. Hello, everybody. We have here at our booth at WP in Germany [our booth at iba 2018], the first fully automatic mixer you will find in the world. And the real innovation is that this mixer is able to adapt itself all the necessary process parameters based on the measurements we have done with the sensors included. So, at the final end, the big advantage for the customer is that this machine is very easy to handle. He has only to start the process and all the rest — from mixing to kneading phase to the stop of the kneading phase at its optimum — that’s all done fully automatically by the machine itself.
KURT: So, Dr. Euler, I’ve seen your graph here. It’s kind of like an EKG for a human being. What exactly are you doing?
DR. EULER: What you see here is the results of the measurements during the process. For example, we are scanning all the time — in real time. In fact, the temperature, the torque of the motors, the resistance of the dough itself, and some other important parameters and behind that, we do complex calculations based on complex simulation models and, in fact, we have five of these models here and we are a very democratic country in Germany, so as soon as three out of these five models says that the dough is done on its optimum, we will stop the process.
KURT: OK, and then all this data is logged so that we can pull it up the next day and say “well, how did my mixers do… was everything correct?” If we ever have an issue to go back and say “well, where did we screw up?” — we can go to your data log and it will say “Hey! It wasn’t here.” That’s really helpful.
DR. EULER: It’s even better. We’ll have batch logs based on that. So, our customers can go to their customers and can [show] them that they have produced an excellent quality [dough] at any time.
KURT: Well, that’s pretty amazing. Dr. Euler, I know that when the flour changes a little bit, our baker will make some adjustments — you know. We like to add some water or we take some water out of the mix because the flour is just basically different. How is this going to help me?
DR. EULER: With a smart product like ours now, that’s all history because the machine itself — due to the fact that it’s testing the dough quality at all time of the process — we, in fact, know exactly where on the curve we are — and it is not a problem for us to adjust all the parameters to different flour quality and so on. So, it doesn’t matter. You still have only to start the process and the machine itself can do. So very easy to handle for our customers and very repeatable quality [dough] you can produce with a machine like that.
KURT: One thing I’m wondering about though is that every day is a little bit different, right?
DR. EULER: Yeah.
KURT: And so if I’m running a croissant dough and then I go immediately to a ciabatta dough, is it going to remember this stuff? It seems like your graphing out something that’s specific for the ciabatta dough.
DR. EULER: Look, this machine is able to adapt itself to every dough you would like to produce. It allows the baker to set up what specific characteristics of the dough he would like to have. For example, let’s go for the croissant dough. You would normally like to have a little bit over-developed dough. So, you can go to the system and tell the system that you’d like to have an over-developed dough and it will manage it. Afterward, you go to your ciabatta dough — you would like to have a dough on the spot…on the optimum. And you can tell the machine in the receipt that you would like to have this dough on the spot and it will manage it, right in any sequence you intend to produce dough.
KURT: So there is some ability for the master baker, let’s say, to say, “hey, we’ve been developing the croissant dough to this level. This is our normal thing.” We basically take the standard rules of how we’ve been doing it in the past. We put it to your [Kronos Digital Spiral Mixer] and then the [mixer] says, “well, this is what you did” and then you say, “wait a second. Maybe I should have developed… and then you can change the parameter and say, “I want to reach this development.” And then, from that point on, you’ve hit it.
DR. EULER: You can train that the mixer does what exactly you want it to do, yeah? So that’s something you can gamble a little bit with. That you can adapt all the processes exactly to your specific requirements you have for a dedicated dough and, in fact, you have to do that only once, yeah? Because you need only your master baker once if you do it exactly at the beginning of this. Afterward, you can work with less skilled workers because all they have to do then is start the process and drive the bowl.
KURT: The [Kronos Digital Mixer] is going to handle that and always create a consistent product from that.
DR. EULER: Yes.
KURT: That’s terrific.
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Produce consistent results in your bakery while saving “dough” on employee training. More information on the Kronos Digital Mixer will be forthcoming. But for now, please call us at 203-929-6530 to inquire about this intelligent mixer. Watch more videos and learn more about our retail spiral mixers, wholesale spiral mixers, and industrial spiral mixers here.
WP Bakery Group USA
Shelton, CT
Award-Winning Industrial Baking Equipment, Award-Winning Retail Bakery Equipment, and Award-Winning Food Service Equipment