Air knife successfully used to cut bakery icing
August 2006
Pneumatics & Hydraulics
An Exair stainless steel Super Air Knife was installed in a bakery faced with the problem of applying icing to its snack cakes. As the baked sponge cakes moved down the conveyor, a continuous ribbon of icing was applied to the individual cakes. According to the bakery, trying to make a clean break in the icing was next to impossible. A possible solution of using mechanical blades requires that these be constantly cleaned. The alternative of blowing compressed air through a series of holes in drilled pipes used too much air, was very noisy and did not make a clean break in the icing.
The Super Air Knife was installed across the conveyor to cut the icing to be applied. A photo eye detects the space between the cakes and turns the compressed air on at the precise moment to apply uniform airflow and velocity against the ribbon of icing, creating a clean break.
This product was chosen for this application because there was no contact with the icing which results in no additional cleaning required. The laminar flow of this air knife has uniform velocity across the entire length and broke the icing evenly. This uniformity would not have been possible with the spikes of air from a drilled pipe, nozzles or a blower.
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