Application Bulletin AF13
Quadro Comil
 

GRANOLA BAR DEAGGLOMERATION
 

Background/Requirement

A large confectionary manufacturer recently approached Quadro with an application to deagglomerate granola bars for reclaim. The product consists of rice, oats, nuts and chocolate chips bound together by a sticky, high sugar syrup. The granola is formed into a rectangular 1/2 inch x 1 inch x 5 inch (13 mm x 25 mm x 127 mm) shape which is then coated with chocolate. Many of the chocolate bar centres are broken or misshaped before chocolate coating and must be deagglomerated and reintroduced into the original batch for reclaim and reshaping. It is very important that the individual granola components be deagglomerated but undamaged in order to preserve product quality and appearance.

Comil Performance

The Comil was able to accept up to 6 inch (150 mm) lumps of this sticky, difficult to handle product on a choke/flood feed basis. The Comil gently deagglomerated the granola product to 100% (-) 1/2 inch (13 mm) pieces with no damage to the individual ingredients; trouble free.

Summary

The deagglomerated product produced by the Comil is ideally suited for reclaim. Since no damage was done to the individual granola ingredients, final product quality was completely preserved. The Comil's low RPM gentle grinding action and its ability to handle such heat sensitive, sticky products makes it ideally suited to this application.