Designing Extrusion and Drying Systems for You
PROCESSES
PROCESSES
Twin-screw extrusion technology can open the door to many different areas of food processing including breakfast cereals, expanded snacks, TVP and HMMA, ingredients, and aquafeed.
The versatility and scalability of the Extrusion-Link twin screw extruder means that a wide range of raw materials can be processed and meticulously controlled to produce high quality products. With over 25 years working in the food and feed industry Extrusion-Link can confidently offer tailored solutions to all our customers.
Cereal and Granola
Extruded Cereals
At Extrusion-Link, we recognise the importance of taste, texture, and aesthetics for the consumer as well as the desire to have a variety of ingredients present.
Nutritional content and health claim requirements are high in demand as a drive for "healthier" options is fast becoming mainstream thinking at the breakfast table.
Twin-screw extrusion can accommodate these changes in demand more easily than single-screw machines, due to inherent flexibility and control.
We pride ourselves on being able to find process solutions for both traditional and innovative products.
Twin-screw extrusion combines shear, heat, moisture, and varying pressures to produce expanded cereals or pellets and creates a flexible, efficient, and scalable process in which to operate.
Our equipment can process a wide range of ingredients including corn, oats, rice, and multi-grains, as well as allowing the injection of water, oils, colours, and flavourings directly into the extruder barrel or preconditioner.
Novel ingredients such as protein isolates are readily incorporated by the extruder, with the potential to increase nutritional claims whilst developing interesting structures.
Extrusion-Link has a selection of standard dies available and the ability to manufacture dies tailored to the customer’s exact needs.
Whether you are looking for hoops, balls, shells, 3D, flakes or crispies, an appropriate die can be provided.
We are also able to offer dies, creaming and crimping systems to make pillows. Unusual pillows with stripes and of shredded appearance are also available. Novel multi-layer pillows are a new development.
Our innovative syrup application system is unrivalled in the coating market, with exceptionally accurate control over syrup metering and spraying provided by mass-flow metering systems. This gives a uniform and consistent coating on the base material.
Turnkey lines for expanded cereals and extruded flakes are available upon request.
Granola
Extrusion-Link has now built, installed and process commissioned many complete Granola lines with outputs ranging from 200-2000 kg/hr.
Continuous or batch mixing, manual or automated syrup preparation, continuous drying/cooling, prebreaking, kibbling and bulk storage are all areas of expertise.
At Extrusion-Link we favour drying over baking for flexibility and “light bite” through “baked” textures are readily achievable.
Extrusion-Link is positioned to offer complete or part systems for manufacturing your granola.
Ingredients
Twin-screw extrusion provides the flexibility for customers to produce a wide range of products which can include expanded crispies, pre-cooked flours, inclusions, and breadcrumbs.
Expanded Ingredients
Crispies produced for inclusion into cereal bars and breakfast cereals are a major market and one well catered for by twinscrew extrusion. Total control of shape, density, colour and texture are prerequisites for these markets. Raw material choice is unlimited and new markets such as protein crispies develop apace with the advent of multiple new protein sources.
Breadcrumbs
Extruding breadcrumbs rather than traditionally baking and milling breadcrumbs has many benefits including reduced floorspace for processing due to less equipment being required, lower cost and a great range of raw material options for processing.
The flexibility of twin screw extrusion means the customers can vary the texture and colour of the product and switch between recipes with ease. Breadcrumbs made from alternative materials such as pea flour are becoming more popular, and the versatility of extrusion machinery allows a range of innovative and new materials to be processed.
Precooked flours and modified starches
High shear processing capabilities allow starches to be cooked with great control. This creates applications which can generate high product value. Preconditioning prior to extrusion allows precooking and conditioning of amino-acid chains and long chain starches so that less energy is required in the extrusion process. Often used for meal substitutions and infant food, extrusion technologies can be used as a high-volume, low-cost solution.
Snacks
Directly expanded snacks are a key part of Extrusion-Link’s business and we offer processes for a range of snack types including uncoated, coated, and filled snacks.
Our extruders can process a wide range of materials used when producing snacks including standard wheat, corn, potato and rice recipes as well as innovative ingredients like high protein flours, pulses, grasses and ancient grains.
Our lines are economical, flexible, efficient, scalable, and easy to modify, which enables our customers to optimize output and maintain product quality.
Recipe and running parameters are stored and easily accessible so that start-up times are reduced, minimal waste is produced, and data is always available for BRC and ISO requirements.
Innovation in screw configurations and die design has led to a variety of textures in final products as well as a range of shapes being available such as balls, rings, curls, pillows. Additional dies for sheeting and chipsticks are also available.
Pillows
Extrusion-Link offers co-extrusion equipment as a clip-on addition, for easy changeover to added- value products. Available from 2- 12 streams our co-extrusion dies can produce empty or filled pillows and bars. Our innovative technology can create either smooth traditional pillows, or our own design “string” pillows which are similar in appearance to a Shreddie. This innovative product can be supplied as a short, crimped snack or as a bar to eat on the go.
Extruded snacks can come with many credentials especially if dried rather than fried. High protein snacks are in great demand in the consumer market as are baby and child friendly products. With access to such a flexible machine, snack manufacturers will be able to create unlimited snacking options.
Our ancillary equipment for snack manufacture includes, cutters, chipstick cutters, embossing rolls, coating drums, slurry application systems and dryers.
TVP/HMMA
The demand for plant-based meat replacements or substitutes has increased, driven by consumers looking to reduce their intake of meat, and for environmental and social reasons.
Typical ingredients used as meat replacers include proteins from soy, pea, and wheat.
Extrusion-Link can offer extrusion technology for both the production of high quality TVP (texturised vegetable proteins) and HMMA (high moisture meat analogues).
TVP is one of the most common forms of meat alternative on the market. It is extruded and then dried to ensure extended shelf life. The TVP is then rehydrated before use. It can come in the form of flakes, chunks or pellets depending on its intended use after rehydration.
HMMA is a relatively new product on the market, which fulfils the consumers desire to have a meat-like food both visually and texturally, whist not having to consume animal products. HMMA is extruded in slabs which are then cut and immediately chilled/frozen. They then go for further processing to prepare the desired shape ready for consumption.
Extrusion-Link’s twin-screw extruders allow our customers a vast amount of flexibility when creating products whilst being cost-effective and efficient. Changing screw profiles and increasing or decreasing the amount of shear within the process can alter the texture of the final product dramatically while having different shaped dies and cutting units can change the external profile to more desirable shapes. The ability to add water at different stages of the extrusion process creates desirable conditions for TVP and HMMA production.
For HMMA products we offer a long cooling die which is optimises conditions for texturization to occur.
At Extrusion-Link we can provide our customers equipment for TVP and HMMA from raw material acceptance to the end of the drying process.
We can supply lines from R&D scale to large production.
Aquafeed
When cultivating fish, Extrusion-Link recognises that it is essential for the fish to receive the correct level of nutrition at each stage of their growth cycle. Each type of feed has specific qualities relating to the age and breed of fish to reduce waste and maximise digestion and conversion rates.
Twin screw extrusion offers a great degree of flexibility and control during production. It allows the manufacturer to vary nutritional content, water absorbency and sinking rates of the feed to ensure that the maximum health of fish is sustained.
Extrusion-Link's aquafeed extruder offers both a gentle and controllable cooking process both inside and outside the extruder if required, as well as shaping and cutting of the product, which is essential to maintain the properties of the feed.
Control of sink rates is facilitated by our pressure control valve.
At Extrusion-Link we design and manufacture twin screw extruders and dryers and have highly competent partners for all the process technologies required for complete lines.
We also offer process recipe formulation and process development.
Recent projects have included fingerling feed, sea bass and organic salmon production.
Extrusion-Link has supplied dies which can produce pellets as small as 0.5mm, with output levels nearing 2T/hr. The EL100 has proven to be the most popular with machines in Vietnam, Holland, Northern Ireland, and Greece.
Higher output lines for bigger pellets up to 15T/hr are available.
