When a commercial baker’s equipment could not keep up to meet holiday demands for Kringle, they turned to Triton Innovation, LLC to help them ramp up production.

First, this baker needed to upgrade their pastry line capacity to produce enough for the annual holiday surge. Second, flexibility was required to alternate between filling three and four rows of their dough with pecans—or other tasty fillings to create a variety of Kringle recipes. To make enough Kringle, it was imperative a fourth row of dough be added to their production line, but they also needed to retain their typical three-row capacity during the rest of the year. Third, efficiency was needed to make improvements in process and production rates.

Triton’s team of solution experts designed a custom Metering Hopper System on casters, which would cantilever over our customer’s pastry dough line. Production team members could roll the system over the dough line and conveniently fill the hopper in place with up to 100 pounds of pecans, meaning the production process could continue without stops or pauses to refill.

Adjustable position discharge chutes were designed to precisely direct the flow of pecans onto each row of moving dough, while variable speed Vibratory Feeders enabled line workers to individually adjust the dispensing rate. During typical production, the system dispersed pecans onto three rows of dough while a custom divider sealed off the fourth feeder. When demand was high, increasing production was made simple: Triton designed the hopper divider to be easily removed so that the system dispensed pecans and other fillings onto all four rows of their pastry dough.

This innovative, agile Metering Hopper System empowered the commercial baker to up their production levels 33%, fulfilling any surge of orders—and making the holidays even sweeter!