A Comprehensive Comparison Between Different Noodle Production Lines

Noodles have a long history and diversified categories as the important part of global food culture. Different noodle production line technology is more and more mature to meet the needs of different market. This paper makes a systematic assessment on the current mainstream noodle equipment line in the aspect of technical principle, scope of application, product characteristics, economic benefits, future development trend and so on, in order to provide objective reference for the relevant enterprises and help them to make scientific decisions in the equipment selection and technology upgrading.

Type the water content of the noodle: dry noodle production line and fresh noodle production line

1.1 technical principle and process flow: dry noodle production line, the main production of noodles,Longke noodles and other low moisture noodle. It Mainly consists of: material mixer (and flour), rolling molding, strip molding, drying (or dry). The core technologies are accurately controlling moisture content of dough, and controlling temperature and humidity of the reservation process, so that the storage of raw noodles can be stable. Fresh Noodle Production Line is suitable for wet noodle production that retains a high moisture content such as ramen, udon, etc. It consists of raw material mixing, calendering, cutting or stretching, and subsequent preservation treatment (e.g. refrigeration, air conditioning package). This can be achieved by keeping the freshness of noodles, managing microbes, and increasing shelf life.

1.2 Product characteristics and application scenarios: Dry noodles have the characteristics of easy storage, convenient transportation, long shelf life, and suitable for long-distance transportation and home kitchen reserve. Fresh noodles are delicious and the nutrition is preserved more completely, but the shelf life is short, need cold chain transportation and storage, mainly for the high taste demand, pursue of fresh users and catering service industry.

1.3 Comparison of economic benefits dry noodle production line equipment investment is relatively low, operating costs are more controllable, suitable for large-scale production, economic benefits mainly reflected in the yield advantage. The investment in fresh noodle production line equipment is higher, the health conditions are strict, the preservation cost is also higher, but the added value of the product is higher, the economic benefits are mainly reflected in the profit space brought by the high unit price.

Classification by molding process: extruded surface production line and non-extruded surface production line

Difference of forming principle 2.1 extrusion This kind of forming line is a kind of extruded surface production line, which extruded the dough wih the formation of a certain shape through extrusion machine to shaping to suit for pasta, screw noodles and other special-shaped noodles. Controlling the pressure, temperature and mold design of the extruder are key to achieving the desired shape and texture. The non-extruded surface production line, which is basically made by calendering and cutting process molding, is more suitable for the production of noodles, cut noodles and other strips.

2.2 Product variety and ability to innovate: the extrusion surface production line can produce a variety of shapes of noodles with different molds, which has higher variety of products and can be adjusted according to the market demand for new products, and its ability to innovate is stronger. The non-extruded surface production line has a relatively simple production line and product shape, but it can realize product differentiation through adjusting the flour ratio or adding auxiliary materials.

2.3 Equipment maintenance and operation complexity: extrusion surface production line, the precision of equipment and maintenance requirements are higher, the operation is relatively complex, the need to have professional and technical personnel to maintain. Non-extrusion surface production line, structure is relatively simple, easy to operate and maintain, the technical level of the operator is relatively low.

Automated production lines are also classified according to the degree of automation: traditional manual production line and intelligent automatic production line

3.1 Differences in the level of automation Traditional manual production line, a large number of links rely on manual operation, low level of automation, production efficiency and product quality by the impact of human factors is very large. Adopt intelligent automatic production line, it adopts the automatic control system, achieves the full process automation from raw material feeding to finished product packaging, reduces the manual intervention, and improves the production efficiency and product quality stability.

3.2 Intelligent advantages and upgrade considerations: The intelligent production line uses sensors to monitor various production parameters in real time, then optimize production through data analysis, realize lean production, and reduce energy and material consumption. This allows businesses to remotely monitor and maintain their equipment, minimizing downtime and maximizing productivity. However, it is worth noting that intelligent automatic production line costs high in equipment investment and high requirements for technical personnel, so enterprises should comprehensively evaluate the financial strength, technical level and market demand of their enterprises, and then investment upgrade, prudently.

Future development trend: functional noodle production line and customized production line

4.1 Functional noodle processing line: As consumers attach more importance to healthy diet, it is a new trend to add dietary fiber, vitamins, minerals and other nutrients into noodle to enhance its nutrition [5]. The traditional noodle production line must be equipped with more precise additive control system in order to stimulate and optimize taste, flavor, etc. of noodles to meet the needs of consumers.

4.2 Customized production line: With the rapid development of Internet and e-commerce, consumers' demand for personalized customized products is increasing. To achieve small batch, multi-batch flexible production, door-to-door production of different specifications, different formulations, different packaging of noodle products, according to consumer preferences, production of different specifications, different formulations, different packaging of noodle products production capacity customized noodle production line, must have a high degree of flexibility and fast switching ability.

Of course, we focus on noodle production line, and the noodle production line has its own characteristics producing different types of noodle line, when selecting equipment, enterprises should not only consider their own product positioning, the market demand, the financial strength, the technical reserves and future development planning and other factors. Under the background of the development of the new mode of noodle industry, the industrialization level of noodle production line is promoted, noodle production lines will tend to intelligent, green, functional and personalized, so that consumers can enjoy more diversified, higher quality, personalized noodle food.attributes. For the enterprises, they need to embrace new technology and innovate on the existing ones to survive in the intensely high market competition.