New multidrive technology

Pavan pre­sent­ed his new mul­tidrive tech­nol­o­gy at this year’s Ipack-Ima. The new tech­nol­o­gy allows man­u­fac­tur­ers to make long cut pas­ta of unri­valled qual­i­ty at the same time deliv­er­ing ener­gy sav­ings and a reduced over­all foot­print. These results have been achieved through a num­ber of inno­v­a­tive fea­tures which deliv­er improved accu­ra­cy on work­ing para­me­ters across the line, lead­ing to top per­for­mance in dough for­ma­tion, pre-dry­ing and the dry­ing process.

Thermo Active System

Mul­tidrive tech­nol­o­gy applies an evolved ver­sion of the Ther­mo Active Sys­tem, an approach to dehu­mid­i­fi­ca­tion specif­i­cal­ly engi­neered by Pavan. TAS tech­nol­o­gy includes dry­ing and sta­bi­liza­tion stages. It main­tains the prod­uct in a plas­tic and porous state through­out the process and deters the Mail­lard reac­tion. The rapid reduc­tion in the water con­tent of the pas­ta and the pro­gres­sive tem­per­a­ture increase block the expan­sion of the starch­es and acti­vate pro­tein coag­u­la­tion, thus improv­ing col­or and cook­ing per­for­mance. Mul­tidrive tech­nol­o­gy is based on the con­tin­u­ous con­trol of ther­mo-hygro­met­ric con­di­tions, via the appli­ca­tion of very high gra­di­ents of tem­per­a­ture increase and decrease rates; opti­mized exhaust air extrac­tion and a mul­ti­ple pulse ven­ti­la­tion sys­tem. These fea­tures rep­re­sent an evo­lu­tion of the well-known Pavan Ther­mo Active Sys­tem technology.

Energy savings of 30%

Nor­mal­ly, the dry­ing phase requires more ener­gy on a pas­ta line than any oth­er phase; how­ev­er, the pre-dry­er and dry­er in the mul­tidrive line have been designed so that each flow of air extract­ed and inject­ed into the dry­er is opti­mized in terms of both quan­ti­ty and path in order to min­i­mize ther­mal dis­per­sion and to reduce the ener­gy required to bring the air to the cor­rect ther­mo-hygro­met­ric con­di­tion. As a result, the mul­tidrive tech­nol­o­gy guar­an­tees a glob­al ener­gy sav­ings of 30% com­pared to a tra­di­tion­al pas­ta line with the same capacity.

Stability, structural strength and cooking quality

The vac­u­um process min­i­mizes the devel­op­ment of reduc­ing sug­ars. This means less starch is released dur­ing cook­ing and less stick­i­ness. With total vac­u­um the hydra­tion of the semoli­na is more homo­ge­neous, there­by reduc­ing defects and white specs. The vac­u­um also allows for the addi­tion of a greater quan­ti­ty of water dur­ing the mix­ing stage which improves the for­ma­tion of gluten. The evap­o­ra­tion effect caused by the vac­u­um low­ers the tem­per­a­ture of the semoli­na dur­ing the mix­ing and extru­sion stages; this pre­vents ther­mal stress and results in a pas­ta which has bet­ter cook­ing performance.

Brighter colored pasta

The gen­tle shap­ing stage also results in pas­ta with brighter col­ors. The com­plete vac­u­um blocks the enzyme polyphe­nol oxi­dase which is respon­si­ble for the oxi­diza­tion of the semoli­na pig­ments, thus pre­serv­ing the amber yel­low col­ors impart­ed by the carotenoids and flavonoids. The vac­u­um also deac­ti­vates the enzyme lipoxy­ge­nase, which oth­er­wise will ren­ders col­ors grey and pro­motes the devel­op­ment of unpleas­ant odors due to the oxi­da­tion of the lipids. The par­tial deac­ti­va­tion of alpha and beta amy­lase leads to a reduced occur­rence of what’s known as the Mail­lard reac­tion where the pas­ta turns brown dur­ing drying.