C F Controls, develop, supply and install high level process monitoring systems that when either added to existing bakery lines or incorporated into new lines. These system are now proven to optimize productivity, help minimize waste and ensure product quality and consistency

Our range of products included the industry standard Double Dough Detection System, Carbonised Dough / Foreign Body detection and State of the art vision systems which monitor and control various processes including bake colour, product shape, size, texture and coverage.

While some companies do offer less expensive alternatives to the C F Controls systems, the products and services offered by the UK company have proven themselves many times over and are for many of the largest producers of baked product including RHM’s British Bakeries and ABF’s Allied Bakeries the preferred supplier.

How do systems your company develops relate to conveying belts (on which principles do they work?)?

We work with many suppliers of conveyors and handling equipment, often when detection, or positioning is required, which may be a little of the suppliers scope where often the case is a customer will insist that ‘X’ does the conveyor and C F Controls do the Double Dough Detection or Colour and Height Analysis. In this instance we work to the customer’s specification directly with the conveyor supplier.

What are pros of your products?

Our systems have much higher detection rates, are far more accurate and robust than ‘standard’ equipment.

Many of our systems include components or sensors that are made to our own specification and are not available ‘off the shelf’.

What are consumers' demands in that regard (who are your clients and what do they look for in your products, as well as what are their major concerns)?

Our customers demand the highest levels of detection, whether it be the complete detection of Double Dough, the highly accurate monitoring of Bake Colour or measuring texture / coverage.

Systems have been installed that work with Bread, Buns, Cakes, Croissants, Bagels,

Clients include;

Allied Bakeries
Braces Bakery
British Bakeries
Frank Roberts
Glanbia
Glockenbrot Bäckerei GmbH
Irwins Bakery
Mothers Pride
Warburtons

An area of increasing importance for many of our customers is CONSISTENCY, our products all but guarantee that what leaves the line is/was the same as yesterday, last week and is the same as its sister site in another part of the country.

How large is the market of your company (largely European, global?)?

Compared to many of the more established bakery equipment suppliers being almost six years old still does make us a relatively new company. There is a still an increasing demand for our level of service from our customers, and we are developing new systems all time.

Our market is growing all the time, with systems now installed across Europe and are currently speaking to bakeries in South Africa, Malaysia and Australia.

How does your company respond to demands of the bakery industry in terms of product novelities, also bearing in mind issues such as hygiene and maintenance?

We were recently tasked to build a Hot Cross Bun Crossing System. There are many of these on the market, but none could cross a tray of buns whilst the tray was still moving.

The one off system was built for the Irish market, where their customer (a premium food supplier) insisted that the ‘crossing’ had to be automated, but the bakery only had 2.3 meters between the prover and oven.

What are the big issues affecting your sector of the market today? Is there a kind of legislation which applies to the sector?

An issue some of our customers have is that we tend to introduce new technology to older processes, some people find this difficult to appreciate since their product may have been produced this we for many years.

Another common statement we often hear is “we’ve (or someone) have already tried to do that (check, monitor, reject) and it didn’t work”. But once one of our systems have been installed, word quickly spreads that there is a solution available and it does work.

Has the development of your products been influenced by (technological or any other) developments in the wider bakery industry? In Asia Pacific baking industry? In Europe?

C F Controls also supply similar technology to some of the worlds largest Medical companies including ‘Johnson and Johnson’, and Barloworld Scientific. These companies know when they ask us measure the fill level in a tray of 192 wells in less than three seconds to an accuracy of 10ul, or visually detect the melting point of a chemical to 0.5 oC that it will require such technologies as lasers, ultrasonic transducers and high resolution, high speed cameras.

When we first introduced ultrasonic sensors to the bakeries, they were sceptical, but as time moved on, they have seen our systems vastly improve efficiency and consistency and they have become more accepting of what we can do.