Durum wheat’s origins go back to 5,000 BC. For about 1,500 - 2,000 years it has been considered an important cultivated plant and also has a long worldwide export tradition. In the Mediterranean area, and especially in southern Italy, it has left significant footprints in the art of bread and pasta making. Great gastronomic creations based on this wheat are rooted deeply in artisan tradition. Today they also rely on the best technology and the most careful production processes, thus maintaining high quality standards and flavours.
Semolificio Loiudice was founded by Massimo Loiudice in Altamura, Italy in 1939. The mill is now run by Massimo, his daughters Clelia and Maria, and his nephew Antonio. They are aware of the importance of the latest technology for processing the best durum wheat for producing fresh and dry pasta. This year, the well-known miller renewed one of the two grinding sections and installed new GEA machines. The 14 GEA Synthesis Rollermills and 10 GEA Puriswing Purifiers raises the plant’s capacity to 750 tons per day. This investment strengthens the company’s reputation of safe and certified products, quality and a tradition of high-quality ingredients. With a history of more than 80 years, Loiudice is aligned with high standards to ensure more sustainable and efficient production methods, and for the precise control and processing of raw materials, which preserve and enhance product quality. GEA shares and supports this goal by constantly evolving technology and know-how. Today, Semolificio Loiudice supplies both artisanal manufacturers of bread and pasta, and the main Italian industrial pasta manufacturing groups, delivering a safe and certified product that brings the tradition and quality of Italian gastronomic culture to the world.
The company has already relied on the GEA technology in the early days of the company's history. After a fire destroyed the family’s mill in 1962, third-generation owner Massimo decided to partner with Sangati, a leading brand in the design and production of milling plants, now part of the GEA Grain Milling Technologies business unit: with the erection of a new mill equipped with two grinding units, the plant raises the standards of efficiency, reliability and quality. In 1994 the company’s market position was strengthened, as an ever-rising demand and increases in stock of durum wheat called for a major investment to increase production capacity. As a result, Loiudice bought a grain silage plant a few kilometres from Altamura and began building the new mill. Between 1999 and 2000, two modern GEA grinding units (formerly Golfetto Sangati product brand) were installed, thereby further boosting performance and capacity. Now with the fourth-generation family members at the helm, and looking towards the future with increasingly innovative technology, Loiudice has again turned to GEA for its latest step forward.
Modern GEA technology secures efficient processes for high-quality products
GEA’s most popular, high-performance rollermill on the market, Synthesis comes in 2, 4 and 8 roll versions, a grinding roll diameter of 250mm or 300mm and milling length: 800mm – 1000mm – 1250mm and 1500mm. Cereal milling process consists of the pre-breaking, breaking, reduction and scratch of cereal kernel and semi-finished products such as the bran. All these steps are carried out by this machine, by varying rolls, feeding system and parameters.
Product that has already been tempered to be milled, is conveyed to the rollermill feeding hopper where infrared sensors detect the quantity of the product inside and the amount of product falling into the feeding rolls, which is automatically regulated by the chute and the feeding rolls. The even distribution and product flow are adjusted by a detecting system which reads not only the quantity but the quality (granulometry, specific weight, shape, etc.) of the product.
From the arrival of the grain to the departure of the products, the entire transformation process is scrupulously checked. The product enters the machine through the bell tank, from which it is conveyed to the feeder rolls and then to the grinding cylinders. A pneumatic system is used for automatic engagement/disengagement of the milling rolls and for regulating grinding distance, using a graduated hand-operated wheel.
The operator panel makes it easy to check the milling parameters and the main data, such as the power absorption of the transmission motors. On the Touch Screen version, the panels on either side also control the opposite side. Infrared probes unaffected by dust can detect the presence or absence of product in the bell tank, so the grinding rolls can be engaged or disengaged accordingly.
The Puriswing Purifier is designed to clean products coming from the Plansichter (screening machine) to select semolina with different granulometries. The product falls into a feeding box where it is evenly distributed into a sieving area with vibration effect. Here it is divided into product that goes through the sieves and those that go to the waste chute. The latter contains a series of moving flaps that can differentiate the waste destination according to diagrammatic needs. The semolina that goes through the sieves can be directed to the chosen unloading chute.