Barilla Mexico opened the doors of its new modern pasta factory for 70.000 tons per year production to the selected guests arrived in Mexico for the important event. A plant engineered and built in record time: in eleven months a factory of about 12.000 square metres was built and all the lines for production and packaging of pasta (both short-cut and long-cut) were manufactured, installed and started up at full capacity. Pasta is traded under the local brands Yemina and Vesta and also under Barilla brand, which is well known and distributed all over the world.
“At a distance of months from the beginning of project development” said Mr. Gianluca Bolla, CEO of Barilla Alimentare “we can confirm the effectiveness of our choices as regards both the performance and the productivity of the installed lines and the quality of the final product”.
Pavan Group (Galliera Veneta, Italy) supplied on turn-key basis the production and packaging lines.
“The full accomplishment of the required time and specifications to customize the plant is for us a reason for great satisfaction, confirmed by the confidence granted by of the worldwide leader in pasta production, well-known for the attention paid to the quality of the final product and to the equipment productivity” said Mr. Andrea Cavagnis, CEO of Pavan Group.
In the same perspective comes the established T.A.S drying technology - result of tests and experiences made at the Pavan Research Centre - which is constantly devoted to the development of up-to-date technical and technological solutions to anticipate and satisfy the market needs.

Thanks to the new series of dryers for short cut pasta lines the product passes through alternate stages of active drying and stabilizing. The thermo-hygronometric conditions are strictly and constantly controlled. The duration of every single phase can be set according to the chosen drying diagram. Temperatures and humidity can be alternatively increased or decreased according to step diagrams. Hence a better colour and cooking performance, wider range of product shapes, shorter processing times and consequently reduced space requirements and reduced energy consumption. The dried product is absolutely stable and has got no remaining internal tensions; it’s therefore ready to be packed and to a long conservation.
The TAS – HP dryer is divided into 4 environmental zones: two for the rapid drying and two for active stabilization. The product passes many times from one zone to the other. Hence a more steady product, a definite improvement in the cooking performance and a better colour of the product.
Excess humidity can be transferred from a zone to another thanks to an integrated software. In this way the thermohygronometric conditions are constant without resorting to expensive external humidification plants.
The shape and the arrangement of the ventilation stations and the high number of times the product gets remixed all guarantee product treatment uniformity. Thanks to these characteristics, the dryer is an advantageous replacement for all machines for short cut pasta production.
In consideration of the H.A.C.C.P. (Hazard Analisys Critical Control Point) regulations the machine is almost totally made of stainless steel (corrosionproof) and the pasta conveyor belts are in high performance thermoresistant material used in aerospace and medical-surgical sectors.
The pasta line is computerized and managed by PLC and a supervision system

Some characteristics of TAS technology applied to Pavan long cut pasta line are a unique feature in the market and they are: the concept of a single motor, the mechanical synchronization, the smooth product advancing with gentle motions in each product passage, without any hang ups even with the highest speed.

The technological flexibility is now further enhanced by being able to achieve the technological drying cycle that can be preset at user’s discretion: the process cycle can be short or prolonged, using high or very high temperature, being adapted in this way to the specific requirements of the producer, increasing the possibility to customize the products.
The increase in product density in the dryer allows a remarkable increase in the yield per square meter of utilized surface in the production area. The TAS – HP solution can replace existing lines with a lower production capacity, while staying in the same space.
The assembly timing are the minimum ones: modularity and the use of preassembled blocks already fitted with service plants, make the installation of the dryer very quick and easy, ensuring at the same time high degree of reliability.
The maintenance procedures are simplified and reduced to the minimum thanks to the mechanisms located in internal areas with respect to the process area. The large flat internal and external surfaces and the exclusive use of stainless steel enable washing and cleaning procedures. The contamination hazard of the product is in fact reduced to zero.

By planning and producing integrated plant for producers worldwide, Pavan acquired a wide experience based on the deep knowledge of the problems of the pasta industry all over the world and on the developped solutions. The development of the valuable know-how is also based on the activities of the internal R&D Centre and on scientific research projects at international level. At Pavan Headquarters there’s also a laboratory registered in the Accredited Laboratories list of M.I.U.R. (Ministry of Universities for R&D); four industrial processing lines and four pilot plant lines are used for testing.
The Pavan School of Food Technologies uses these facilities also for the top level training courses and to develop projects in cooperation with many Universities in Italy and abroad and with public institutions such as Italian Institute of Nutrition, Ministry of University and Scientific Research; FAO, UNIDO (United Nations Industrial Development Organization).