STM Microtec provides integrated solutions and testing for grinding and dosing since 1971. A wide and comprehensive range of customized services, from single machines to complete packages for many industrial applications.
For the food industry, STM Microtec provides solutions for protein shifting, i.e. the ultra-fine grinding and classification process that splits protein from starch resulting in special flours with a high protein concentration.
The demand for protein foods is increasing enormously, that is why it cannot be met just by animal sources.
In addition, due to the high impact that animal protein production has on the environment, the food industry is experimenting with different ways of incorporating alternative protein sources to traditional ones.
Therefore, the food industry is increasingly resorting to proteins of plant origin from legumes, nuts, cereals and by-products of the food industry.
Thanks to the protein shifting, it is possible to grind and classify a product ultra finely so that the protein separates from the starch. The result is obtaining special flours with a high protein concentration, an ideal basis for the production of products such as vegetable burgers, baby food, milk substitutes and food supplements.
In order to obtain vegetable proteins of high quality, it is necessary to use milling and classification processes that can be realized with STM Microtec’s technologies.
There are multiple milling and classification possibilities for the production of protein-rich flour concentrates that vary according to the product to be micronised and selected:
- Impact mill with dynamic classifier JCF series, a new combined equipment, consisting of a grinding part with horizontal geometry and a dynamic selector in one compact machine.
- MP/MPC-Series Pin Mill: material is fed between a fixed and a rotating disc, or between two counter-rotating facing rotors bearing rows of suitably sized and spaced steel pins Grinding is by impact, without product selection.
- Dynamic classifier SDF series, an air dry selection machine, equipped with a double air intake and a horizontally installed centrifugal classifier rotor.
In addition to these technologies, STM also offers the Galileo Line: a multi-function laboratory plant that combines grinding and selection, ideal for research and development activities and where processes happen in small batches.
STM has a Pilot Plant where the performance of the technologies can be simulated and verified varying the input material and the operating and process parameters, adapting the solutions to every need.