Scolari Engineering
Industry and continuous roasting, Milan, Italy.
History
Antonio Scolari founded the company “in the 1930s,” with no precise year; his son Dario runs it with Carlo, third generation, about seventy people. Two published dates: 1953, infrared roasters; 1955, the “Bava and Gamba” patent for drums. Nothing after.
It is the only manufacturer in the dossier to produce both drums and fluid beds, and to claim to have installed in 1986 “the world's first profile software,” which is a self-declaration. Registered office on Piazza della Repubblica in Milan, factory in Cinisello Balsamo; not to be confused with Scolari Srl, which makes dryers for soybeans and biomass.
What it makes
FIMT drums with hollow double wall, indirect heating and forced convection, with integrated cyclone and chaff incinerator; H.Y.C. fluid beds where the beans “float” in hot air; hot-air laboratory machines.
The models
FIMT 60 to FIMT 500 (the FIMT 120: 4 to 6 batches per hour, 480 to 720 kg/h, with an inconsistency between “120 kg” at the top of the sheet and “150 kg” in the table); HYC 100 and HYC 200 (the HYC 100 PLUS: 2,500 kg/h, cycles of 1 min 30 s for 70 kg to 6 minutes for 240 kg); Lab Roaster 1 kg and 10 kg.
What you gain
The fluid bed eliminates all prolonged contact with a wall and transfers very quickly: the manufacturer draws the argument from this that a 90-second cycle “prevents the escape of essential oils.” Offering in the same company an indirect drum and a fluid bed makes it possible to line up a fast line and a slow line with a single supplier.
What you lose
A 90-second roast leaves very little margin and very little time for slow reactions: an industrial choice, which the manufacturer half admits by setting its software “for espresso, in medium to dark roast.” The FIMT's double wall adds inertia and rewards anticipation.