An industrial designer from Colombia has created a machine able to make 60 savory Colombian pastries per minute, an invention that is being exported to the United Stated and other countries.
Carlos Mario Maya, founder of a company that supplies air compressed systems, is now selling a machine producing up to 60 empanadas per minute as well as up to 200 arepas (flat cornbread) per minute.
An empanada is a Colombian traditional pastry, a turnover filled with meat or cheese. The pastry, with Arabic roots and variants across the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking world, is one of Colombia’s staple delicacies.
MORE: Colombian McDonald’s to sell empanadas
Better for workers
Usually, making these savory goods by hand would take hours of manual labor, with the fillings being put into the soft pastry one by one.
“This changes the life of workers, not only because it produces more empanadas but it does so in less time,” said Maya.
Maya stressed the importance of the automation of this machinery as workers will no longer develop health conditions such as wrist injuries.
“People making empanadas often complain of wrist pains but with this machinery the only thing the workers have to do is take the already made empanadas out and fry them.” Maya told Colombia Reports.
International demand
The ingenious invention has already been sold to 28 clients around Colombia and exported in Panama and the United States. Maya told Colombia Reports there is also demand from US, Australia, Spain and other European countries.
Maya, whose machines produce empanadas in New York, Miami and New Jersey, said that it all started when a client from Colombia asked him to create a machine able to fabricate many of these pastries in short time. The industrial designer saw the advantages of this type of machinery and is now a successful exporter both national and international.
The machinery, with adjustable speed and different options of fillings, significantly reduces the manual work, it increases the production capacity, it reduces work related injuries and energetic costs.
Another particular thing about Maya’s invention is that all its design and assemblage is made through compressed air. The industrial designer company to produce air compressed systems is the only of its kind in Latin America.
Sources
- Interview with Carlos Mario Maya (Colombia Reports)