AMT is the answer to the last 150 years of pasta technology history and we have met the modern needs of companies, that is, to ensure the maximum safety of food hygiene and interconnection of systems for streamlined management of production processes.
We have gone through all the scientific and industrial developments from the 19th century, when the dies were still made of copper, to modern times, where we can see with extreme precision the microstructures, the viscoelasticity of the dough and the denaturation of the proteins according to the extrusion temperature.

The scientific works published on pasta extrusion phenomena are numerous and have followed one another in particular since the post-war period. The technologies to analyze in-depth the protein structures and quality indexes of raw materials are more recent and many works prior to modern discoveries have been revisited because of their discrepancies.

It was only after the 1990s, thanks to the precious work of Professor Joël Abecassis, published by the American Association Cereal Chemist, that it was possible to determine which factors affect the quality of pasta and how these had to be balanced respecting a precise mathematical model.
Abecassis's equation established the technical basis of modern extrusion processes but it was he who pointed out a crucial lack in his formula, namely the need to control the temperature of the die. The temperatures of the dies during his experiments recorded a too wide variation that prevented the achievement of stable and precise measurements. However, taking the average values ​​of the temperatures, he was able to quantify the loss of quality of the final product as a function of the temperature, arriving at the following definition: the more the temperature of the die increased, at unchanged extrusion speed, the more the proteins crumbled during cooking with consequent loss of starch, substantially meaning a more "sticky" paste.

In his conclusions, Professor Abecassis reported:

• “ The extrusion temperature is the main factor responsible for quality degradation.Controlling the temperature of the paste during extrusion appears to be the easiest way to achieve a satisfactory product".
• The increase in semolina hydration brings beneficial effects in all quality parameters due to the reduction in viscosity reduction in viscosity”
• At high temperatures and with the increasing extrusion speed, the quality of the finished product improves due to the reduction in residence time”

In 2019 the industrial patent that revolutionized the concept of pasta extrusion was registered in Italy, confirming and satisfying the technical shortcomings already denounced in the scientific field. Finally, the temperature of the dies can be controlled in a precise and effective way thanks to Airlight™ technology Airlight™ dies.