Fritsch’s Product Decoration Unit (PDU) allows the gentle, precise molding of patterns on a variety of dough pieces, and does so regardless of their shape and weight
Usually, the FRITSCH plant constructor’s developers thought, solutions that function well in one area are also a good starting point in another area. That’s true, for example, for the croissant-bending robot, whose functioning principle is now also used, in a modified form, on the IMPRESSA bread, FRITSCH’s industrial bread line. It now makes the modular plant even more flexible with regard to the products it can make because the company developed an entirely new solution: the PDU decoration unit (“Product Decoration Unit”), based on the robotic engineering of the CBD croissant bending system. This allows patterns to be pressed or cut into the surface of products on the bread line, regardless of their shape and weight. Whether they are classical Kaiser rolls, rye rolls or products with individually customized anniversary or football patterns – creativity has scarcely any limits here.
A wide diversity of individual patterns can be shaped
SoftProcessing
In conjunction with the new PDU decoration unit, product quality represents an important characteristic feature of the IMPRESSA bread line. FRITSCH’s SoftProcessing technology enables the fully automatic production of large volumes of bread rolls. Gentle dough sheeting subjects the dough to only the most minimal stresses during the entire manufacturing process, to preserve its sensitive structures. As a result, doughs with a high dough hydration can be processed. According to the company, it can even process gluten-free dough types or rye doughs. Dough sheet preparation and processing before decoration need no proofer for intermediate dough piece relaxation, which not only increases the quality of the products and their hygienic standard, but also considerably reduces the space requirement.
Moreover, the decoration unit offers maximum flexibility regarding dough piece shape and weight. The new equipment can emboss decorations not only on round-molded products, but also on long-molded ones. As well as molded bread rolls, the dough pieces can also be punched out or cut, then given a pattern. The system’s possibilities are also almost unlimited with regard to product weight. The position of the products is recorded by a camera system, and the embossing or cutting tool is aligned at right angles to the conveyor belt’s direction of travel. The PDU decoration unit then travels to the position of the product, so as to apply the required pattern exactly in the center. As already happened with the croissant bender, the camera on the PDU ensures maximum operating precision. Furthermore, the decoration system acts as an autonomous unit, which not only reduces interfaces and thus synchronization difficulties, but even avoids them altogether, because due to the camera system, the machine works independently of the cycling of upstream components, thus minimizing rejects. However, the system also inspires confidence through its high capacity, because decorations can be pressed and/or cut into the surface of the product at up to 60 cycles/minute. With big lines, this allows the production of approx. 50,000 bread rolls per hour.
Examples of decoration for Kaiser rolls and sun rolls. Other decorations include the double cross, football, star, triple cut etc.
