Baking & Snack - March 2006 - 70

PROCESSING TECHNOLOGY

Depositing

101

Knowing how cookie and filling
depositors work simplifies the selection
of optimum technology.
BY LAURIE GORTON
hen it comes to cookies, the right depositor "makes" the product. From relatively
simple dropping and cutting methods, the
technology improved to automate these operations. Sheeting, once the most common way to make
cookies, yielded to rotary moulding. Extrusion was enhanced with the addition of co-extrusion and encrusting
methods. Wire-cut units can now output at rates up to
300 rows per minute.
Today, many cookie depositors operate via PLC, and
some offer the option of linking to plant-wide SCADA
systems. PLC controls can be pre-loaded at the factory
with maintenance manuals and support maintenance
history and operator help functions.
The latest development in cookie and confectionery
depositing is a 3-axis system. Especially useful for creating marshmallow and meringue pieces and toppings,
the system controls the shape of its deposits in all three
dimensions. Nearly any solid shape is possible. Mechanically, the positive pressure manifold eliminates the problem of tailing, and the depositor does not drip. Motion
control of the machine and the conveyor below are controlled by the PLC for fully synchronized operation.
Knowing the basics of cookie depositing methods
helps when selecting technology for new products or for
improving production capabilities for current items.

SHEET OR MOULD? Giving a cookie an exact shape that
it will retain through the baking process requires use of
sheeting or rotary moulding systems.
Sheeted and cut (stamped). Keebler Vienna Fingers
and the Maria-style semi-sweet biscuits so popular in
South America are made by this method. The process

requires smooth,
cohesive doughs with
some gluten development.
Before moulding of such hard-sweet
biscuits can take place, the dough must first be
sheeted with at least one lamination stage to provide the
flakey, layered texture required of these products. Passing through a series of reduction rollers, the dough sheet
feeds into a reciprocating stamping and cutting head.
This assembly raises and lowers the heavy stamping/cutting head and is synchronized to travel along with the
belt carrying the sheet of dough. Some systems use a
2-step process: The first stamper embosses the dough
with the pattern of the finished cookie and may also dock
it to create small pin holes, while the second stamper cuts
out the finished shape. A scrap reclaim system sends the
excess material back to the feed hopper or mixer.
Sheeting is also the method used for small-scale preparation of "cut out" sugar cookies and similar products
made from sweeter doughs than used for Maria biscuits.
Rolled out on a pastry line using a reciprocating sheeter
or a couple reduction roller stands, the dough passes under a rolling cutter with shaped cutting cups. To prevent
the dough from hanging up inside the cutters, engineers

March 2006 / BAKING & SNACK / 73

Baking & Snack - March 2006

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