Despite the unique challenges new ingredients bring to cracker makeup, bakers still need to produce a homogenous and quality dough sheet with accurate thickness and weight.
“Cracker producers tell us that the principal challenge on the makeup line is consistently achieving an even dough piece weight across the complete width of the line,” Mr. Graham said.
Sheeting and laminating solves a plethora of production issues.
“While the thickness of the sheet may be corrected by the gauge rolls, density will not be, as no lateral force is applied,” Mr. Graham continued. “The direction of the dough sheet flow through the gauge rolls is ahead, not sideways.”
Baker Perkins starts a dough sheet off with a three-roll sheeter feeding either a laminator or the gauge rolls. The three rolls create a pressure chamber to compress the dough to achieve even density. An adjustable gap controls the sheet thickness.
Crackers are particularly susceptible to weight accuracy issues due to their small and thin product size, Mr. Nagel said. Toppings such as seeds and applied cheese, as well as the harder dough type typical of these products, further complicate things. Fritsch has equipped its sheeting and makeup lines to handle these types of dough with accuracy and dough sheet evenness, delivering weight control and maintaining high throughput.
Spooner Vicars also responded to these challenges with its asymmetric sheeter. Four heavy-duty rolls arranged in an asymmetrical cascade allow the dough to be compacted in two separate chambers and reduced in thickness twice. After the sheeter, the dough sheet goes through the APEX 400 laminator with two sets of gauge rolls and long relaxation conveyors.
“These allow the dough to properly release the stresses generated,” Mr. Nelson said. “This prevents the individual crackers from shrinking and distorting during the baking process.”
