While artisan bakers have long been skeptical of automation’s ability to do their jobs, the dwindling labor pool is forcing them to adopt it. With the way technology has improved, there’s been less to worry about in terms of hindering product quality. 

“Due to the delicate nature of the product, precision baking and control of parameters is essential to produce at the quality our customers demand,” said Matt Zielsdorf, global category manager, specialty bread and pastries, Middleby Bakery Group. “The advances in architecture allow us to set and monitor the baking process in ways that were not achievable at an affordable price even just a decade ago.”

Zielsdorf explained that consistency in quality starts with recipe control, which ensures the process is starting from consistent setups. Smart devices provide feedback and monitoring of individual machines to minimize product deviation.  

“Finally, we take the feedback of individual machines, share that data up and down the line over the communication network to control line speed, stops, and create feedback loops to ensure floor time and pace of product creation and portioning is consistent on each dough going through the line,” he said. 

All of this helps ensure that the process is consistent and producing the same loaves of artisan bread or rolls every production run. The dough structure of these long-fermentation products, however, is delicate and easily damaged.

“Most makeup systems involve dividing and shaping a large mass of dough into a specific weight and shape,” said Jerry Murphy, vice president of sales, Gemini Bakery Equipment. “One negative impact of these steps is generally degas-sing of the dough. Features such as ram pressure regulation, reduced pressure feedback loops and servo control for fine adjustments help reduce the negative impacts on the dough.”

Gentle systems are key for not de-gassing the dough, which results in a damaged cell structure. John Giacoio, Rheon USA, pointed out that Rheon’s stress-free systems gently handle the dough so it is not degassed. Another key, especially in rounding, is mimicking the pressuring and movement of human hands on the product.  

At last year’s iba trade show in Germany, Mecatherm launched its M-RT moulder, which keeps dough pieces in constant motion. 

“This equipment offers the bakers the possibility to get thin, shiny crust and better aromas thanks to its moulding technology keeping dough pieces in constant motion during production,” said Franck Ellenbogen, sales director North America, Mecatherm.

The moulder incorporates an iso-thermal enclosure for the intermediate proofer that controls temperature and humidity, preventing dough from drying out and sticking. This allows easy transfers of dough to the resting chamber and during moulding. 

Consistency is the main benefit automation brings. Quality encompasses texture and taste but also accurate dough pieces and maintaining the same quality across an entire production run. 

“With stress-free AMF Tromp Sheeting Lines, we utilize intuitive recipe management software to deliver repeatable product quality with improved methods for control-ling product weight and dough quality to ensure deviation per dough piece is minimized,” said Diana Boxey, global marketing director, AMF Bakery Systems. “Innovative automation solutions like a patented process for flour dusting that prevents oil from touching the product, flour removal from the bottom of the dough sheet, inline rounding systems and the use of robots for specific tasks/actions significantly reduce labor costs while improving product consistency.”

Consistency in quality comes not just from the sheeting line, but the entire production process. Sheeting lines thrive when a high-quality dough is delivered to their hop-pers.

“This begins in the ingredient staging area and carries through baking and cooling,” Nick Magistrelli, vice president of sales, Rademaker USA . “This is made possible with correctly configured makeup lines and properly managing the transfers once the breads are formed.”

The latest in controls technology helps bakers track their production processes all the way through sheeting, forming and cutting. 

“Your controls should allow you to know what’s happening in the process,” said David Kollar, senior regional sales manager, Rondo North America. “More information gives you more control over the end product.”

Rondo lines feature sensors, feed-back loops, cascade control and visual displays on the HMI to enable bakery operators to maintain consistency across their artisan bread products. 

AMF’s Bakery Intelligence portfolio of smart, digital and machine-learning automation solutions aims to improve product consistency, reduce downtime and minimize errors and waste. On top of this, it can also help bakers reduce their carbon emissions and employee turnover. 

A vulnerable point for artisan bread is always the divider. It’s another moment for the dough to be de-gassed and where consistency of weights can come under fire. 

“I would like to think that automation is the only way to ensure a consistent product quality,” Giacoio said. “When I visit a bakery making artisan breads by hand and I see them dividing dough with 16 employees using scales and scrapers, I know we can give them a better result using our stress-free dividers.” 

Rheon does this with a conveyor with load cells that weigh the dough sheet and alert the guillotine when the target weight has been reached. A guillotine then cuts the dough sheet gently without damaging the dough’s structure.  

“With other products, we can cut by dimension, but this is usually not the case with a high-hydration, long-floor-time dough because it is changing so fast,” Giacoio explained. 

Mecatherm designed its M-NS divider to provide a gentle mechanical action on the dough so it portions the dough without stretching it. After being cut by the guillotine at the desired volume according to the automatically calculated dough density, the weight is continuously measured and dough pieces that do not match the weight target are automatically rejected.

Koenig uses intelligent sensor technology placed at critical points — conveyor belts, rest dough re-turn, dough piece setting — to ensure high weight accuracy and avoid stops or gaps. The company’s built-in scaling system on its sheeting lines also continuously coordinates cutting the dough sheet to the appropriate weight.

The Progressa bread line from Fritsch, a Multivac company, weighs the dough sheet before it’s cut and then the dough pieces im-mediately after. The guillotine is only released onto the dough sheet once the target weight is reached. The dough sheet is then cut into individual pieces, which are immediately weighed again. This enables any deviations to be immediately corrected.

This article is an excerpt from the September 2024 issue of Baking & Snack. To read the entire feature on Artisan Bread Processing, click here.