Conveyor belts for the production of bread, buns and bread rolls

1. Mixing & Feeding Dough

Once the dough is mixed, hoppers feed it into the production process. These hoppers can be lined with hygienic belting material. Various forming processes then follow.

Our Solution

We offer conventional fabric-based and homogenous belt types for dough feed. These comply with the required food-safety specifications. A range of coating materials such as PU or polyolefin guarantee high standards of hygiene, excellent grip, and release properties.

They are MHLW-, EU- and FDA-compliant and easy to clean. We’d be happy to seal the belt edges (with Smartseal). Or our special Frayfree design guarantees that even unsealed belt edges won’t fray.

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2A. Forming Bread Rolls/Buns

Now your bread rolls/buns are given their shape. First of all, they’re divided into portions before various processes form them into the shape desired. This is frequently performed by a process known as rounding. After forming, the pieces of dough are sent to the intermediate proofer and ingredients can be sprinkled on them if desired.

Our Solution

We have several belt types suitable for bread-roll/bun-forming: Depending on your forming, conveying and intermediate proofing requirements, our fabric-based, elastic, and homogenous belts, or plastic modular belts, have the required grip and food properties.

2B. Forming Loaves

Rounding or forming with belts in opposing directions lend the pieces of dough their typical loaf shape. Some of these are processed further in molds afterward.

Our Solution

We want to ensure that you end up with a loaf that meets your requirements. Consequently, we can offer you multiple fabric-based, elastic, and homogenous belts for the processing and conveying tasks you need. These belts are tailored to your conveying, food-safety and forming requirements.

3. Proofing

Before baking, all sourdough loaves are left to proof. During this period, any stretching or vibrating of the dough must be avoided. As this process takes quite a lot of time, slow, cascading conveyors or spiral towers are used. Discontinuous proofing processes without conveyor belts are also used.

4. Oven In-Feed and Out-Feed Belts

After proofing, the pieces of dough go straight into the oven. They are baked until golden brown. While the loaves, buns and bread rolls are still hot, an out-feed belt takes them off for further processing.

5. Depanners

Dough in molds needs to be removed after baking. In automated processes, this step is carried out by a vacuum belt above the conveyor. Suction cups on the belt attach themselves to the loaves and lift them out of the mold.

At the end of the vacuum belt, the suction cups place the shaped loaves on the next belt.

6. Cooling Section

Before they are put into piles and packaged, the baked goods cool down on the cooling section and the surfaces dry. Curved conveyors are often added to the relatively long cooling sections.

Our Solution

You can use our fabric-based conveyor belts (Siegling Transilon) as heat-resistant cooling belts. These are easy to clean, EU- and FDA-compliant and come with optional belt edge sealing (Smartseal).

Curved belts with fabric tension members have enhanced fabric designs (e.g. are longitudinally and laterally flexible). They are made of several segments, resulting in a good distribution of force in the belt.

Our plastic modular belts (Siegling Prolink) with heat-resistant surfaces are also ideal as cooling belts. They can also be supplied for straight and curved sections. Belt types with large open areas improve cooling of the baked goods and are also excellent for use in very low temperatures.

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7. Detection and Packaging Processes

Before your loaves, buns and bread rolls are cut, packaged and sealed, a range of methods is used to spot any foreign bodies in the products. These detection processes can be integrated at various points in the production process.

If everything’s in order, products are weighed and packaged appropriately for sale. The products are usually packaged in bags or trays and then wrapped. Depending on the machinery and the product, the products are then labeled, wrapped and/or repackaged and deep frozen if necessary.

Our Solution

Special surface characteristics make the portioning and wrapping process easier and more reliable. Special finishes for check-weigher belts provide extremely precise splices of the same thickness. Antistatic or non-antistatic belts are available for metal detectors, depending on requirements. To ensure safe x-raying, belts with a high friction coefficient on the top face are used so that the equipment’s safety curtain can pass through without the products on the conveyor belt slipping.

The food-grade (Prolink) series, made of polyoxymethylene (POM) from series 13 for instance, or polyethylene (PE), from series 14 for example, have exceptional service lives when products need to be deep frozen.

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