Koenig Won an “iba Award” for Robotics

Austrian bakery machine manufacturer Koenig won the highly competitive “iba Award” in the “Robotics” category at iba, the world’s leading trade fair for the bakery industry.

Koenig was recognized for its AI-controlled iSCORE bread scoring system. An international jury of experts concluded that the novelty from the Austrian company perfectly combines both tradition and innovation, especially thanks to its intuitive and fast operation.

Before the baking process, pieces of bread and pastries are traditionally cut in order to achieve an attractive and even decoration. Until now, this process was usually carried out manually, a labor-intensive process with sometimes high-quality fluctuations. With Koenig’s automated scoring process, bakeries can save valuable resources such as personnel, time and dough.

Koenig’s iSCORE scans each individual dough piece and uses AI to calculate the perfect cuts. This also makes it possible to individualize bread, which is a significant competitive advantage, especially today in an increasingly competitive market. iSCORE works with 3 different cutting systems on a robot arm that can make up to 12,000 cuts per hour, adapted to each individual dough piece. In addition, every bakery can easily and intuitively customize bread with this system.

“The trade fair in Munich was a great success for our company with visitors from all over the world and an extraordinarily high level of interest in high-quality bakery technology. Winning the iba Award crowns our efforts and motivates our entire team. This is yet another sign that Koenig is one of the leading suppliers of bakery technology,” says CEO Wolfgang Staufer.

Koenig was founded in Graz in 1966 by Dipl.-Ing. Helmut Koenig and has sold more than 52,000 machines in 110 countries around the world to date. The Koenig Group has a total of around 720 employees, approximately 255 of whom work at the headquarters.

The product range covers the entire production chain of bakery technology: from mixing, dividing and rounding, forming and proofing to baking, cooling and freezing. Koenig offers machines for commercial bakeries in these categories and in recent years has also positioned itself as a leading supplier of industrial systems and large turnkey systems for the production of baked goods.