Rolling in Dough: How Precision Sheeting Keeps Bakeries Ahead of the Curve

Sheeting and laminating dough in industrial-scale bakery operations serves several purposes. The controlled reduction of dough thickness through successive rolling stages, interspersed with layers of fat or other ingredients, produces a distinct flakiness and lightness, which is a desirable trait in a myriad of baked goods such as croissants, puff pastries, and laminated breads. 

The process also ensures consistency in product quality and texture, essential for meeting consumer expectations and fostering brand loyalty. By mechanizing the process, bakeries can achieve reproducibility at scale, minimizing variations in dough thickness and fat distribution.

Moreover, automated equipment, ranging from dough sheeters to laminators, enables high-speed processing while maintaining precise control over critical parameters such as dough thickness and layering.

In artisan-style production, however, the emphasis shifts towards preserving traditional techniques and artisanal craftsmanship. While industrial-scale bakeries may opt for fully automated systems, artisanal bakers often rely on manual skill and expertise to execute the sheeting and laminating process by hand. This approach allows for greater customization and creativity, resulting in unique pastry creations cherished by discerning consumers.

Large-scale production presents its share of challenges, nonetheless. Managing huge volumes of dough while maintaining consistent quality demands sophisticated equipment and robust process controls. Factors such as dough elasticity, temperature, and humidity can influence the outcome, necessitating careful monitoring and adjustments throughout production.

Furthermore, achieving uniform layering and fat distribution across the dough sheet requires precision engineering and adherence to strict tolerances. Any deviations can compromise product integrity and result in suboptimal baked goods. Hence, bakery equipment manufacturers play a pivotal role in developing advanced technologies tailored to the needs of industrial-scale sheeting and laminating.

Flexibility vs. Yield

According to equipment manufacturer Rademaker, a proper lamination process results in a perfectly flat and homogeneous dough sheet with evenly spaced fat layers. This enables high quality production of croissants & pastries with the ultimate weight accuracy and highly reproducible product shape & size. “The Rademaker laminators are designed to deliver the best possible quality dough sheet for industrial production facilities running at the highest output,” the company’s experts point out.

Various laminating methods can be applied in the Rademaker sheeting and laminating lines. From lapping to cut & stack or simply folding, everything is possible to cater the specific needs of the end user. “With this wide range of applications, Rademaker can live up to the requirements for any number of layers. Moreover, it enables line configurations with the necessary layout to fit in an existing production facility. Finally, also any required dough sheet width and final thickness can be arranged by configuring the various production modules in a custom set-up,” Rademaker adds.

Due to the modular configuration possibilities of the Rademaker sheeting & lamination production lines, it is possible to create a wide range of solutions. According to the company, from the smallest block processor up to an extremely high capacity and fully automatic laminator, any solution can be configured based on the same high quality components. “The resulting production lines are known for durability and robustness, which is resulting in world class efficiency. On top of that, any combination with croissant & pastry make-up line is possible, creating the optimal flexibility for a huge variety of production situations.”

The Radini System

The Radini Laminator is a compact, modular dough sheeting line designed specifically to meet the needs of bakeries, with a capacity ranging from 250 to 1000 kg of pastry. Important for industrial bakeries in the middle segment is that they can adapt to the continuous changing market requirements.

“With the modular Radini design we can configure a line based on the actual bakers needs but also, we are able to change the configuration by adding modules for future needs. Integration and installation of future additions and upgrades can be realized with minimum down time and production interference. Modular units include its own hardware control box, and the software automatically recognizes a new configuration. Radini design in general is based on industrial values with a compact footprint and hygienic features. We also receive positive feedback on the new developed intuitive HMI touchscreen, which provides the operator the possibility to store all process parameters per product recipe.”

An Example of Modularity

With Radini Rademaker helps bakeries to transition from a manual pastry making process to fully automatic process. This can be staged over multiple years depending on required capacities and the level of capital available. Often the first step is to eliminate reversable sheeters out of the block making process and replace this for an L-Shape pastry block maker. This allows the bakery to run pastry sheets from 4-10 layers and after to be manually folded to a pastry block of an additional 2,3 or 4 layers, resulting in 4 to 40 layers total. The blocks can be rested, retarded or further processed by a reversible sheeter to make pastry rolls to feed a universal line. 

The next step in automation is to add a block processor. The pastry blocks can be placed on the infeed of the block processor where the blocks are continuously sheeted to the required thickness, which is a great advantage compared to the intermitted process of pastry roll processing. 

Read the rest of the story in the January / February edition of European Baker & Biscuit.