Food Industry

The dough feeder is a metal hopper with a rotary blade system underneath that maintains a constant flow of dough downwards. These then dop big and heavy pieces of dough to what is called a “Chunker Belt”, the conveyor belt located underneath the hopper. Due to the high presence of oil but also considering the weight of the dough we recommend a polyurethane belt.

The Cross Sheeter is a machine that takes big pieces of dough and compresses them into a thin sheet of dough. The belt on the bottom carries the dough into the machine and then a roller or another top belt is used to flatten the dough. Belts recommended for this process are either polyurethane, PVC, raw covers, wool series, solid woven cotton, and solid woven monofilament.

The dough divider gets the dough sheet through its hopper and using knives or rotary discs it cuts the dough into individual pieces of the same weight the fall onto a conveyor. Sometimes there could be two levels of conveyors at different speeds to create more space between the cut pieces of dough. The best belts recommended for this process would be polyurethane, PVC, raw covers, wool series, solid woven cotton, and solid woven monofilament.

The dough moulder is a machine with a belt running on the bottom and a fixed piece of plastic or conveyor running slowly in the opposite direction on the top. This way the piece of dough rolls onto itself and I formed into the desired shape. We recommend a raw covered series or solid woven cotton for the bottom because it will retain the flour from the duster giving it a better release property. For the top, polyurethane would be best because it has the grip to form the dough and release properties as well.

For breads rolls, the moulder must make the dough into a rounded shape. To be able to do this, there is a plastic scraper that sometimes has a textured belting adhered to it that is positioned across the belt making the dough roll onto itself when moving forward. For the bottom, we recommend raw covers or solid woven cotton because it retains the flour from the duster giving it great release properties. The fixed piece of belting polyurethane would be best due to its textured and release properties. 

The proofer is a chamber used to ferment the dough with warm temperatures and controlled humidity. Essentially it is rising the dough. Instead of having the waiting on trays and the while line stopped the dough keeps moving around the inside the proofer so the whole line can keep moving. The best belt to use for this process polyurethane, PVC, raw covers, wool series, solid woven cotton, and solid woven monofilament.

After the dough moulder, the pieces then go onto a belt that drops them into pans. Raw covers, Needle fabric, and solid woven cotton are best used for this step.

The depanner consists of a belt on the bottom carrying the beard pans. This belt is normally a modular belt or polyspiral belt because the pans are still hot. On top there is a belt with a suction cup vacuum that sucks the bread out of the pan and puts it in another conveyor. We recommend PVC FDA Series for the depanner belt. The loaves of bread are then dropped onto a different modular or polyspiral belt heading one direction with the pans continuing to move on another belt in a different direction.

Once the bread is out of the pan it normally goes into a cooling spiral to cool down. Modular belts are commonly used for this processing but a polyspiral belt could be used for in-feed and out-feed of the spiral.

Once the bread has cooled down, it then goes into a slicer. These machines normally use a texted PVC belt on the bottom. Depending on the type of machine the slicer can have the same belt on the sides, or some have 20-30 small, 1” wide belts on the top as dividers in between the knives, used to hold the compress the loaf. Some machines use timing belts as the knife holder.