Bakery dough
handling & conveying
solutions

Coperion, through its technology brands DIOSNA and Shaffer, offers a wide range of dough handling machines for bakery and food production. These systems ensure safe, efficient, and hygienic transfer of dough from mixing to further processing, while reducing manual handling and improving consistency.

How dough handling differs by mixer type?

For vertical mixers
As vertical mixers typically use removable bowls, dough can be transported through the bakeries on wheel, rails or AGVs (see our next section). For vertical movements, elevator tippers and bowl lifters enable efficient transfer of dough, supporting loads up to several tons while ensuring gentle handling.

For horizontal mixers
As horizontal mixers are typically high-capacity and feature a side door, the dough is be discharged to a through or directly onto an automated food-safe conveyor belt. For bakeries favoring through transportation, lifting solutions are also available by Shaffer.

For continuous mixers
Automated transfer systems using food-safe conveyor belts are usually used with continuous mixers to allow to create a steady stream of dough towards the next processing steps, maintaining flow, reducing downtime, and optimizing production.

How to automate dough handling when using vertical mixers?

If your bakery relies on vertical mixers with removable bowls to prepare its recipes, it is possible to automate the movement of bowls to fit the various staging of your recipe, accurately synchronizing autolyse, kneading steps and resting times.

Modern bakeries can choose the degree of automation that best fits their production needs:

Software-guided recipe steps
A unified recipe interface guides the operators to move the bowl step by step through the different steps of the recipe, greatly. reducing the changes of human error and enhancing traceability.

Shuttle rail systems
Proven linear or multi-level shuttle systems automate the transport of dough in their bowls, enabling smooth sequencing of multiple recipes. Shuttle rail systems are highly reliable and fit to high volume bakeries with larger footprint.

New-generation AGVs for smart bakeries
Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) move bowls, raw materials, and resting containers safely and flexibly, offering greater versatility than fixed conveyors. They conveniently go back to base to recharge when their task is done.