The Tonelli MultiCake Lines are totally automised, from the mixing up of the ingredients to the packaging. They are designed to ensure an excellent standardisation and quality of the finished product.
Each line is able to produce several kinds of products, simply by changing settings: layer and multilayers cakes, swiss and miniroll, cakes, cupcakes, chiffon cakes, ‘mamon’, fig bar, chou or eclair. A single line can host different stations for making up different products and in this way, it is possible to reach a high flexibility because the processing bench can be equipped with a maximum of seven liftable stations specific for each type of product for a total length of 25 metres max. It is also possible have solutions settled on two floors.
A typical configuration of a simple line for two layer cake, for example, is so composed: batter preparation unit (mixer, buffer tank and continuous aerator), dosing unit, oven, overhead cooling conveyor, longitudinal cutting unit, wetting unit, cream preparation unit (mixer, buffer tank and continuous aerator or heat exchangers), filling unit, overlapping device, transversal cutting unit, decoration or enrobing, packaging.
The sizes or shapes required are achieved through different cutting systems: the longitudinal cutter gives the right width to the product and consists in a set of circular blades fitted on an interchangeable rotary shaft; the transversal cutter decides the total length of the product with a specific cutting movement for each type of product; the punch cutter is able to pull out special forms from the stuffed sponge cake sheet (tree, hexagon, heart, rhomb) and the plate with the shaped blades can be easily replaced when changing format; the robotic cutter, which allows combined cuts, with different geometry, even at a high speed and performance.
The decoration of cakes can be achieved before the oven, when the pattern has to be
integrated with the cake itself (rhomb, sinusoidal, combined, tiger, spot, grid, etc.), or after, when it is necessary to have the decoration on top (grains or slices, icing, choco-chunks); in this case a chocolate enrobing is suggested to ensure ingredients’ stay in place.
Customers often ask for integration of new stations for new products on the same line or solutions for saving space on their production site. The most important kind of customisation, though, is what involves the setting up of the recipes, according to particular ingredients (vegetable proteins, gluten-free flour, non-hydrogenated fats, etc) or environmental characteristics (very humid or dry weather of the zone) or precise results on production, in term of shelf-life improvement or organoleptic quality.
That’s why Tonelli has developed an expertise in giving consultancy to customers in such matters, with a team of Food Technologists who intervene with precise indications on recipe’s parameters, cleanrooms settings and organoleptic and duration analysis of the product.
