Bakery
Requirements
Fresh from the oven, fully automatic and packed ready for dispatching:
J. Skinner Baking is one of the largest family-owned baked goods manufacturers in the United States. The company produces over 300 million pastries a year, including the popular “Danish strip cakes", also known as “Danish” in the USA. The bakery relied on Schubert’s expertise and technology for the automation needed to package its handmade Danish cakes. With the help of the modular machine system, J. Skinner is now able to pack up to 160 Danish in one minute and load them into cartons ready for dispatching – a true all-in-one solution.
One of the popular bakery’s specialties is laminated dough, which includes Danish cakes (laminating refers to the art of creating a perfect dough by repeated rolling and folding instead of kneading). This is one reason why J. Skinner, despite the very time-consuming production of an authentic Danish flaky pastry, adheres to its traditional production and does not accept any compromises. The company is well aware of the enormous importance of new automation technologies in the baked goods industry and their vital role in the continuous improvement of uniform product quality. It was therefore an important step for J. Skinner Baking to invest in innovative automation technology for the packaging process of its handmade treats. With the Schubert solution, the American company has now succeeded in simplifying its existing final packaging processes and placing them in a single packaging line.
Solution
To this end, the Schubert experts developed a customised solution that could be integrated into the existing plant without restricting the existing production processes, while ensuring time- and cost-efficient handling of unplanned machine downtimes by integrating a bypass function. Schubert’s all-in-one packaging solution cleverly combines four process steps: beginning with the removal of the freshly baked products from the baking sheets in the so-called “depanner” to the subsequent feed to the picker line and the individual packaging in clamshells in the case packer for packaging that is ready for dispatching.
We hadn’t even thought of such a bypass function when we first presented our ideas and wishes to Schubert. But once Schubert made us aware of the benefits of an integrated bypass system, we immediately saw its added value.
David Skinner
Managing Director at J. Skinner Baking, November 2020
The modular complete solution consists of four packaging machines. The baked Danish are fed directly from the oven to the Schubert line. Each baking sheet is stocked with four coffee cakes. The baking sheets are taken into the system by an F2 robot and placed on a stepping chain which transports the trays to the transfer area. There, the Danish are lifted out of the sheets from below by an NC unit and then placed onto the outfeed conveyor by another F2 robot. A third F2 robot transports the emptied sheets to an existing sheet metal washing plant.
The cakes are all decorated at the same time and fed to the Schubert picker line via a spiral cooler. There, a spreading unit separates each pastry for individual quality control before F4 robots then place the Danish individually into the clamshells. This step gives the system a high degree of flexibility, adaptability and numerous points of contact for future product changes. The clamshells containing the Danish are then sealed, labelled and inspected by existing equipment before being packed by a Schubert case packer into cartons of various formats ready for dispatching.
A unique add-on is the integrated bypass function for removing the Danish from the baking sheets in the event of an unforeseen machine stop. To avoid a sheet jam in the future, the system allows the sheets to continue to be conveyed smoothly through the system on a higher level of the machine in the event of a malfunction. The new Schubert line therefore once again significantly increases the degree of flexibility while guaranteeing maximum production reliability.
Fresh from the oven, four coffee cakes at a time are lifted slightly and placed onto the outfeed conveyor by an F2 robot.
The cakes are fed to the pick & place machine via a spiral cooler after decorating
After quality control, the Danish are individually placed into the clamshells by F4 robots.
The unique bypass function avoids sheet jams in the event of an unforeseen machine stop, therefore increasing the flexibility of the line.
