Laminating systems today offer greater capacity to meet the growing demands of bakery operations. Creating wider lines is one way manufacturers are increasing laminators' throughput. Regardless of the size of their operation, bakers can find lines to match their needs, including lines that run as little as 1,000 lb. of dough per hour to lines producing 25,000 lb. of dough per hour. In addition, laminators are offering sanitary design and ease of maintenance. Laminators can accomodate many dough types, including tortillas. Along with versatility, laminators are providing economical solutions, user-friendly technology and high quality production.

Gently reduce dough thickness

Laminator 3000 by Fritsch processes many different dough types, including short pastry, puff pastry, Danish pastry, yeast dough; and special soft and pre-proofed doughs, such as those required for ciabatta and baguettes. Fritsch satellite head technology, the heart of each Laminator 3000, allows the gentle reduction of the dough thickness up to a ratio of 10:1 in only one working step. This is the key technology of the Laminator 3000 and contributes to the economic production of high quality pastries.
Fritsch USA Inc.
973-857-7272
www.fritsch-usa.us

Achieve uniform quality

Rondo Doge offers a U-shaped laminating line with an intermediate cooling belt. The versatile laminator can accommodate puff pastry, Danish and croissant dough. The dough-band and fat-band are adjustable in width and thickness and offer the same consistency. This provides for ideal conditions for perfect layer formation and uniform quality. Cross-roller speed is adjustable to suit the dough type, minimizing trim.
Rondo Doge
201-229-9700
www.rondodoge.com

Economical options

The Multi-Five laminating system from ALBA is an economical way to sheet dough billets into a continuous sheet of dough to the desired thickness. Specially designed for the automatic feeding of croissant lines or make-up tables, the Multi-Five features an infeed belt with adjustable side guides, upper and lower flour dusters, a motorized press roller and a pre-laminating multiroller. Choose as many gauging rollers as needed; each is equipped with automatic infeed and discharge mechanism to ensure a smooth sheet of dough. This system is available in 600 mm or 800 mm widths and can be positioned and synchronized to feed any existing line.
ALBA & Teknoservice s.r.l.
847-788-9085
www.teknoservice.com

Meet high quality standards

The Sigma Laminator by Rademaker offers economic output, hygienic design, efficient maintenance and user-friendly touch-screen technology. The system consists of many standard units and can be designed to be anything from a block processor to a fully automatic laminator, or a combination of both depending on company requirements. The laminator can be delivered in three to four months depending on configuration.
Rademaker USA
330-650-2345
www.rademaker.com

Laminating trends

Bakers are seeking laminators with versatility, low-stress and sanitary design.

Laminating systems add structure to dough. More lamination gives bread a finer grain, while less lamination provides a more open structure, notes Eric Riggle, vice president, Rademaker, Hudson, Ohio. In addition to breads, Danishes, croissants and cinnamon rolls that have been traditionally laminated for years, tortillas are now joining the lamination line.

Bakers are laminating tortillas to achieve greater strength compared with sheeting, Riggle says. “Clients are starting to realize the limitations of their old dough ball, press-type tortilla systems.” While sheeters offer high speeds, the product is not as consistent or as strong as one that is laminated.

Many laminators put little to no stress on the dough, which prevents damage to the dough, reduces the amount of dusting flour needed and helps achieve more volume during the bake. “We have a stress-free dough feeding system. It's important to be as gentle as you can when feeding the dough, but the way we control the dough through our reduction rollers is how we treat the dough gently throughout the entire process,” Riggle says.

Sanitary design and ease of maintenance are high on bakers' list of wants in a laminator.

“When you make a machine easier to clean, you also have to make the machine easier to maintain,” Riggle adds. Rademaker now makes only wet clean laminating lines that can be cleaned with a high pressure hose. After washing down a lamination line, operators must grease the bearings and do other maintenance steps. Sigma lines can be maintained while still in production, so the operator can take care of any maintenance steps while the line is running. This amounts to longer production runs and less downtime needed — an asset for every bakery.