Scoring systems

The baker scores dough products with a knife before they go into the oven for the product to open in a controlled way during baking. Above all, this is the baker’s signature on the product. A good or bad cut can make or break the bread. We have automated this operation.

Kaak has been supplying conventional so-called xy-scoring systems for many years already. These are used mainly on mono product lines where products are often already neatly defined on or in their product carriers. The products are cut in a fixed pattern with a whole series of knives mounted on a beam.

However, the market has changed over the years and there is an increasing demand for a huge variety of freestanding bread in all sizes, shapes and flavours. These in turn all have their own ‘signature’, for which our automated 3D vision-controlled cutting robots can be used successfully.

3D Vision technology

Dough is alive, which is why the products do not always have the same shape and why 3D vision technology is used. Each product successively passes the camera, is scanned for shape, position and orientation on the product carrier and then assigned to a cutting robot that gives the product the desired signature.

Our 6-axis robots can hold and move the scoring tool in all possible positions. This is important, because holding the knife at a slight angle ensures that the product gets a nice curled up crust during baking, which promotes the development of flavour and increases the desire for the bread even more.