A Johannesburg cookie producer opening a new factory needed to mix, cut, bake, cool and bag cookies on one automatic line. We supplied a cookie line rated at 80 to 100 kg an hour, from an 80 L mixer to a 12 m tunnel oven, and a 10-head weigher VFFS line that packs the cookies into pillow bags of 1 kg to 5 kg.
The customer set up a new cookie factory in Johannesburg and packs its cookies by weight into pillow bags of 1 kg to 5 kg. With no existing line to build on, every step from mixing to bagging had to be supplied. A baked cookie is brittle until it has cooled, so it has to come off the oven, cool and reach the weigher without being knocked about, and every bag has to reach its declared weight.
The new factory needed a line that takes cookies from raw ingredients to sealed, weighed bags in one automatic flow.
Mix dough in batches and cut it into cookies on a wire-cut machine 400 mm wide.
Bake the cookies in a tunnel oven and cool them before they are packed.
Weigh the cookies into pillow bags of 1 kg to 5 kg, close to their declared weight.
We supplied a wire-cut cookie line because it forms, bakes and cools cookies in one continuous run, at 80 to 100 kg an hour. For packing, we supplied a 10-head multihead weigher on a VFFS machine, fed by a Z-type elevator, because it weighs whole cookies into bags close to their target weight. The weigher and VFFS machine were delivered ahead of the rest of the line, so packing was in place before the oven line arrived.
The cookies are mixed, cut, baked and cooled, then lifted to the weigher, which drops each portion into a bag formed from film.
| Mixer | 80 L, 510 rpm, with a bowl lifter |
| Cookie forming | Wire-cut cookie machine, 400 mm working width, SUS304 stainless steel |
| Oven | 12 m tunnel oven, gas or electric, 400 mm steel belt, entry and peeling conveyors |
| Cooling | 10 m conveyor, food-grade PU belt, with cooling fans |
| Line capacity | 80 to 100 kg an hour |
| Elevator | Z-type, 3 L buckets, 7,200 L an hour |
| Weigher | 10-head, 1.6 L buckets, ±1 g to 2 g, 20 to 50 bags a minute |
| Bagger | SAP-420 VFFS, 420 mm film |
| Bags | Pillow bags 60 to 200 mm wide and 60 to 300 mm long, 1 kg to 5 kg |
Model codes shown are machines we have built or configured for previous projects. Your machine is specified and built to suit your product, output and pack format — not supplied off the shelf.
Each batch goes from raw ingredients to sealed, weighed bags of cookies in one pass.
The 80 L mixer mixes the dough, and the bowl lifter tips it into the wire-cut cookie machine.
The wire-cut machine cuts cookies from the dough onto the entry conveyor of the oven.
The cookies bake on the steel belt of the 12 m tunnel oven, which holds a constant temperature, and a peeling conveyor lifts them off at the exit.
A 10 m cooling conveyor with fans cools the cookies before they are packed.
A Z-type elevator lifts the cookies to the 10-head weigher, the VFFS machine forms, fills and seals each pillow bag, and a conveyor carries the bags away.
The new factory’s cookie line is running in Johannesburg. It was supplied to mix, cut, bake, cool and bag cookies at 80 to 100 kg an hour, and to weigh them into pillow bags of 1 kg to 5 kg at 20 to 50 bags a minute. These are ratings of the machines supplied, not results measured on the customer’s line.
Rated output of the wire-cut cookie line.
On the 10-head weigher.
Formed, filled and sealed on the VFFS machine.
The first clip shows a multihead weigher on a VFFS machine like the one supplied. The second shows a Z-type elevator feeding a weighing line.
How the elevator lifts product gently to the weigher.
Video demonstrations of every machine type we supply, filmed in the workshop and on site.
Start from your product, your pack and the output you need, as this project did.
Weighers from 2 to 20 heads, on their own or as part of a bagging line.
Flow wrappers for biscuit packs, cream biscuit lines and weigher lines for cookies.
Send us your product, your pack and the output you need. We will test it and come back with a recommendation or quotation.
