Walking in the aisle of the workshop, you can always see the biscuit packaging machine on the trial production line working like a dexterous pastry chef - the cookies are dancing "waltz" on the conveyor belt, and the robot lightly avoids the broken fragments and accurately grabs the complete biscuits into the bag. As the factory director of ply-pack, I am most often asked by customers: "Can your biscuit packaging machine really prevent the biscuits from breaking?" Today, I will show you the technical doorway behind this.
"The key lies in this set of 'gentle three-piece set'." Engineer Wang, who is responsible for mechanical design, lifted the equipment protective cover and pointed to the operating parts to introduce: "First, this wavy food-grade conveyor belt is covered with micro-pores on the surface. The adsorption force generated during transportation can make the biscuits 'stick' to the conveyor belt, reducing 60% of the bumps compared to traditional metal mesh belts." As he spoke, a row of animal-shaped biscuits was passing smoothly through the visual inspection area, and the unique rotary gripping head for special-shaped biscuit packaging was immediately started, adjusting biscuits of different shapes into bags according to the set direction.
In the operation room, Master Li, who has 20 years of work experience, is doing daily maintenance. "Don't underestimate these silicone suction cups," he said while wiping the gripper head of the automatic material handling system: "We changed seven materials before deciding on the current one, which is not hard in winter and not sticky in summer. The last customer who made gingerbread houses said that after changing to our biscuit packaging machine, the breakage rate of the pointed roof dropped from 30% to less than 5%."
The R&D department is most proud of the experience of overcoming the packaging difficulties of soda crackers last year. Zhang Gong, the person in charge of crispness retention technology, recalled: "At that time, the sample sent by the customer was broken in half when it was unpacked. We added a 'vibration buffer cabin' to the equipment - let the biscuits 'bounce' three times on the silicone pad before putting them into the bag, so as to simulate and release the vibration that may occur during transportation in advance." This idea, inspired by car collision tests, successfully made the intact rate of 2 mm thick crackers exceed 98%.
On the production line of the Oreo OEM factory, the reporter saw an amazing scene: when the sandwich biscuits passed through the biscuit packaging machine, the infrared sensor was detecting the thickness of the cream layer. "'Fat biscuits' that exceed the standard value will be automatically diverted to the gift area," the workshop director pointed to the sorting port and smiled: "This automatic material sorting system saves us three quality inspectors. The key is that there will be no situation where the biscuits are crushed during manual sorting."
Facing the emerging market of multi-grain crackers, we are testing a new flexible packaging solution. The technical director revealed: "The next generation of biscuit packaging machines will be equipped with AI learning functions, and the equipment can remember the 'character' of different biscuits - for example, brown rice biscuits need to be quickly packaged to prevent moisture, while butter cookies need to extend the cooling time." On the prototype being tested, the robotic arm is handling sesame crackers and soft brownies with different strengths, as if it can really distinguish the characteristics of the ingredients.
Before leaving the factory, Master Li pulled the reporter and pointed to the corner of the equipment: "Do you see that transparent observation window? This is the 'skylight' for the operator, so that the gear meshing can be checked without stopping the machine. No matter how good the biscuit packaging machine is, it depends on the cooperation between man and machine, so we changed the lubricating oil filling port to a magnetic quick-install type, and the maintenance time was compressed from half an hour to the time of a song."
From sandwich wafers to cartoon cookies, from traditional iron cans to stand-up bags, biscuit packaging machines are no longer just packaging tools, but a key link in determining the market competitiveness of products. The next time you tear open a pack of intact biscuits, think about these "crispy guardians" who are improving day and night in the factory - they are guarding the complete journey of each biscuit with millimeter-level precision and humanized design.
