Swiss confectioner Suteria uses robots to pipe hazelnut meringues

wiss confectioner Suteria Chocolata is making use of robotics to manufacture its famous Solothurner Torte, which it has been producing for a century.

A Fanuc LR robot is used to complete the intricate yet monotonous task of piping perfectly sized hazelnut meringue rounds, which decorate the top and bottom of each torte.

Each day, the bakery prepares a selection of the tortes in six sizes, measuring between 12cm and 26cm in diameter. The robot, which has a reach of about 70cm and a payload of 5kg, sets to work piping the meringue mixture from an injection nozzle in a circular motion direct onto baking trays. A worker fills the dispensing unit, provides a stack of trays and selects the size on a touchscreen, leaving the robot to create the meringue bases and decorative top.

When each baking tray is full, it is removed from the cell by a worker and placed into the oven where it is baked at low temperature. An empty tray is then pulled from a stack into the robot cell.

Contact: Fanuc UK www.fanuc.eu