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Cutting it right – Automated scoring lines for pretzel bakery goods
Precision, speed and baking craftsmanship working together
Craftsmanship meets high-tech – and every cut is spot on.
Frischbäck GmbH, based in Gersthofen and part of the Ihle Group, has stood for baking tradition, quality and consistency for decades. With a broad range of pretzel baked goods and rolls, the company supplies bakeries, retail chains and large-scale customers across Europe.
With pretzel products, the cut makes the difference. It has to be precise – even at high speeds, across multiple product variants and parallel lanes. robomotion has automated this process with several automated scoring lines – systems designed to score raw dough with high precision – each tailored to product type, scoring pattern and production environment.
The result: consistent scoring at high throughput, without compromising quality.
Bakery / Food industry
Frischbäck GmbH
Precisely scored lye sticks
Robot with ultrasonic blade creating a cross-cut
Precise cuts with ultrasonic technology
Automatic blade cleaning for consistently high quality
Compact control cabinets – seamlessly integrated into the production line
This project was a true combination of craftsmanship, robotics and software. Together with Frischbäck, we demonstrated how precision and flexibility can be combined in modern bakery production.
Oliver Novakov, Project Manager, robomotion GmbH
The Challenge
Flexibility meets performance
Frischbäck produces a wide variety of baked goods: large and small pretzel sticks, pretzels and different types of rolls. Each product requires its own scoring pattern – sometimes two cuts, sometimes three, sometimes a cross. All of this runs in parallel on the same conveyor. On the new lines, dough pieces travel side by side across four to eight lanes – each lane must be detected precisely and processed accordingly.
At the same time, the system must remain highly flexible while delivering consistently high throughput. The lines also need to integrate seamlessly into the existing production environment – with minimal footprint and without reducing overall system uptime.
Another key requirement: the scoring process must continue reliably even if a robot is taken offline for service or maintenance – ensuring high availability in daily operation.
The Solution
Ultrasonic technology and robotics working together
Cutting Line 1 – High performance with eight robots
The first line uses eight ABB IRB 360 delta robots, each equipped with an ultrasonic single blade. A 2D vision system detects the position and orientation of the dough pieces and provides the cutting data. Via the HMI, operators select predefined scoring patterns and the number of cuts per lane – allowing different products to be processed in parallel.
robomotion developed and integrated the system, combining robotics, vision technology and cutting tool interfaces to ensure a precise and stable process.
Process stability is ensured by the control logic: if one robot is taken offline for service or maintenance, the remaining robots automatically take over – the process continues.
Operational details are built in: each robot has its own cleaning basin for blade cleaning. Cleaning intervals and fresh water cycles can be configured via the HMI. A drip tray beneath the conveyor collects excess lye and removes it reliably.
Additional cutting lines
Triple-cut – compact design
Three ABB IRB 360 delta robots operate on an 800 mm wide conveyor, equipped with triple blades performing three cuts simultaneously.
Shape-adapted cutting – pretzels
A curved ultrasonic blade follows the shape of the pretzel. Pretzels are transported on a 3,000 mm wide conveyor.
Technology & Integration
All lines are designed in hygienic design, tailored to the requirements of food production. robomotion developed custom mounts and quick-change adapters for the ultrasonic blades.
Motion sequences, timing and lane coordination are aligned to ensure stable operation within the overall production line.
The system is completed by custom stainless steel control cabinets – compact and optimally integrated into the production environment.
👉 Want to learn more about Frischbäck? Visit: www.frischbaeck.de
Explore more robomotion projects in the food industry here.
