Bakery machinery has no single set of names. The same oven is called a tunnel oven in one country and a conveyor oven in another, and a spiral mixer is also a dough kneader. This glossary lists the common names, what each machine does and the Alif Ovens models that match.
Ovens
- Tunnel oven, travelling oven, conveyor oven (also written traveling oven): one machine with three names. Product rides on a moving belt through a long heated chamber, so baking is continuous. Used for biscuits, cookies, rusk and toast. See Alif tunnel ovens.
- Rotary rack oven, rotary oven, rotary batch oven, rack oven: a batch oven. A trolley of trays is rolled in and the rack turns while it bakes. Alif models are the AO-70 to AO-220.
- Trolley: the wheeled rack that holds the trays and rolls into a rotary rack oven. Larger models take two or four trolleys.
- Direct-fired: combustion gases pass through the baking chamber. Efficient, and suited to biscuits and rusk.
- Indirect-fired, radiant heat: a separate chamber is heated so no combustion gas touches the product. Used for bread, pastry and where food safety rules require it.
- Heating zone: a section of an oven with its own temperature control, so the bake profile can change along the belt.
Mixers
- Spiral mixer, dough kneader: a spiral arm kneads heavy dough in a rotating bowl. For bread, buns, pav, rusk and chapati. Alif models are the AM-30, AM-60 and AM-90.
- Planetary mixer: the beater turns on its own axis while moving round the bowl. For cookie dough, batter, cream and cake mixes. Alif models are the APM-70, APM-120 and a cake mixer range from 25 to 500 eggs.
- Biscuit mava: the creamed biscuit mix a cake mixer prepares. Alif's cake mixer table gives its batch in kg, from 4 kg (25 eggs) to 80 kg (500 eggs).
Forming, Slicing and Packing
- Cookie dropping machine, biscuit dropping machine, cookie depositor: pushes soft dough through nozzles onto trays or an oven belt in set shapes and weights. Alif machines have 4 to 12 nozzles.
- Wire-cut: a depositor mode where a wire cuts the dough as it leaves the nozzle, giving a flat-bottomed piece.
- Bread slicer: cuts loaves into slices of a set thickness.
- Flow-wrapper, flow-wrap machine, pillow-pack machine: wraps a product in film and seals it into a packet. Used for biscuits and cookies. Alif models are the ARCP-100, ARTP-110 and ARTP-120.
Terms on a Quotation
- Turnkey plant: the supplier delivers a complete line, installed and commissioned, instead of single machines.
- HS code, HSN code: the customs code printed on invoices and export papers. See HS and HSN codes for bakery machinery for each machine.
- Batch size: the amount made in one cycle, such as the trays an oven takes or the flour a mixer takes.
- Output per hour: finished product per hour, the number to size an oven or line against.
- Commissioning: setting up and testing the machine on site so it runs to specification.
Not sure which machine you need? Send your product and daily output on WhatsApp at alifovens.com/whatsapp or to alif@alifovens.com and Alif Ovens will recommend one.
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