Automated pizza crust machine

Hi Guys:

A manufacturer has asked me about the feasibility of marketing an automated pizza crust machine.

Dough is loaded into a hopper then sheeted out by the machine and pizza crusts cut to size all automatically.

Estimated price $9000.00 to $10,000.

Comments solicited.

George Mills

I envision it being used by commercial frozen mfg’s and not a small or even a large shop setting. Large hopper say a lot of dough sitting around drying out unless you have hundreds of pies going out really quickly. Sheeting the dough and then cutting or stamping the sizes out? How do you adjust for different sizes? If the dough is sheeted then cut or stamped out…a lot of waste around the edges. Maybe a labor savings in the make line but clean up and tear down just got complicated. I think this process yells Dominos or PH! I think a lot of indies will spend $10k in other places before this piece of equipment. The whole process works against a better pizza and leans towards a mass produced product. :roll:

excellent answer

I would have some interest, not for my current operation but for a project I put on the back burner a couple years ago. Would you feed unproofed dough into the hopper, have it sheet and cut to size and then proof? Would the dough need to be docked?

Thanks Mike for your observations:

Paul: I will send your questions to the manufacture;

George Mills

George, get some details from the mfg… I think we all can imagine how this might be set up… and the pros and cons just yell a mass production Dominos in Chicago burbs doing 500 pizzas at dinner time on a Tuesday!!! Personally I would invest in a dough rounder if anything to help save time. Then again, only if you made 250+ balls a day minimum.

I would be very interested since I am looking for a solution to producing my allergen-free pizza crust which is HUGE for my business and I want to make it regionally avalable.

do you have more info?

Hi Guys:

apparently there is some interest in the devise.

I will get more information.

Any other interested folks or just comments?

George Mills

Hi Guys:

To answer Paul’s question;

Yes you can use un proofed dough and they make a unit with a built in docker.

This company does not have certification for USA Sales and they say they need orders for about 20 machines to warrant the coat of doing so.

It appears their unit would have little market among individual pizza shops. It may have application in a commissary situation or with an operator that is putting their product out to retailers.

Thanks for your comments

George Mills

George;
The use of this machine would be assuming that the used wants to have a fully sheeted crust. Fully sheeted crusts tend not to have a raised edge (rim), and are significantly more dense than crusts that are formed by partially sheeted, or hand stretched/slapped, forming procedures. Point is, it may not be right for everyone as different forming methods produce different finished crust characteristics.
I believe it was Rheon that had a machine that would open a dough ball to specified diameter. They used a tapered roller, like a large, single tapered roller bearing being pressed down onto the dough ball to form it. I haven’t seen or heard anything of it for some time now, so I don’t know if it is still around. These thing just don’t seen to be very well accepted.
Tom Lehmann/ The Dough Doctor