What Equipment is Needed to Make Swiss Rolls?

The equipment required for Swiss roll production depends on the scale of production (home workshop, small bakery, medium-sized factory, or large automated factory) and the degree of automation. The following is a list of equipment, arranged from basic to advanced, in order of production process:

Raw Material Handling and Mixing Equipment

1. Electronic Scale: Accurately weighs various ingredients (flour, sugar, eggs, oil, fillings, etc.). Factories typically use automated batching systems.
2. Sifter: Sieve powders such as flour and cocoa powder to remove lumps and achieve a finer finished product. (A handheld sieve can be used for smaller operations.)
3. Mixer/Egg Beater:

  • Vertical mixer: Commonly used in small bakeries, used for beating whole eggs/egg whites, mixing batters, and making fillings (such as cream).
  • Horizontal mixer: Suitable for medium to large factories, with larger capacity and higher efficiency, used for mixing batters and fillings.
  • (Large factories) Automated Continuous Mixing System: Integrated with the production line for continuous material flow.

Baking Equipment

4. Ovens/Ovens:

  • Deck ovens/Open ovens: Commonly used in small and medium-sized factories, they can bake multiple pans simultaneously, but require manual operation for loading and unloading.
  • Conveyor ovens/Hot air circulation ovens: They offer more uniform heating and higher efficiency, suitable for larger production volumes.
  • Tunnel ovens: The core equipment of large-scale automated factories. Cake batter is continuously fed into a long tunnel oven via a conveyor belt, where it is automatically baked at a set temperature and time. This is the key to achieving continuous, high-volume production.

What Equipment is Needed to Make Swiss Rolls?

Baking Trays and Conveyor Systems

5. Baking Trays:

  • Flat baking trays with rims: Used to hold batter for baking and form cake slices. Standardized sizes are required to accommodate subsequent equipment.
  • (Optional) Silicone mats/Baking paper: Placed on baking trays to facilitate unmolding.

6. Cooling racks/Conveyor belts: Used for quickly cooling baked cake slices to set their shape.

  • Small-scale: Wire racks. Medium- and large-scale: A cooling conveyor belt smoothly transports cake slices from the oven exit to the next process, cooling them naturally or with the aid of cold air during transport.

7. (Automated) Baking Tray Circulation System: In tunnel oven production lines, baking trays automatically circulate from the rear of the oven back to the front, ensuring continuous baking.

Demolding and Filling Application

8. Demolding Equipment/Workstation: Removes cooled cake slices from the baking tray. Small-scale operations are performed manually; large-scale operations may have an automatic demolding device.
9. Filling Preparation Equipment: Depending on the filling type (cream, jam, chocolate sauce, taro paste, etc.), a mixer, cooking pot (if jam requires boiling), and holding tank are required.
10. Filling Spreader/Smoothing Machine:

  • Small-scale: Manual spreading with a spatula.
  • Medium- and large-scale: Automatic filling spreader. The cake slice passes on a conveyor belt, and the machine precisely spreads the desired filling (such as a line of cream or an even layer of jam) onto the cake slice. A smoothing device (such as a scraper or roller) is often used to evenly spread the filling.

Rolling and Forming

11. Rolling Equipment: This is the core step in Swiss roll formation.

  • Manual Rolling: Using a rolling curtain/rolling stick (a thin stick wrapped in baking paper or a silicone mat), the filled cake sheet is manually rolled up. This is the primary method for small-scale production.
  • Semi-Automatic Rolling Machine: This machine has an initial rolling mechanism (such as a ramp or small roller). The operator inserts the front end of the cake sheet, and the machine assists with the initial rolling. The operator or a conveyor belt then completes the rolling process.
  • Fully Automatic Rolling Machine: This is a key piece of equipment in large-scale factories. The cake sheet is automatically guided into the rolling mechanism (typically a series of ingeniously designed guide plates, belts, and rollers). The machine automatically, continuously, and gently rolls the cake into a tight cylindrical shape, like rolling a carpet. The speed and tightness are adjustable. VI. Shaping and Cooling

12. Shaping Equipment:

  • Small-Scale: After rolling, the roll is placed on a countertop or rack to set its shape.
  • Medium-Scale: Shaping conveyor/tunnel. The rolled Swiss roll (usually still wrapped in paper or film) is conveyed on a grooved conveyor belt for a period of time to stabilize its shape. Light refrigeration may be required.

13. (Optional) Quick Freezing Tunnel/Freezer: For Swiss rolls that are to be sliced (especially those with cream fillings), they are often quickly frozen (-18°C or colder) after rolling and setting to harden the center filling and facilitate neat, non-collapsed cutting.

Cutting and Portioning

14. Cutting Equipment:

  • Manual Cutting: Use a sharp knife (serrated knife works best) to cut the rolls manually.
  • Reciprocating Slitter/Saw: Semi-automatic: The Swiss roll is placed on a conveyor belt or in a fixed groove and cut by a motorized, reciprocating serrated knife.
  • Fully Automatic Slitter: Standard equipment in large factories. After being frozen/cooled and shaped, the Swiss rolls are automatically fed into the slitting machine, where they are continuously and precisely cut into small pieces according to the preset length by a high-speed rotating disc serrated blade assembly or ultrasonic reciprocating cutter. The cutter speed and feed speed must be precisely synchronized.

Packaging Equipment

15. Inner Packaging Machine: Individually wraps the cut Swiss roll pieces in plastic film (such as OPP/CPP), paper trays, or small boxes. Various packaging options are available:

  • Pillow Wrapper: The most common, wraps the product in a pillow-shaped bag using roll film and heat-seals it.
  • Twist Wrapper: Used for packaging with twist ties at both ends (a style used in some traditional candy products).
  • Tray/Cartoner: Places the product into plastic trays or small paper boxes.

16. (Optional) Labeler/Inkjet Printer: Automatically applies labels or prints information such as the production date, expiration date, and batch number on the inner packaging bag.

17. Outer Packaging Machine: Packs individually wrapped Swiss rolls into medium-sized boxes (color boxes or turnover boxes) or large boxes (transport boxes). Highly automated factories use automatic unpacking, packing, and sealing equipment.

Auxiliary and Support Equipment

18. Cleaning and Disinfection Equipment: High-pressure washers, CIP systems (cleaning-in-place, for large factory pipes), disinfection equipment, etc., to ensure hygiene.
19. Boiler/Steam Generator: Used if steam is required for production (such as for certain baking processes or cleaning).
20. Air Compressor: Provides power for pneumatic equipment (such as cylinders and valves).
21. Refrigeration System: Provides cooling for workshops, cold storage, freezing tunnels, filling storage, etc.
22. Water Treatment System: Provides process water that meets requirements.
23. Metal Detector/X-ray Detector: Critical equipment for food safety. It detects the presence of metal or other foreign matter in products before or after packaging. 24. Weight Checker: Automatically checks each product’s weight to see if it meets standards and rejects unqualified items.
25. Conveyor System: Connects all key equipment, automating the flow of materials and serving as the lifeblood of an automated production line.
26. Central Control System: In highly automated factories, a PLC or computer control system monitors and coordinates the entire production line.

Summary and Selection Recommendations

Home/Micro Workshop: Electronic scale, screen, hand-held whisk/mini mixer, oven, baking sheet, cooling rack, scraper, roller shutter, serrated knife. Primarily manual labor.
Small Bakery/Central Kitchen: Add a vertical/horizontal mixer, deck oven/convection oven, semi-automatic filling spreader (optional), semi-automatic rolling machine (optional), reciprocating cutter, simple pillow packaging machine, or manual packaging. Automating some processes. Medium-sized factories typically feature a tunnel oven, cooling conveyor belts, automatic filling spreaders, semi-automatic or fully-automatic rolling machines, cooling/forming conveyor belts, a freezing tunnel, fully-automatic slitting machines, pillow packaging machines, labeling machines, metal detectors, weight detectors, and a basic conveyor system. These factories achieve a high degree of automated continuous production.
Large-scale automated factories incorporate all of the above medium- and large-scale equipment, taking it to a higher level: fully-automated continuous mixing systems, high-efficiency tunnel ovens, fully-automatic demolding, high-speed, high-precision fully-automatic rolling machines, comprehensive forming and freezing lines, high-speed slitting machines, multi-functional packaging lines (possibly including automatic cartoning and boxing), complex conveyor networks, CIP systems, advanced foreign object detection (X-ray), and centralized control systems. These factories achieve efficient, continuous production with minimal or no human intervention.

Key considerations when selecting equipment include target production volume, investment budget, product variety/recipe characteristics (e.g., different filling types may require different equipment), factory conditions, automation and labor cost requirements, and food safety certification standards. Consulting with a professional food machinery and equipment supplier is recommended for planning and selection based on specific needs.

Ultrasonic Swiss Roll Cutting Packaging Machine

UFM2500P ultrasonic swiss roll cutting packaging machine is an advanced equipment integrating ultrasonic cutting technology and automatic packaging technology. It utilizes the high-frequency vibration of ultrasound to generate small vibrations between the cutting tool and food materials, thereby achieving fast and accurate cutting. At the same time, the device is also equipped with an automated packaging system, which can automatically complete the packaging of Swiss rolls according to preset parameters. It not only improves the cutting efficiency and accuracy of Swiss rolls, but also ensures the hygiene, safety, and production efficiency of food.

  • Average speed: about 150-600 pieces per hour
  • Color touch screen with User friendly interface
  • Reliable and durable ultrasonic machine
  • Increased quality and labor saving enhance capacity ​
  • Improved portion quality and consistency

About Cheersonic
Cheersonic manufactures the leading portioning equipment for bakeries producing fresh and frozen desserts. Since 1998 bakers have used Cheersonic machines to cut, slice and portion cheesecake, pie, layer cake, loaves, butter, cheese, pizza, sandwichs, and more. Cheersonic offers ultrasonic cutting solutions that support start-up bakeries and high production commercial facilities alike. Small standalone machines can be used in manual baking facilities and large inline robotic solutions aid in high speed production.

Cheersonic offers many ultrasonic slicing models, both inline and offline applications, with production speeds of 80 to 1,500 cakes or pies per hour.

Cheersonic’ latest offline introductions include ultrasonic cutting with or without divider inserts between each slice. This improves the quality of the cut and makes for a much better product presentation for the customer. In addition, robotic arm improves the speed, efficiency, and accuracy of the cutting process, producing professional looking products every time.

Chinese Website: Cheersonic Provides Professional Ultrasonic Cutting Solutions