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Bread of Life

Tony Zilles

Bread is an important staple food of many cultures. The production of bread and pastries is an important part of the food industry. In the search for ever greater production volume and efficiency, machinery has automated many processes that have traditionally been performed by skilled bakers.

Sottoriva is a family-owned business that has specialised in making bakery and pastry machinery for more than 50 years. It is located in the semi-rural community of Marano Vicentino, in the Veneto region of Italy’s northeast.

Sottoriva makes every component used in its machinery except the electric motors and drive belts. With such complex machinery, the number of components is staggering with over 170,000 different parts manufactured and kept in stock. The range and diversity of parts that Sottoriva manufactures in order to build its machines is extensive. Even though parts are made to be interchangeable where ever possible there are many different parts required. From small gears and shafts to large cast housings, Sottoriva designs and manufactures it all.

A portion of the manufacturing part of Sottoriva's factory.

Machine assembly area.

A wide variety of parts are made in-house. Sottoriva makes all parts except electric motors and drive belts.

All machines and components are designed with 2D CAD systems. There is no 3D CAD in use on any of the 9 CAD workstations in the mechanical design department. The office manages an active drawing list of more than 60,000 drawings covering the current models in production. CAD has been in use at Sottoriva for more than 10 years.

Design work extends beyond that only required for the finished products. Jigs and fixtures used to hold parts in the machining centers must also be designed and documented with the same degree of care and precision.

A selection of jigs and mounting fixtures for holding work in various machines.

Closer to production, the CAM office uses SolidWorks to model components and prepare design data for output to CAM.

All design and production data is coordinated through a drawing database that also links with materials information. The system used here is DrawBase by CADworks. Every machine ever built is documented in drawings at Sottoriva. Archived drawings for old equipment are often brought out to assist with maintenance or refurbishing.

A typical bread machine assembly.

More that 170,000 small parts are keep on hand to meet service requirements. These are held in high-density storage units.

Electrical control drawings are created with EPLAN, which is widely used in the machinery and appliance industry. The electrical design group creates drawings for switches and controls, data I/O and PLCs, and wiring harnesses. EPLAN took over in the electrical systems area from regular CAD around seven years ago.

The diverse range of parts to be machined and variety of operations required calls for specialised and flexible production equipment. Two machines that really stand out in the factory are the multi-pallet machining centers. Each machine can be loaded with up to 120 different tools. The machines are capable of machining a different part on each pallet and can be kept running continuously, with finished parts being removed and new parts fixed to pallets while machining continues at the tool position. As the rack behind the machine illustrated will attest, the toolmakers are kept productive making jigs and other holding down fixtures for different parts.

Major machine component under the cutters on a multi-pallet machining center.

Machine designers are mechanical engineers with additional specialized training in bakery technology. When designing a new machine, technicians will often go out to operating bakeries and work with the bakers to determine exactly what is required of a machine to automate some particular process.

Machines are made to operate as stand alone units or as modular units that can be combined to create plants that can make different products. As this equipment is food handling machinery it needs to comply with the range of international regulatory requirements in force in the many countries where it is used.

Heavy mixing machine castings are made in Sottoriva's foundry and machined in the company workshop. 

This type of equipment needs to be of robust construction and high precision. This in turn results in a machine that has a long life and operates reliably.

Sottoriva sales manager Mario Novella shows off a popular planetary dough mixer waiting to be packaged for customer delivery.

Sottoriva is an established company that has made an international reputation for itself with a high quality product range. The company continues to innovate and develop new solutions for an enduring bakery industry. The role of technology within the company parallels the role of technology in the baking trade. It us used to add efficiency to the process and increase the volume of production while maintaining the quality of the output. It also acknowledges the importance of human participation at all stages of design and manufacture.

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