The list of ingredients for a traditional pretzel dough is quite straightforward – just wheat flour, water, yeast, and salt. But twisting the dough demands careful attention. The baker takes a small portion and rolls it by hand on the countertop to form a strand that tapers at each end. Next the baker lays the strand of dough in a U-shape, lifts the ends with one quick movement, twists them by 180 degrees, and lays them down again. Finally, the baker presses the two ends onto the fat U-shape, creating the pretzel form we’re all familiar with. A skilled baker can produce up to 600 pretzels per hour like this. At the Schill bakery, this process is now even easier – simply place the dough into the pretzel twisting machine, press the power button, and that’s it.

A fat belly and thin arms

The Schill bakery produces around 10,000 pretzels a day for its eleven locations. In addition to a high-speed production process, achieving the traditional shape is particularly important. Before being dipped in a lye solution and going into the oven, the pretzel dough passes through a compact production line. Here, the dough is first automatically kneaded, divided into portions, and shaped into a strand. Then it is precisely aligned to the exact millimeter on the conveyor belt by a positioning unit from Festo, which ensures that the grippers can later grip it in exactly the right places and form a symmetrical pretzel. This is followed by the actual twisting process using gripping technology with actuators from Festo. Then everything happens in a flash – in less than a second, the strand of dough becomes a precisely twisted pretzel. Sensitive end-of-arm tools grip the ends of the dough, twist the strand, and gently press the ends onto the outside edges. This process produces up to 2,300 pretzels per hour – precisely shaped with pneumatic technology from Festo. The complex single-strand pretzel braids are made in exactly the same way. Only a few steps are required to switch from one to the other.