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CASE STUDY
A private label bakery had already tried twice to solve its dough-coating problem — first with hydraulic nozzles and manual valves, then with uncontrolled air atomizing nozzles — and both attempts failed. One couldn’t coat evenly; the other misted the entire production area. Spraymation engineered a sensor-triggered precision spray system that solved both failure modes at once: coating consumption dropped 60%, the overspray mist disappeared entirely, and the bakery banked more than $70,000 in annual savings — with payback in under two months, one of the fastest returns on a spray automation investment in commercial baking.
Results at a glance
Reduction in coating consumption
Monthly cost savings
Payback period
Annual savings
Project Overview
Industry
Commercial Bakery & Private Label
Application
Adhesive Coating for Granular Flavoring
Product
Dough Sheet (Conveyor)
Coating
Water & Corn Syrup Solution
The bakery needed a light coating of water and corn syrup solution applied to a continuous dough sheet on a moving conveyor. The solution wets the dough surface and acts as an adhesive for dried granular flavorings applied downstream — so coating uniformity directly determines finished product quality.
Two spray approaches had already been tried, and both failed:
[01]
Coverage wasn’t uniform across the sheet width. Manual metering valves couldn’t adapt to line speed variations, and breaks in the dough extrusion meant the system sprayed coating onto an empty conveyor — wasting material continuously.
[02]
Coverage improved, but the nozzles generated excessive overspray mist that contaminated the surrounding production area — forcing installation of a maintenance-intensive mist collection system that added cost and complexity without fixing the core waste problem.
[01]
Neither approach could control flow rate independently of spray pressure — any attempt to reduce flow also changed droplet size and spray angle, degrading coverage. The bakery was consuming more than 60% excess coating on every shift.
[02]
Both systems ran at fixed flow rates. During slowdowns, ramp-ups, and dough breaks, coating poured at full rate — waste flowing straight into the process.
The bakery needed lightweight, uniform coating at very low flow rates, automatic adaptation to line speed, product presence detection, and zero overspray — without adding maintenance burden.
Spraymation engineered a fully automated spray coating system designed to the bakery’s exact conveyor width, line speed range, and coating weight specifications.
Precision Spray Control (PSC) with electrically-actuated nozzles. Four hydraulic spray nozzles with electric actuation, mounted on a custom header spanning the full conveyor width. PSC cycles the nozzles on and off at high speed to control flow rate independently of liquid pressure — maintaining optimal drop size and spray angle at any flow setting. This is the key engineering difference: flow rate changes without degrading coverage quality.
Closed-loop controller with sensor triggering. A programmable spray controller takes input from a photoelectric sensor that detects the dough sheet. The system sprays only when product is present and adjusts flow in real time to match line speed — eliminating waste during breaks, slowdowns, and ramp-ups.
Air-operated double diaphragm pump. An integrated AODD pump delivers the water and corn syrup solution to the spray header at consistent, stable pressure regardless of tank level.
Stainless steel, food-grade construction. All wetted components are FDA/USDA compliant and designed for full washdown, with the header and nozzle assemblies engineered for quick removal during sanitation cycles.
Spraymation’s engineering team analyzed the bakery’s dough sheet geometry, conveyor speed profile, and target coating weight, and performed fluid testing to characterize the corn syrup solution’s atomization behavior at the required low flow rates. The system was engineered, assembled, and factory acceptance tested at Spraymation’s Fort Lauderdale facility before shipment — with commissioning completed in a single planned maintenance window.
The Results
60% reduction in coating consumption.
Precision Spray Control and sensor-triggered operation eliminated the over-application and empty-conveyor waste that had defeated both previous systems. Transfer efficiency improved dramatically.
Overspray mist completely eliminated.
Hydraulic PSC nozzles replaced the misting air atomizers — and the mist collection system was decommissioned entirely, removing its maintenance cost, energy consumption, and operational complexity.
Uniform coverage at any line speed.
The closed-loop controller holds the correct application rate as the conveyor speeds up, slows down, or stops. Flavoring adhesion is consistent on every batch, regardless of production conditions.
$6,000+ monthly savings — $70,000+ annually.
Reduced coating waste, eliminated mist-collection maintenance, and increased yield combine for over $70K per year.
Payback in under 2 months.
One of the fastest returns on a spray automation investment in commercial baking.
Get Started
If you’ve already tried spray systems that couldn’t control flow without wrecking coverage — or that traded one problem for another — Spraymation engineers the approach that works for your product, your line speeds, and your sanitation requirements.
Case Study CS-2026-TC-001 | © Spraymation Holdings Inc. 2026 | ISO 9001:2015 Certified