How a Dividing Machine Works: Cutting Dough or Filling into Equal-Weight Portions

One Material, Cut into Many Equal-Weight Portions

Factories making mooncakes, sun cakes, and pineapple cakes have to divide dozens of kilograms of filling every day into individual 20 g or 30 g balls; shops making sweet potato balls and taro balls have to cut a large mass of dough into small balls of the same size. Weighing and rolling them by hand is slow and inaccurate. This is exactly what a dividing machine does.

How Is a Dividing Machine Different from an Encrusting Machine?

The two have very similar structures; the difference is the number of materials:

• Encrusting machine: Two feed systems, for dough and filling, co-extrude through a concentric double-layer nozzle, and what is cut is "dough wrapping filling"; see Co-Extrusion Principle.
• Dividing machine: Only one feed system and one outlet; what is cut is portions of a single material.

That is also why, when an encrusting machine's ratio is set to only one of the two materials (such as the 1:0 or 0:1 listed for RHEON's KASEIJIN (火星人)), it is effectively doing a dividing machine's job. Conversely, a dividing machine is often the front end of an encrusting line: it first divides the filling into equal-weight balls, which are then wrapped by hand or by other machines.

How Is Every Portion Kept the Same Weight?

There are roughly two dividing principles:

Volumetric: fixed volume × fixed time
The feeding mechanism (a screw, vane pump, or other metering mechanism) extrudes the material at a steady rate, and the cutting mechanism below the outlet cuts at fixed intervals. With steady output and steady cutting rhythm, each portion has the same volume; as long as the material's density stays constant, the weight is the same too. Most filling dividers are of this type.

Weighing: weigh while cutting
This is common in the bread industry. For example, RHEON's EZ divider has a "weighing cut mode" that measures the dough weight while dividing it at a set value (20–350 g), as well as a mode that cuts at fixed lengths; the VM system divides bread dough by the gravimetric method.

Whichever type, the factors that affect weight consistency are much the same:

• Uniform material with no air bubbles or lumps.
• A stable material level in the hopper, so the feeding mechanism fills completely every time.
• Stable material temperature, so firmness does not change over time.
• Clean cuts, without sticking to the blade or trailing.

For detailed troubleshooting, see Weight Control.

Cutting Methods

• Shutter type: Several blades close from all sides to cut near-spherical portions, suited to fillings and doughs that need to be "portioned into balls."
• Blade or wire type: Cuts horizontally with a clean cut surface, suited to bars and blocks such as cookie dough bars.
• Others: Materials that are too soft or nearly fluid are hard for a shutter to cut, so a depositor is used instead. The "depositor function option" RHEON introduced for the CN700 is designed for dividing soft materials that a shutter has trouble cutting.

What Kinds of Ingredients Can Be Divided?

In principle, any material with some viscosity that can be extruded into shape:

• Fillings: red bean paste, mung bean paste, mooncake filling, taro paste, lotus seed paste, pineapple filling, sun cake and Dajia pastry (大甲酥餅) fillings, and taro pastry fillings.
• Doughs and rice doughs: sweet potato ball dough, taro balls, sweet potato balls (蕃薯圓), mochi, Ningbo rice cakes, and Korean rice cakes.
• Cookie dough: extruded into bars and then cut into sections.

Sauces that are too thin and runny, or materials containing large solids that can clog the outlet, are not suitable for ordinary dividing machines.

The Dong-Yih DY-528 Series

One of Dong-Yih Machinery's lines of business is microcomputer-controlled fully automatic dividing machines:

• DY-528MS Sweet Potato Ball and Taro Ball Dividing Machine: 3,000–12,000 pieces per hour, 10 g–30 g per piece or heavier; single-phase 220V, 1.6 kW (three-phase 380/415/440V must be custom-ordered). Suitable for sweet potato balls (蕃薯圓), taro balls, sweet potato balls (地瓜球), mochi, mooncake filling, mung bean paste, red bean paste, sun cake filling, Dajia pastry filling, taro pastry filling, Ningbo rice cakes, Korean rice cakes, and dividing cookie dough bars of all kinds.
• DY-528M Automatic Dough and Filling Dividing Machine: likewise 3,000–12,000 pieces per hour at 10 g–30 g per piece or heavier, suitable for sweet potato balls, mooncake filling, mung bean paste, red bean paste, sun cake filling, Dajia pastry filling, taro pastry filling, and dividing cookie dough bars.

For details on the DY-528 series' dividing mechanism and weight tolerance, call us at 06-257-4644. It is best to bring your own ingredients for a test.

FAQ

Q: How is a dividing machine different from an encrusting machine?
A: A dividing machine handles only one material and cuts it into equal-weight portions; an encrusting machine co-extrudes two materials, dough and filling, and cuts products with dough wrapping filling.

Q: How is every portion kept the same weight?
A: Through steady metered feeding and cutting at a fixed rhythm, plus uniform material, stable temperature, and a hopper that never runs empty. Weighing-type machines weigh while cutting.

Q: What ingredients can a dividing machine handle?
A: Fillings such as red bean, mung bean, and mooncake fillings; rice and flour doughs such as sweet potato balls, taro balls, mochi, and rice cakes; and cookie dough bars. Materials that are too thin or contain large solids are less suitable.

Q: How many pieces can the DY-528MS make per hour?
A: 3,000–12,000 pieces per hour at 10 g–30 g per piece or heavier, depending on the product and settings.