Pie Shell Press Machine

A pie manufacturer requested Graybill to build a pie machine to press pie shells using multiple dough recipes. Their existing method was labor intensive, did not have a sufficiently high output, and resulted in inconsistent product. In addition, an unacceptable number of the larger size pie shells were incomplete and had to be rejected at inspection.

Graybill designed and built a pie shell press to manufacture 3”, 4”, 5” and 6” pressed pie shells with fancy edges. The compact machine size made it easy to fit into their floorplan. This shell press machine drops the foils, portions the dough, presses the shells, and discharges the completed pressed shells in an orderly array on the discharge conveyor.

The customer was pleased with the rates they could now achieve, and that the previous troublesome variations in dough thickness were gone. Dough give-away could now be reduced, as shells more closely matched the package weight. Also, changeover from size to size was easy because of features like control recipes and tool-less size parts changes incorporated by Graybill.

The pie shells made on this shell press are a welcome addition to Graybill’s other pie machines that produce pies from sheeted dough.