The wafer production process, stage by stage
A wafer line starts with two parallel streams. A thin, pourable batter is mixed for the sheets, while a separate cream is prepared for the filling. Consistency in both streams is what keeps sheet thickness and filling weight repeatable across a shift.
The batter is baked between hot plates into thin sheets. Baked sheets pass to a creaming station, where cream is spread and sheets are stacked into a book. The book is then cooled so the cream sets firm enough to cut cleanly.
Once set, the book is cut into individual wafers, and finished pieces move toward coating, sorting, or packaging. Some producers add a chocolate or compound coating step before packing, which is where an enrobing or moulding-adjacent station enters the line.
Two stages in this sequence are outside our catalog: wafer-sheet baking on hot plates, and book cutting into finished wafers. We do not supply those machines, and we will point you to the right specialist rather than improvise a spec. The stages we do build are described below.
Cream preparation and pre-mixing
The filling cream is the stage that most often limits a wafer line. A homogeneous cream at the right temperature spreads evenly and sets predictably; an inconsistent cream shows up as uneven books and cutting waste.
Our pre-mixer M-1200 handles this stage at 1,000 kg per 15 minutes. It gives a homogeneous mix with a circulation pump for water heating and a 7-inch touchscreen for automatic programming, in a stainless, quick-clean build. You can read the full specification on the [industrial mixers page](/machines/industrial-mixers/).
For fat-based creams, fats are melted and held before mixing. The fat melting tank M-1000 melts and transfers 1,000 kg per 30 minutes, and prepared cream can be held and circulated in a stock tank M-2000 at 2,000 kg. Storage tanks are buildable from 50 kg to 100 tonnes, so the buffer scales to your line rate rather than forcing your line to match a fixed tank.
Sizing here is driven by your throughput, batch frequency, and how much buffered cream the line needs between the mixer and the creaming station. We size the mixing and storage together so the cream stream never starves the creaming step.
Cooling: setting the book before it cuts
Cooling is the second stage that governs line speed. Cut a book before the cream has set and you get smearing and scrap; cool too slowly and the line rate drops to match the tunnel.
Our cooling tunnel M-590 provides rapid, controlled cooling at 5,000 to 9,000 kcal/h over a 20-metre tunnel. The tunnel length is configurable to line output, so cooling time and belt speed are matched to how fast books arrive from creaming. Full detail is on the [cooling tunnels page](/machines/cooling-tunnels/).
The cooling stage is sized from the incoming product temperature, the target set temperature, and the line speed. Those three figures, taken from your line, set the required cooling capacity and tunnel length, which we confirm at quotation.
Coating and handling stations
Many wafer producers coat finished pieces in chocolate or compound. Enrobing is engineered to order at our Casablanca facility, sized to your product width, throughput, and coating type. Where a coating requirement is better served by a one-shot or depositing approach, we scope that during quotation rather than forcing a fixed machine onto the line.
Coating draws on the same melting and storage tanks described above to hold and feed chocolate or compound to the coating head. Internal gear, helical gear, lobe, and stainless or bronze pumps move fat-based masses between tanks and the coating station, sized to duty.
For product handling, the feeding and alignment conveyor M-100 moves 1,000 pieces per minute, transporting bars, tablets, biscuits, cakes, and wafers from a tunnel or oven exit toward sorting or packaging. It ties the cooling exit to whatever downstream sorting or packing you run.
Where your line needs a transfer, buffering, or handling arrangement that no catalog machine covers, that is scoped as custom work. We design it against your product and plant constraints instead of leaving a gap in the line.
How we fit a wafer line and how it is sized
We are honest about scope on a wafer line. We supply the cream-preparation stations (M-1200), the melting and storage tanks (M-1000, M-2000, and larger), the cooling tunnel (M-590), coating built to order, product handling (M-100), and the pumps and custom work that connect them. Sheet baking and book cutting we do not build.
That honesty is the point. A wafer line is only as good as its slowest station, and cream and cooling are the two we build and know best. Getting those right, and integrating cleanly with your baking and cutting equipment, is where our engineering earns its place on the line.
Every station is sized on quotation from your throughput, product, and plant constraints. Capacity, automation level, line length, and options are the cost drivers we work through with you. Delivery is confirmed with each quotation, and destination-market requirements (CE for the EU, SASO/SFDA for Saudi Arabia, and others) are reviewed as part of it.
We build in Casablanca and ship worldwide, with installation, commissioning, operator training, and after-sales support delivered in English, French, and Arabic. To scope your line, start a [request for quotation](/request-quote/) with your target output and product.