FoodJet's pizza sauce depositor applies sauce onto each pizza base in a controlled pattern on a moving conveyor. An array of individually controlled nozzles deposits on demand, so the head places sauce on any base, anywhere across the belt, in any pattern you set, with no fixed tooling. Vision recognises the shape and position of every base, so the deposit lands correctly without product alignment, with smooth or chunky sauce.
This page covers both deposits on a pizza line: the sauce, and liquid cheese applied as a second deposit.
The depositor places sauce in a defined pattern across each base. You decide the pattern: a full layer, a ring, or a shape that leaves the edge clear.
A 70-second animation: vision measures each base, so the sauce lands inside a clean edge, also when bases arrive off-centre or rotated.
Pizza bases are rarely placed perfectly on the conveyor, and they do not have to be. Each nozzle deposits on demand and vision recognises where every base sits, so the head targets each one and reduces misplaced sauce. Bases that vary in size or sit off-centre are still sauced correctly.
Pizza sauce ranges from smooth passata to chunky sauces with herbs or vegetable pieces. The depositor is configured to your sauce: the nozzle and dosing are matched to the consistency and to any inclusions, so larger pieces pass through without blocking and the deposit stays clean. Tell us the sauce and we match the depositing head to it.
The pattern and the dosing live in the product recipe in the FoodJet Control Platform software, not in fixed tooling. Each base gets the amount set in the recipe, and if your sauce gets thicker or thinner, the recipe settings are adjusted to match. Changing to another product or pattern is a recipe upload rather than a mechanical change-over, so you keep the line running.
Most pizza lines need more than sauce. Cheese goes on as a second deposit, from its own station further down the line, after the sauce has been laid down. A station runs one product at a time, so sauce and cheese stay separate. Both stations use the same type of depositing head, which means the cheese does not ask for a different kind of machine than the sauce.
At each station the nozzles are controlled separately and the system sees where every base actually is, so the cheese lands on your product instead of on the belt, also when the bases are unevenly spaced or have shifted on their way through the line. You lose less cheese between the pizzas.
Which layout fits depends on your line, the belt speed and the space you have. Send us your layout and we will go through it with you.
Animation: vision measures each base, so the sauce lands inside a clean edge, also when bases arrive off-centre or rotated. More info here
Create different sauce patterns, each defined in the product recipe. More info here
Video shot doing some testing with the FoodJet pizza sauce depositor test system. Various shapes and different sauces. More info here
Depositing pizza sauce before the oven on an 800 mm wide conveyor. More info here
Though not the most recent video of our pizza sauce depositor, it does explain the basic technology very well. More info here
A short video we shot during the 2018 IBA exhibition. It nicely shows how the FoodJet pizza sauce depositor can handle random shapes.
You can get a solid estimate of your line capacity yourself, with four numbers: the size of your product, the pitch (the spacing between products, across and along the belt), the number of lanes, and the belt speed. Product size, pitch and lanes together decide how many products fit on the belt at any moment. Multiply that by the belt speed and you have your capacity in products per minute, and from there per hour or per shift. This part is straight maths, and you do not need us for it.
There is one factor that does need our input: can we deposit your product accurately at the belt speed you are aiming for? That depends on the material. As a guide, line speeds up to 25 m/min have proven possible for pizza sauce and similar products. Viscosity, particle size and the way a sauce flows all affect how fast we can dose it cleanly, so treat that figure as a guide for a first estimate, not as a limit. For every application we run a trial with your actual sauce, so the capacity you plan with is one we have measured, not one we have assumed.
The core of a FoodJet system is the depositing head: an array of individually controlled nozzles across the full width of the belt. Each nozzle deposits on demand, so the head places sauce on any base, anywhere across the belt, with no fixed tooling and no set product positions. Vision recognises where every base sits and the nozzle array deposits exactly there. Together this means you do not lose belt space to alignment or to a fixed pitch: you run products closer together and across the full width, so the same belt and the same speed deliver more products per minute. The smaller the product, the more this counts.
On a standard 800 mm belt this is clearest with small products. Take mini pizzas of around 100 mm. Because the nozzle array deposits on each one wherever it sits, you can run them close together across the full width and along the belt, instead of in a few fixed lanes. At 25 m/min that runs to roughly 1,600 mini pizzas per minute, around 95,000 per hour. Full-size 300 mm pizzas on the same belt at the same speed run to roughly 160 per minute. The depositing head does not change; the belt simply carries far more product.
Every FoodJet system is configured to your line, so no two are identical. A pizza sauce setup is matched to your sauce, your base and your throughput, as a standalone unit or integrated into your existing conveyor. The table below shows what a typical pizza sauce application looks like.
Application | Depositing sauce onto pizza bases in a controlled pattern |
Materials | Pizza sauce, passata, smooth or chunky sauces with inclusions |
Substrates | Pizza bases, varying in size and position |
Pattern | Full layer, ring or custom pattern, defined in software |
Product alignment | Not required; nozzle array deposits per base, vision-guided |
Conveyor width | Configured to your line, for example a standard 800 mm belt |
Line speed | Up to 25 m/min for pizza sauce, confirmed in a trial |
Capacity | Calculated from product size, pitch, lanes and belt speed |
Inclusions | Larger nozzle options for chunky sauce, matched to particle size |
Change-overs | Recipe upload, no mechanical change-overs |
System | Standalone or integrated into your existing conveyor |
Share your sauce type (smooth/chunky), target pattern, line speed, and belt width, then we’ll advise a suitable configuration.
