Handling of brittle wafer/coated confectionery and biscuits without fracture

Wafer-layered and coated products (e.g., KitKat fingers, layered biscuits) are brittle and crack under point loads, yet must be picked, oriented and collated into wrappers, trays or multipacks at high throughput. The product geometry is layered and laminated, so a force-blind clamp or pinch can shear the coating or snap the wafer, generating scrap and line stoppages. This task sits between baking/coating cooling and primary/secondary packaging. The difficulty for a robot is detecting the onset of fracture and adapting clamp force in real time across pieces that vary slightly in thickness and coating integrity, while keeping pace with fast lines. No Nestlé-specific public statement of this need was found, so demand is inferred from the product portfolio and general confectionery-handling practice. We identified this through our own research; we have not confirmed the specifics with the customer directly. This page is our researched read — a starting point for that conversation.