Abstract: Thin snack chips having a curved or wave shape are obtained by forming, shaping or curling baked chips into a curved or wave configuration before they become too cold and rigid so as to result in breakage during forming. The essentially flat, malleable baked chips, still hot from baking in an oven may be continuously transported on a conveyer belt into a nip or gap formed between the conveyer belt and a rotating forming roller to curve or curl the malleable baked chips around the roller. The malleable baked chips are subjected to a guided curtain of air to cool and set the chips in a curved or wave configuration and to remove or blow the curved or wave chips off of the rotating forming roller onto the conveyor belt.

Abstract: A dough sheet for producing thin, baked chips is obtained continuously by compressing a dough sheet to a thickness of less than or equal to about 0.035 inch between counter-rotating gauge rolls while maintaining the surface of each gauge roll at a temperature of about 85° F. to about 95° F. Maintaining the gauge roll surface temperature at about 85° F. to about 95° F. avoids sticking, tearing, and shredding of the thin dough sheet as it is compressed and transferred by the gauge rolls, even at high production rates or line speeds. A rotary cutter is employed to obtain thin, irregularly shaped, scallop-edged snacks in a variety of shapes from a single dough sheet without producing dough scraps between the pieces.