In under 30 minutes, chocolate producers can change a module, Bühler claims. “With the new ChocoX, customers are able to react quickly to changing consumer tastes and market trends – while reaching new heights in efficiency,” says Fritz Dorner, head of business unit confectionery.
Bühler’s says its modular design allows for unlimited crossovers of the process line and quick adaptation to different products. Every function of the line is placed in an independent module, to be freely adapted for the production process manufacturers require.
Moulding lines are prone to getting dirty quickly and often they are hard to access, says Frank Huperz, Bühler’s head of design & engineering. “The completely new cooling technology relinquishes the complicated, hard-to-clean and voluminous Paternoster system, and the new ChocoX provides for a considerable reduction of downtime thanks to less cleaning and maintenance efforts needed,” he said.
All modules work without chains. In addition to increased food safety, the chainless line design lowers the maintenance efforts. Generally, cleaning time per module is only 30 minutes, also because there are no installations underneath the depositing sections. “Large doors offer free accessibility to all modules from the front and the back,” said Huperz.
Several patents are currently pending for this new state-of-the-art moulding solution and Bühler says it will share more information on its commercial use by the end of 2020.