Reglazing Chocolate Bars

Problem
A chocolate maker was having trouble with roughness left on the bottoms of their moulded chocolate bars. Their process involved melted chocolate being poured into bar shaped moulds and smoothed with a rubber doctor blade. Unfortunately, this smoothing motion left the bottom side of the chocolate bars rough and unattractive resulting in high reject rates and poor quality.

Solution
The Application Engineers at STANMECH Technologies Inc. worked to design a custom solution for this customer. The solution was integrated right into their existing production line. The solution involved using the precise application of gentle heat to reglaze the molded chocolate in order to develop a smooth surface.  Testing was carried out at our Burlington, Ontario location to ensure the system would work at the speeds of the current production line meaning no increase in production time would be necessary. After several rounds of testing, the ideal tool parameters were found and the system design and subsequent test results were shown to the manufacturer.

Their production process now has an extra step but takes no longer than previously: after the chocolate is smoothed it is passed under several Leister LHS hot air tools which reglaze the surface of the chocolate.

Results
With improvements in productivity, scrap rates and quality, the end result is perfectly smooth chocolate bar bottoms thanks to the Leister LHS hot air tools.