‘Flexibility was the aim behind R&D’: Carle&Montanari-OPM on new machines

Flexibility was the aim behind Carle&Montanari-OPM’s new launches for chocolate preparation and primary packaging that it showcased at ProSweets, its sales and marketing manager said.

The Italian firm showcased its Beta X Vertical Continuous Temperer machine and the JT Pro integrated flow-wrapping machine at ProSweets 2013 in Cologne.

Speaking to ConfectioneryNews.com, sales and marketing manager Giulio Bellanti said that both had been developed to respond to a customer demand for flexibility.

Continuous chocolate tempering machine

The patent-pending temperer enables chocolate manufacturers to cover a wider range of production capacity during tempering – from 10-100% as opposed to the traditional options of 50 or 100% only.

The machine can operate at a maximum output level of 2000kg/hour.

“That is very interesting for customers who need flexibility in their product range,” Bellanti said.

The machine features a ‘smart tempering’ device that ensures easy use for customers.

The sales and marketing manager explained that manufacturers just need to input an initial tempering level and the machine then works on adjusting temperatures through a mathematical algorithm for the rest of the processing.

“Customers who we are targeting are those who need a very wide range of tempering, in the sense that they might need to go from very low volumes to high volumes. In that way they can get it with only one machine that has energy-saving features and using a very limited space,” he said.

Integrated flow-wrapper

Bellanti said that flexibility was also behind the development of the company’s latest flow-wrapping machine.

“The new flow-wrapping machine was developed in order to be flexible; tailor-made to our customer’s need and the version that we are presenting at the show is actually integrated with a feeding system with robot,” he said.

The machine features a propriety feeding robot to ensure control of all integration. The flow-wrapping part was also fully re-designed and developed from scratch.

The system can operate at a rate of up to 500ppm/70m/minute in films.