Belt and processing equipment firm Ipco sets its sights on ProSweets
The Ipco rotoform system. Pic: Ipco
Chocolate belt and forming equipment business Ipco will be showcasing its flagship Rotoform HP rotary drop depositor at the fast-approaching ProSweets event, writes Neill Barston.
The company has a long-established reputation within the sector, and is a regular exhibitor for the key Cologne show in Germany, which returns between 2-5 February, with a significant enhancement to its interactive offerings highlighting latest equipment and ingredients developments.
According to the company, another area that it will be focusing on for the show will be its high productivity triple pass chocolate cooling systems, including a system capable of producing chips, chunks and wafers on the same line.
Mitchell Paquaij, IPCO Global Product Manager, Food, (pictured below) believed that the 2025 edition of ProSweets held significant potential.
He said: “Rotoform is at the heart of all our high capacity chocolate forming solutions,” explains “and we invite visitors to come and see the system in operation on our stand.”
The latest model in the Rotoform range to b demonstrated at ProSweets is its HP (High Performance) model, a purpose-designed system that brings new levels of productivity in chocolate chip forming.
As the company noted, the Rotoform consists of a heated stator – which is supplied with liquid chocolate – and a perforated rotating shell that turns concentrically around the stator to deposit drops of chocolate onto a continuously running steel belt. A system of baffles and internal nozzles provides uniform pressure across the whole belt width, delivering chips of uniform shape and size.
The circumferential speed of the Rotoform is synchronised with the speed of the belt: drops are therefore deposited without deformation. The heat of the drops is transferred to cooling air blown onto the product and also to the belt itself. A short cooling time means that very little oxygen can penetrate the product.
Chips are free flowing for easy handling, storage and dosing. Chips of different sizes – from 30,000 to 300 pcs/kg – can be produced by simply changing the shell.
Cooling system demo
Furthermore, as the company added ,a wide range of production components means IPCO can tailor systems to meet different needs, from low cost, rapid deployment start-ups to high capacity multi-layer systems. These include a range of triple pass cooling systems that enable high throughput rates while minimising floorspace requirements. The product is deposited on the first belt and adheres to the underside for the second pass. It is then removed on to a second conveyor for a third pass.
The business recently introduced an innovative piston depositor that combines a direct-to-belt delivery approach with precision control to enable the production of perfectly circular large – i.e. wide and/or thick – wafer products.
The piston depositor can be installed alongside existing Rotoform and extrusion equipment on IPCO CCM (Chip and Chunk Moulding) triple pass steel belt cooler lines. This enables three depositing systems to be integrated on a single line for maximum production flexibility. It can also be installed as an upgrade to older CCM lines, or as a standalone system on new lines.
Notably, the firm has been supplying steel belts for use in confectionery and chocolate processing for almost 100 years, in applications ranging from simple conveying to continuous processes such as cooling/solidification, conditioning, drop-forming and casting.
Products processed this way include caramel, chocolate, hard melt candy, nougat, nut brittle and more. In each case, the product is applied to the belt as a melt, either through casting or drop depositing, and solidified as it passes through a cooling tunnel. The heat of the melt is transferred to cooling air blown onto the product and also to the belt itself.
