8 December 2011 – Dublin company, Butlers Chocolates has chosen to install Sollich’s new Teach-in Turbotemper to guarantee consistency of temper over the 24/7 running conditions expected in his factory.

High gloss, clean snap and high heat resistance are the characteristics of Butlers Chocolates fine chocolate confectionery which graces the shelves for discerning international travellers as they pass through airport duty free shops around the world.

The Turbotemper introduced 10 years ago, disclosed Sollich’s discovery that you could accelerate pre-crystallisation by creating shear within the chocolate mass at the right temperature. With like for like surface areas, the new Turbotemper offered a 22% increase in throughput.

Consistent 12 ˚C cooling water temperature and volume flow at that critical chocolate temperature within the tempering machine’s cooling process was a simple but crucial step to giving the operator a consistent percentage of stable βV crystals, but at a 1.5˚C higher discharge temperature, eliminating unstable crystal formation and offering a more manageable working viscosity.

The Tempergraph came latterly; an in-built temper measuring system which, every ten minutes could take a small chocolate sample just before the discharge, cool it under controlled conditions and determine its degree of temper and the type of crystals present; all info is graphically displayed and stored within the control panel. This could alert the operator to an alarm condition if the temper curve were to fall outside given parameters.

The Teach-In turbotemper removes the need for the operator to take the necessary remedial action to bring conditions back under control

Intelligent software design, which is installed in the new machine, learns the operating parameters of a customer’s different chocolates at the point of commissioning.

If there is a change in the operating conditions eg factory cooling water pressure or temperature, incoming chocolate temperature from a new tanker or conche delivery, chocolate feed rate due to feed pump malfunction, teach-in has the capacity to make the necessary adjustments up to a certain point, or to raise an alarm and put the machine into night condition, avoiding the risk of running expensive product to waste.