October 2019

44 n FOOD AND BEVERAGE October 2019 www.drivesncontrols.com Automation produces bespoke chocolates in batches of one V isitors to Tony’s Chocolonely Super Store in Amsterdam can place orders for chocolate bars that they can customise using a choice of ingredients. Their bespoke confectionery is delivered to them 40 minutes later, complete with packaging configured to their specification. This is achieved using an automated chocolate- makingmachine, called Tony’s Unlimited, which is on display in the store’s window. Tony’s owners are passionate about chocolate, and pride themselves on sustainable sourcing using fair ingredients without, for example, involving child labour or wage dumping. The company wanted its customers not only to share the chocolate, but also the story behind it. To achieve this, Tony’s came up with the customisable chocolate machine. The machine does more than just produce customisable chocolate bars. It also supplies them in“two-in-one”packages: one bar for the purchaser; the second to be given away, thus spreading the philosophy of the business. The machine, manufactured by the Belgian chocolate-making machinery expert Hacos, can produce single bars using one of three types of chocolate in two layers, to which three extra ingredients can be added from a choice of 20. “We needed to design a fully automated process with a high level of data integration in a footprint more typical of an artisan or mid-range machine – which we rarely sell with such a sophisticated automation solution,”recalls Hacos’sales and marketing manager, Raf Tuytelaars.“Each bar is made to order, so the automation solution and process had to be extremely flexible and integrate with an advanced real-time ordering and tracking system.” The melting line and cooling process located at the rear of the shop can be viewed by customers and had to be both compact (fitting in a 20m 2 footprint) and visually engaging. This also applies to the automation, control and visualisation components. The line had to be highly flexible and able to produce chocolate bars to individual customer specifications within a short period of time. The automation system captures each customer’s order that they enter via touchscreens, and keeps them informed exactly where each chocolate bar is in the manufacturing process. When their order is ready, they can be sent a text message automatically. “In this process, we have two crucial requirements: first, we need to have perfect temperature control in the process, and we have to monitor all the steps,” explains Jaap Leuijerin from Ijssel Technologies, who led the chocolate machine project.“With the state-of-the-art automation solution in our moulding line, we can achieve optimum quality for each individual bar. Next, we need to make sure the operator always knows where each bar is in the process and when it is ready for packaging. Interaction with the process has to be extremely intuitive and precise, as the staff at the Super Store have no industry background.” The chocolate-making machine is integrated into an order-tracking and checkout system developed especially for Tony’s. At the heart of the machine is a Siemens Simatic S7-1200 Basic controller which receives the recipes based on the customer’s order and forwards this data, together with the current status, to RFID (radio frequency identification) tags on the chocolate moulds. The controller provides the current data, such as the production status, and monitors the cooling process. Once a bar is ready to pack, the controller sends a signal to the store system. The complex, yet compact, automation system is operated via several pre- configured Simatic Comfort Panel Pro HMIs. The TIA (Totally Integrated Automation) engineering framework is said to have made the engineering particularly easy. In effect, Hacos has created a plant for the serial production of chocolate bars that can run 24 hours a day, producing the chocolates in batch quantities of one. n A Dutch chocolate-maker is attracting chocoholics to its Amsterdam shop by allowing them to order customised confectionery which is delivered to them 40 minutes later. Behind the service is flexible serial production machine that can deliver batch sizes of one. The chocolate-making machine produces pairs of bespoke chocolate bars – one to be eaten, the other to be given away The chocolate-making process is monitored and controlled via a series of HMIs