Chocolate Processing at Kinnerton Confectionary

Kinnerton Confectionary in Fakenham, Norfolk (UK), with production lines producing millions of Easter eggs, chocolate lollipops, truffles, and chocolate cartoon characters for its own label and other household brands. Critical to all their chocolate products was the cooling process operating in the 'cooling tunnel', inside of which a delicate balance was maintained between the temperature, relative humidity (RH) and the airflow. To give their chocolate the right gloss and a maximum shelf life, CAS DataLogger had to determine the monitoring system that would ensure the cooling profile for each product was maintained. This often proved difficult when technicians had to account for the ambient outside temperature and relative humidity, both of which could change several times during the day from April to the end of September as the local weather fluctuated violently. An effective data logging solution was needed to address these vital concerns.

Reproducing the right ‘snap’ when breaking off a quality piece of chocolate could be just as demanding. The cooling process had to remain consistent throughout the whole mass of the chocolate and technicians needed an accurate and reliable data logger to be able to confidently set the correct cooling conditions for products whose mass varied from Easter eggs to thick chocolate bars. With many thousands of products rolling off the production lines each day, a cooling failure left undetected for even a short time could have lead to a significant loss of product and profit.

Maintaining relative humidity was equally critical to the process. To prevent the possibility of condensation marking the chocolate in its mold, technicians always worked to check that the temperature of the cooling tunnel never fell below the dew point where air turned to moisture. The dew point, measured by a thermal hygrometer, fluctuated depending on the temperature and humidity of the atmosphere in the production area. Current temperature and humidity also affected the speed at which each product traveled through the cooling tunnels. The combination of all these varying factors made up the cooling profile for each product.

The customer installed six Grant Squirrel 2010 Portable Data Loggers equipped with temperature and relative humidity probes as well as airflow monitors in the six cooling tunnels, and added another probe to measure the internal cooling rate of the chocolate product. Each of the SQ2010 data loggers' 4 to 8 analog inputs were connected to the probes to monitor the tunnel temperature and cooling rate. All readings were saved on their 16 MB internal memory, each storing up to 1-2 million readings. This information was easy to access using their 2-line x 40-character LCDs and button panels. Additionally, the data loggers' handheld, lightweight design made them a convenient and economical solution. The flexible monitoring units were especially useful to compensate for the changing weather, one of the client's primary concerns. Their 24-bit analog-to-digital (ADC) converters performed precision measurements enabling technicians to constantly fine-tune conditions in the cooling tunnels to maintain consistent product cooling profiles.

The customer's operations became much more streamlined after installing the Squirrel data loggers. The temperature monitoring units helped the technicians build a history of the cooling profiles for each product and each cooling tunnel, all easily downloadable to a PC via USB connectivity. Their RS232 ports allowed connection to modems and other networking devices. The SQ2010 monitored the tunnel temperature above the dew point and provided the confectionary with an early warning system via 2 alarm outputs for immediate detection of any cooling failures.

Pete Martin of CAS DataLoggers commented: “We specialize in supplying data loggers that are versatile enough for any manufacturing process. We can customize our Squirrel Data Loggers to deliver data accurately and reliably in environments where there are extremes of heat and cold, even in water. Our monitoring units are about the size of a small notebook, but they are extremely sophisticated and very easy to use. With our systems you don’t need to be a computer scientist to collect, download and analyze data. These units are playing a vital role in the production process in almost every aspect of the manufacturing industry--a testimony to their versatility and cost-effectiveness."

Mr. Martin continued, “The Squirrels are invaluable to our customers who use them every day to ensure that their wide ranges of products are produced to a consistently high quality. They're compact, robust, easy to use and very reliable. Our clients couldn't do without them.”