Cadbury avoids breaking mould for Caramel bars

At its Keynsham, Avon, factory Cadbury Trebor Bassett produces Cadbury's Caramel - hard on the outside, soft on the inside - by filling a shaped mould with chocolate to form a shell.

The chocolate is then chilled to solidify it, before the shell is filled with the caramel and cooled again. So far, so good, and straightforward.

The next stage, however, is the tricky one. The filled shells have to be closed with a layer of chocolate fused to the rim of the moulded chocolate.

Previously, Cadbury had used a 20kW infrared system, with ceramic heating elements, to do this. But the system had limitations, such as its bulky size, a long heat-up time and had to be retracted to prevent overheating the chocolate if the line stopped.

Switching to a carbon, medium wave, infrared system from Heraeus Noblelight has solved all these problems. The 8kW stainless steel unit is an integral part of the production line, with no need for retraction equipment since the low thermal mass, carbon fibre elements have very rapid response and precise controllability.