Cadbury adds compact powder handling unit

Spalding, UK -- Cadbury has installed a new powder handling equipment to overcome a space shortage and meet efficiency and other requirements on a new chocolate process line at one of its UK plants.

The Guttridge Bulkflo hopper/elevator combination can hold 600 litres of cocoa powder in the hopper, tipped from 25kg bags. It is also designed to discharge powder to a mixer on a ‘first-in first-out’ basis at a controlled rate, with minimum operator intervention.

According to Gutridge, the compact mobile hopper and screw elevator combination minimises airborne dust and meets ATEX requirements for a Zone 22 environment. The unit also features a ‘2B’ satin stainless steel finish and rounded corners in the hopper to eliminate product build-up and bridging.

Cocoa powder is discharged from the hopper by horizontal, variable pitch screw. A frequency inverter enables fine-tuning of the discharge rate, whilst a low level probe linked to an audible alarm provides a signal for hopper refill.

A rigid screw elevator, close-coupled to the hopper discharge screw, feeds the cocoa powder to the mixer at a height of 2 metres. The elevator’s steep 70 degree incline ensures that the whole system takes up the smallest possible amount of floor space.

The equipment can be stripped down in minutes, thanks to the use of quick-release clamps and slip-fit joints, with just one tool required for complete system dismantling and rebuild for routine cleaning, said Guttridge.

According to Pete Dando, senior project engineer at Cadbury, the unit “is simple to operate and can be cleaned-down quickly for maximum efficiency. It’s a valuable component of the new processing line and yet takes up little space on the shopfloor.”