Premium Chocolate Maker Sees
Massive Labour-Saving Benefit
Of Tij System
It is easy to assume that labour-intensive
artisanal food operations do not benefit
from automated or semi-automated
solutions in the same way that a
technology-heavy manufacturer might.
But in fact, as Suffolk chocolate maker
Pump Street Chocolate demonstrates,
automating the process of manual date-
coding by installing a RF Lite feeding
system with iJet thermal inkjet (TIJ) coder
makes a huge difference on production
efficiency, freeing up skilled workers for
core duties.
While the team of six full-time workers in
Pump Street’s chocolate room does use
a certain amount of machinery, it is very
much a hands-on operation.
As one of the few UK producers going
all the way from ‘bean to bar’, it requires
maximum workforce availability for
a range of processes, from roasting,
winnowing, grinding and conching to
tempering. That is before the team even
starts to mould and pack the chocolate.
So, when at the end of last year the
Orford-based company began to produce
smaller 20g bars to complement the
existing range of 70g bars, it soon
became clear that automated coding
would be a necessity. The full-size bars
use a zipper-resealable sachet printed in-
house with a batch code and best-before Now, in 20 minutes or so, the Rotech “The speed and the efficiency of the
date, which also acts as a tamper-evident machine prints what it would have taken system were both important, as well
seal. us three days to write by hand.” as its ability to adapt to other products
The smaller tear-open sachets for the Rotech’s RF Lite feeding system is ideal 20g bars, typically destined for the for small-scale food producers like Pump coffee-shop and hotel market, required a Street Chocolate which are automating different solution. for the first time. It pulls individual packs
“We were literally writing the sell by date
on to the sachet by hand,” says Sally
Jones Customer Manager. “Every month
we make batches of around 4,000 bars,
and it was taking up hours of our time.
56 FDPP - www.fdpp.co.uk
from a hopper, positions them ready for
further down the line,” says Sally.
The company is developing packs of
couverture chocolate and chocolate
powders for supply to the foodservice
sector.
coding with the iJet TIJ system, before “From order to delivery and installation, it
transferring them to a stack of coded all happened very quickly,” she adds. “We
sachets. The feeding system has a linear were shown how to operate it, and it’s
speed of up to 60m per minute. incredibly user-friendly.