Calum
@calum
11/13/14 08:53:02
24 posts
Hi folks,I have been offered an ex display Prima and enrober attachment at a reasonable price.The machine has less than 5 hours working time so it's essentially new. This would be our first continuous temperer and enrober, we currently have the old wheel style machines.I know the Prima has a 7kg working bowl with a theoretical 35 kg/ h output. While 35kg/h is fine I wondered how easily is this achieved? Is this just a case of adding melted chocolate to the working bowl whenever you want? Sorry, I've never used a continuous temperer before so don't really know how they work! My main concern is that I'm buying too small a working bowl and it would just be time consuming to constantly fill up.Also, how easy are these machines to clean and swap from dark to milk, is there any chocolate waste?Thanks in advance for any advise.Calum
updated by @calum: 04/11/15 01:18:12
Calum
@calum
11/13/14 09:00:57
24 posts
Some figures:Av. 100kg/ weekBusy: 250kg/week
Calum
@calum
11/13/14 16:34:43
24 posts
Any thoughts would be very much appreciated, looking to make a decision on this tomorrow so would love to hear so,e thoughts.Thanks.
Clay Gordon
@clay
11/17/14 15:55:37
1,680 posts

Calum -

Vantage House sells and services FBM in the UK. Have you been in contact with them?

First off, throughput is on FBM machines is closer to 3x bowl capacity per hour than 5x. To get close to this throughput you do need to keep topping up the bowl as you go. You don't want to let the bowl get below 1/3 empty in normal operation as the machine is at its most efficient and stable when it's full (this applies to all continuous tempering machines of this type).

There is no way that you are going to use even close to 35kg an hour with an enrober. Think about it. 1000 pieces per hour at 10gr per piece is 10kg of chocolate. That's well within the Prima's range and far more than you can crank through the machine.

The hourly limit is reachable when filling molds. If you are hand-depositing 2 molds/minute and each mold has four, 60gr cavities then this is about .5kg/minute or 30kg/hr. In practice it's a challenge to work uninterrupted for this amount of time, so you'd pace the work accordingly.

There's another factor. 100kg/week is about 2.5 kg/hr on average. 250kg in a busy week is 6kg/hr. If this is in fact your production throughput then the Prima is more than suitable for your operation.

In practical terms, the machine is less difficult to clean than the enrober belt. Yes, there is chocolate waste but good working habits can keep it to a minimum - a couple of hundred grams per changeover, maybe. The best approach is to only changeover at the end of the day. The machines can be cleaned (washed if necessary) and left to dry overnight. If you don't wash then getting any enrober belt perfectly clean is nigh on impossible. The best you can do is to work with a heat gun and remove the majority of the current chocolate before swapping in the new. What you can do is capture the initial chocolate that is mixed and use it in a ganache or something like that - rework, not waste.




--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
clay - http://www.thechocolatelife.com/clay/
Calum
@calum
11/18/14 06:57:45
24 posts
H Clay,I'm dealing with vantage House in the UK at the moment as they have a used machine.Thanks for the advise above, very informative, as usual!Calum

Tags

Member Marketplace


Activity

kapil jain
 
kapil jain
 
kapil jain
 
@kapil-jain • 7 years ago

Chocolatevenue is an online chocolate store in India.We are specialized in customized chocolates  .Chocolates can be customized as chocolate message and chocolate bars.

You can get written your message on chocolates and can get customized your chocolate bars by selecting the desired ingredients.

for more details

 

colorchocolate
 
@colorchocolate • 7 years ago

FOR SALE / BARGAIN / FINE CACAO LIQUOR, COLOMBIA ORIGIN

Enjoy a delicious premium chocolate from the Boyacá region of Colombia, considered among the best in the world. We offer a 200 kilograms lot of pure origin cocoa liquor,  fair trade / ethically sourced. N o other ingredients added.

The price for this high quality product is as follows:

1 kg - US$ 13

100 kg - US$ 12 per kilo

200 kg - US$ 11 per kilo

Inquires: equalcolombia@gmail.com

- See more at: https://www.thechocolatelife.com/colorchocolate#sthash.JFDWYFuK.dpuf

- See more at: https://www.thechocolatelife.com/community/forums/my_posts/18453/fine-cacao-liquor-colombia-origin#sthash.2pUq4Eu3.dpuf

Clay Gordon
 
@clay • 7 years ago

FCIA Recognition of Excellence Nominations close in one week:

Clay Gordon
 
The 4 Chocolatiers
 
@the-4-chocolatiers • 7 years ago

Two changes we made with the chocolate is that this time we winnowed the chocolate. This time we didn't use a blow dryer to melt the chocolate. Two improvements with the chocolate is that the melanger didn't get clogged this time and everyone put in work.