Multi-filling pralines or attractively decorated chocolate figures continuously raise the bar for modern production facilities – and their complexity is steadily increasing. Awema AG from Switzerland develops and manufactures machinery and systems closely oriented on the market and its customers’ special needs.
By Sabine Flachsmann
The confectionery industry is a branch where the innovation carousel spins especially fast. Manufacturers regularly attempt to create new purchase impulses for customers with new recipes and formats in order to stimulate their sales and commercial success. And the very top of the customer wish-list is dominated by chocolate and related products.
Innovative production processes and systems like those developed and manufactured by Awema AG from Oberneunforn/Switzerland help manufacturers put new concepts into practice and run them profitably.
In 1975, ten years after it was founded, the company developed a vision for computerized industrial weighing machines. Another decade later, its first chocolate depositors were premiered. Today, some 98 % of these appliances are exported. Two years ago, Awema moved into new, high-tech production and administrative premises in Oberneunforn with around 4,000 m2 of space to accommodate increasing spatial requirements and customer demands.
The Awema product portfolio extends beyond its weighing machines to include multi-production facilities as well as a diverse range of depositing and filling machines for a broad spectrum of different capacities and applications. Highly sophisticated “One-Shot” production lines count among highlights. This One-Shot technology makes it possible to produce a filled chocolate article in a single work step.
The company’s focus is on the confectionery industry, as illustrated by its slogan “Chocolate is Our World”. It views itself as a specialist for the manufacture of One-Shot products. Its expanded Quadro-Shot and CIC processes even enable up to four different masses and different volumes to be processed simultaneously. The extensive modular construction of the system featuring special controls allows for very economically efficient production of multi-filling or different coloured pralines. The system can also produce filled chocolate bars only 5 mm thick along with other filled bars. Awema’s decision-makers see massive potential for the One-Shot technology, due in part to the fact that even now, years after its original introduction in large companies, this
technology still remains relatively unknown.
Another priority for Awema is the decoration of chocolate articles. The focus here is on delicately adorned pralines, and in particular on hollow figures such as the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus and others that are primarily produced in large quantities for seasonal occasions and have to be real eye-catchers for consumers. Even today, chocolate figures are often decorated by hand involving elaborate manual effort. Awema’s “Artist” is a development combining high-tech robotic technology with a special depositing system that fully automates most of this time-consuming work.
Over the years, the company has developed into a successful niche player with a worldwide clientele thanks to a variety of factors. One is the modularity of its systems, which can be augmented and expanded as needed, giving the customers the ability to react flexibly to the market.
The customers include large companies, but also smaller ones in which the owner is still directly involved in the production process. One of Awema’s depositing machines was developed specially for smaller companies and laboratory facilities. Customers contact the company with a particular idea or simply with a wish for a new product they would like to launch. Awema then develops a customized solution using assets such as its own professional laboratory, where it can conduct the corresponding experiments and testing.
In times where profitability and savings are a focus, the service life of production facilities plays an important role. The Awema systems are very long-lasting thanks to their extremely high quality. Even 20-year-old machinery still runs smoothly, and the company continues to provide support for these systems. This is only possible because all of the systems are developed and manufactured at the company’s own factory in Switzerland.
Awema’s commitment to Switzerland is an integral part of the company philosophy. This makes it possible to maintain high quality standards. The in-house CNC centre equipped with its own machinery park makes a major contribution in this capacity. The intelligent computer systems are based on “real time” and are far less susceptible to disruptions than is the norm on the market.
Hygiene is a top priority in the production of food products like confectionery. The systems from Awema produce very cleanly and are additionally equipped with special software that regulates the depositing process with great precision.
The problem of operating personnel for the systems constitutes another important issue. With staff becoming increasingly more international, this can often lead to communication problems. It is therefore important to Awema to keep operators updated in tandem with advancements in the technology, to design handling the machinery in a simple, easy-to-understand manner and to additionally demonstrate the opportunities associated with the technology.
Those countries where chocolate is not a traditional sweet represent a challenge for the future. In such markets it is especially important to only launch products that can be popular regionally. Modern production technology is a key factor for profitable production, and in particular for products capable of persuading consumers with their taste, look and feel.
