Consumers demand a wide and ever new product variety. Confectionery companies must quickly respond to market trends and bring small quantities of new products to the market. To implement this balancing act economically, flexible production solutions are in great demand.

Highly flexible chocolate plants made from the German machine manufacturer Winkler und Dünnebier Süßwarenmaschinen GmbH combine functions for cold stamping and the operation with book moulds as well as special depositors. This allows a wide variety of articles which can be manufactured on the same plant by simply varying the production mode.

To manufacture an attractive range of products, different sets of moulds with different cavities can be used.

Every mould is divided into several segments. Each segment represents a separate product that is different in shape but also in the recipe (shell, filling, etc.) and in depositing design (single-colour, starlight etc.) This allows up to eight different articles to be produced with one set of moulds.

By adjusting the masses, the nozzles and the recipe data of the machine, the number of producible products can be multiplied without any significant modification of the plant.

In addition to product diversity, technical quality must also be guaranteed. This is ensured by the advanced technology from WDS. High plant availability, cleaning and maintenance-friendly design and sophisticated process technology are standard.

The product quality is perfect despite the high requirements that arise from complex geometries and varied compositions, thanks to perfectly coordinated functions such as depositing, cooling, cold stamping, inserting, etc.

Decisive factors for the variety of products in addition to geometry and chocolate mass are of course the fillings. Here, different filling masses as well as ingredients such as whole nuts, nut breakage, rice crisps and others can be added using suitable equipment.

Traditionally, fillings are mainly found in the core of a praline. However, by combining modern depositing and Flash Shell Cooling (FSC) techniques, fillings can be deposited directly into thin shells of chocolate products such as pralines, bars and hollow figures. This patented process results in highly attractive chocolate products with a variety of new design possibilities.

Besides chocolate, truffle or other fat masses, also fillings built up on a water basis, such as e.g. fondant creams, caramel or fruit jelly, may be part of the shell. The layered structure of the chocolate shell with the soft and semi-liquid fillings creates an exceptionally crisp and unique bite adventure, especially when the products are cooled before tasting.

With the FSC-cold stamping process from WDS, open cups or higher-quality and more attractive 3D-shells can be demoulded, which then can be filled and decorated analogously.