Valentine pink, pumpkin-spice swirls, candy cane coatings

From heart-shaped candy in February to festive chocolates in December, the chocolate industry will always face major rushes. Agile manufacturing is a flexible and adaptive approach to production that allows you to respond quickly to changing market demands.

The best enrober for faster cleaning and agile production

Because PTL enrobers are modular, it’s possible to swap parts in and out. Some PTL clients make the most of this by buying two complete sets for their enrobers. This makes SKU changeovers almost instant – wheel one set out and wheel in the next in as little as 15 minutes.

Compound vs real chocolate

For decades, compound chocolate has been the workhorse of the bar industry, providing a cost-effective alternative for products like granola and snack bars. However, a notable shift is underway towards the use of real chocolate.

The future of chocolate and bar production is easy-to-clean machinery

Properly cleaning some chocolate and bar machines means solving a complex puzzle. Difficult to disassemble and even harder to put back together, these inefficiencies put manufacturers at risk of poor cleaning habits and contamination. Fortunately, PTL has created a solution.

From molten to magic with cooling tunnels

In chocolate and snack bar production, taste, texture, and appearance reign supreme. But to get those things just right, a humble (yet pivotal) player often goes unnoticed – the cooling tunnel.

Hygienic design: clean, lean, and poised for expansion

Hygienically designed equipment allows cleaning to a microbiological level over the lifetime of the machine. Often, equipment shows its age in the form of pitting, cracks, corrosion, or protruding edges where product can collect

Making a global impact

As the Continuous Improvement and Manufacturing Officer for PTL Dion focuses on the complete customer journey, facilitating solutions across PTL’s global operations. Over the past 18 months, Dion’s role has transformed to capitalize on his skills. Now, as the Continuous Improvement and Manufacturing Officer, he focuses on the complete customer journey.

Choosing the Right Bar Manufacturing Equipment: 6 Key Questions to Ask

Investing in robust equipment saves you time and money on repairs and replacements – and lowers the chance of a breakdown. This gives you a much lower total cost of ownership.

A short history of chocolate machines

From melting and cooling to enrobing and molding, our machines achieve consistent results that let manufacturers create exceptional chocolate products.

The story behind the removable components

It’s so elegantly simple that you have to wonder why no one thought of it before – equipment designed with removable parts that operators could disassemble without using tools. Over the years, ease of use became a philosophy.

Granola bar production - crunching out more

When it comes to granola bars, customers want options. If you’re leaning into this trend, managing a large number of SKUs may make your production more complex. Fortunately - with the Melter V20 - you can now add SKUs without taking up space or causing disruptions.

What makes real innovation? It’s all in the details.

At PTL, we will always strive to improve usability, hygiene, and efficiency so our customers can avoid unnecessary risk and stay ahead of the curve.

Great bar and chocolate machinery comes from little innovations

When it comes to boosting operational efficiency and strengthening your bottom line, the small, incremental improvements make the most difference. It’s the same for our chocolate and bar equipment.

2022 - what we learned in the world of bar and chocolate

The pandemic has significantly impacted the demand for convenience and comfort foods. As consumers return to their everyday, on-the-go lives, market data shows that snack bars and confectionary are still top of mind.

Go beyond expectations – equipment made and installed by technicians

The people who install our machines are the ones who build them. And they've been involved in the project from the start, with a clear idea of what the client wants to achieve.

The deliciously rich history of chocolate

Sometimes referred to as food from the gods, chocolate has always been considered a luxury. To make the most of its delicious properties, it’s important to focus on the process

Botulism - the canned killer

We design PTL machinery with a strong focus on hygiene. Our equipment allows a more thorough cleaning, minimizing the risk of contamination or cross contamination.

18 years on the job, a lifetime connection

Chocolate and bar machinery are in Nick’s blood. After exploring other careers and gaining valuable experience in his early adulthood, he returned to be part of PTL’s continuing story.

A Sweet 30 years in the Chocolate Biz

Mike Nevines joined PTL and did ‘a bit of everything’ way back in 1992. 30 years later, he’s still here – now leading our innovative design team as our technical director.

From Cranes to Chocolate

PTL’s founder, Jim Halliday, doesn’t have a conventional engineering background, but he offers something a bit more valuable: a lifetime working with machines of all shapes and sizes, in all sorts of industries, all over the world.

Grow your SKU's not your factory footprint

Replacing traditional melt tanks with a portable, compact V20 melter lets you reclaim valuable floor space. With more space to play with, you have the freedom to add more and more complex SKUs, establish washdown areas for greater efficiency or add additional process equipment

Switch up production on a dime

As markets and consumer demands shift at an ever-faster rate, manufacturers need plants that are agile enough to keep up. That means looking carefully at all aspects – including how they melt chocolate.

Putting power behind product

If you can eliminate the chocolate-melting bottleneck, your overall production capacity is suddenly unleashed. With faster processing improving downstream production rates, you can produce more bars or chocolate in a shorter time, maximising the potential of your facilities and staff.

SKU proliferation - is your facility keeping up?

For bar and chocolate manufacturers, ignoring the micro-segmentation trend and focussing on just a few SKUs is no longer an option. But simply introducing more SKUs without an eye on how to manage the accompanying time, complexity and cost increases isn’t an option either.

Revolutionise the plant to make it more attractive to people

We can expect to see almost 3.5 million more manufacturing jobs by 2030 in the United States. The majority – about two million – will stay empty.

Automate your way out of the labour shortage

As with most bar and chocolate manufacturers, one of your biggest headaches right now is staff. Not just finding people, but finding reliable people and keeping them for longer than a few days or weeks. There’s much you can do to improve recruitment and staff retention.

Solving manufacturings staffing shortage

Automation, psychology and smarter design We’ve spent the last quarter on the ground in the US visiting bar and chocolate manufacturers, from small, independent outfits to large-scale facilities owned by multi-national conglomerates.

The four issues facing America's Manufacturing

The pandemic has shaken things up in ways that many of us couldn’t have predicted. One of those is the impact it has had on staffing. In our industry and across many others, businesses simply can’t find or keep staff. While that’s always been an issue, the problem has reached a critical point.

3 Profitability Game-Changers

Enhancing your bottom line needs to be smart and strategic – not a quick fix. At PTL, we’ve helped a whole range of customers make real changes to their facilities and ultimately boost their bottom line.

Melter Magic: efficiency flexibility,success

If you’re using older machinery designed for one or two product lines, it can be difficult to introduce new SKUs efficiently – by the time you set up new equipment or implemented new systems, you’ve fallen behind your competition.

Hygiene could be your competitive advantage

Proactive contamination prevention comes down to making it part of your BAU, rather than something you must do in addition. The most important part of that? The design of your equipment. As a baseline, your equipment must be built around the ten principles of hygienic design.

Three key ideas for adapting your bar and chocolate production plan

PTL machinery is designed to be modular, flexible and hygienic. We also focus on waste reduction capabilities while gaining production efficiencies. From full production lines to individual machines, PTL can design a tailored solution for a facility’s specific needs.

Raising the bar: How to overcome bar manufacturing quality assurance and compliance concerns

Steadily growing in popularity over the years, nutritional bars are now consumed by a wide demographic and as a result this functional food category is valued at US$1.35 billion and is expected to reach nearly $2.03 billion by 2029.

A new level of continuous melting performance and flexibility - with the same expert partners.

Powerful, flexible and compact, the V20 increases melt rate by up to 125 percent, while decreasing footprint by up to 45 percent. Large melt rates are achieved by maximizing the product contact surface area, and optimizing water flow through the melt grid.

The ability to melt multiple SKU's

Rather than focus on one major SKU, companies can shift towards multiple product variations to cater to a wider range of people.

Powerful - Flexible - Compact. The new melter V20 from PTL

Designed to melt multiple SKUs, manage allergens and minimize downtime, the Melter V20 is the result of intense R&D.

Melting more with less: maximising production while minimising footprint

Bar and chocolate production facility space is valuable and comes at a premium.

Increasing production output with powerful and efficient equipment

Improving the bottom line is of particular importance for any bar or chocolate production plant. Getting the most from your production process.

How to calculate ROI when investing in new machinery

A tool to calculate the financial returns possible when you invest in new equipment for your facility. Try out the new PTL ROI calculator.

Barline waste reduction - there's no such thing as shortcuts

PTL’s bar line equipment is designed to combat the margin eroding impact of waste in the chocolate and bar manufacturing process.

What does 'industry 4.0' mean for bar and chocolate manufacturers?

For anyone with experience in the chocolate and bar manufacturing industry, they would have seen many different technologies and trends come and go.

Melter flexibility key to handling multiple SKU'S

Chocolate and bar manufacturers tell us they need flexibility in their food production equipment, without compromising efficiency levels or hygiene standards.

Why hygienic design of food manufacturing equipment is critical

PTL's ebook outlines why hygiene is an increasing requirement for the design and manufacture of machinery. Learn more in the blog.

Rockwell features PTL in global promotions

PTL’s melters use smart machine technologies from Rockwell Automation, and a new case study on the Rockwell global website features our melters in detail.

Building consensus on hygienic equipment design

Minimising the risk of food contamination via the use of hygienic equipment design is a key goal for any food manufacturer.

The hygiene factor - getting it right - free ebook download

Contamination issues, whether to pathogens or allergens, can be what ‘cracks’ the reputation of a chocolate and bar manufacturer.

Modular - Flexible - Hygienic bar machinery

Bar line equipment shouldn’t be one-size-fits-all. An ‘off the shelf’ bar line won’t have the flexibility to adapt to the individual needs of a food processing facility.

Why hygienic equipment design is crucial to solving a $10 million problem

As humans we are becoming increasingly susceptible to allergens. Research from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that 32m Americans have food allergies.

Melter Flexibility

With a number of brands moving to co-packers to make their product, those co-packers need melters that can efficiently handle a variety of different coatings.

Cluster Depositors

The PTL Cluster Depositor offers the flexibility of being able to deposit chocolate with inclusions directly onto a belt, or into cups or moulds.

Washdown Temperer

PTL Washdown Temperers accurately set up the formation of stable cocoa butter crystals, to ensure good gloss, hard snap and prolonged shelf life.

Celebrating 30 years

Now under the leadership of second-generation family member Nick Halliday, PTL is well positioned to service the needs of our customers.

Get in touch.

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