The evolution of chocolate manufacturing equipment has been driven largely by increasing focus on hygiene and food safety. Modern equipment design starts with sanitation in mind, rather than treating it as an afterthought.
The protein bar industry has transformed from a niche health food market into a mainstream snacking revolution. Sanitation has become increasingly crucial, particularly with the growing focus on allergen management.
Key features of hygiene-first design include toolless disassembly for quick and easy cleaning, strategic swab locations ensuring easy access to all product contact points, and the use of FDA approved, hygienic materials with specific consideration given to geometry to minimize bacterial adhesion.
PTL equipment doesn't just meet industry standards - it often exceeds them, providing you with a tangible competitive advantage in a crowded marketplace.
The bar and chocolate production industry faces unique challenges when it comes to maintaining sanitary conditions. At PTL, we've revolutionized equipment design with our "hygiene-first" philosophy.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
As the Global Operations Officer for PTL Dion focuses on the complete customer journey, facilitating solutions across PTL’s global operations. Over the past couple of years, Dion’s role has transformed to capitalize on his skills.
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.
From melting and cooling to enrobing and molding, our machines achieve consistent results that let manufacturers create exceptional chocolate products.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The pandemic significantly impacted the demand for convenience and comfort foods. As consumers returned to their everyday, on-the-go lives, market data shows that snack bars and confectionary were and are still top of mind.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Rather than focus on one major SKU, companies can shift towards multiple product variations to cater to a wider range of people.
Designed to melt multiple SKUs, manage allergens and minimize downtime, the Melter V20 is the result of intense R&D.
Bar and chocolate production facility space is valuable and comes at a premium.
Improving the bottom line is of particular importance for any bar or chocolate production plant. Getting the most from your production process.
A tool to calculate the financial returns possible when you invest in new equipment for your facility. Try out the new PTL ROI calculator.
PTL’s bar line equipment is designed to combat the margin eroding impact of waste in the chocolate and bar manufacturing process.
For anyone with experience in the chocolate and bar manufacturing industry, they would have seen many different technologies and trends come and go.
Chocolate and bar manufacturers tell us they need flexibility in their food production equipment, without compromising efficiency levels or hygiene standards.
PTL's ebook outlines why hygiene is an increasing requirement for the design and manufacture of machinery. Learn more in the blog.
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.
Minimising the risk of food contamination via the use of hygienic equipment design is a key goal for any food manufacturer.
Contamination issues, whether to pathogens or allergens, can be what ‘cracks’ the reputation of a chocolate and bar manufacturer.
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.
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.
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.
The PTL Cluster Depositor offers the flexibility of being able to deposit chocolate with inclusions directly onto a belt, or into cups or moulds.
PTL Washdown Temperers accurately set up the formation of stable cocoa butter crystals, to ensure good gloss, hard snap and prolonged shelf life.
Now under the leadership of second-generation family member Nick Halliday, PTL is well positioned to service the needs of our customers.
We’re ready to take your call.
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