TWO Ishida multihead weighers are helping to ensure perfect pack weights for Zotter Schokolade, a producer of more than 500 different chocolate products in Riegersburg, Austria.
The company, founded by Josef Zotter in 1987 and now run by his daughter, Julia, employs around 230 people at the site. Around 300,000 visitors come to the Zotter Chocolate Factory every year, which includes a glass-walled tour of the production area, a petting zoo for endangered farm animals, and a cinema showing the story of cocoa cultivation.
Up to 60,000 chocolate bars are produced and packed each day in Riegersburg. Products include handmade chocolates, single-origin chocolates, and exotic flavours such as mango-chilli, sage marzipan, or cardamom.
The company also produces pralines, drinking chocolate, chocolate popcorn, and Ballero dragées (chocolate-covered fruits and nuts). All ingredients come from certified organic farms and are processed according to fair trade principles.
Production manager Gerald Prasch said, “We are among very few quality chocolatiers globally who handle all chocolate production processes in-house – from roasting the cocoa beans to rolling and conching, to shaping and packaging.”
The portfolio demands a high degree of flexibility. Each machine must be able to process, weigh, and pack many different products. One of Ishida’s multihead weighers in the production area illustrates this well. The 14-head weigher is used for packing chocolate-filled popcorn, as well as coffee and ‘light bulbs’ (chocolate in easily portioned, miniature light bulb shapes). The weigher is installed above a Kopas VFFS bagmaker and fed by hand due to the large number of daily product changeovers.
The Ishida multihead weigher meets performs at typically 20 to 30 weighments per minute and with a standard deviation of less than 0.5% from the target weight.
The second Ishida multihead weigher, a 10-head model, handles mainly Balleros, which are dried fruit and roasted nuts rolled in chocolate, nougat, or colourful fruit coatings and filled into 100g boxes.
Because Balleros and similar chocolates are in consistent high demand, Zotter packs them on a fully automated line. First, the carton is erected and lined with a parchment paper, inserted by a robot. The machine weighs the Balleros into typically 6,000 to 7,000 boxes per day, with two or three product changeovers.
Gerald Prasch added, “We are very satisfied. The service requirements are minimal, and the weighing results are precise. Therefore, both Ishida multihead weighers are meeting our high quality standards.”
