Automated Chocolate Cream Filling — No Nut Damage

The Challenge

FABBRI SPA manufactures specialty food products including chocolate cream containing whole nuts. The tank-mixer filling process — loading chocolate cream into production vessels — was done entirely by hand in batches. This created three problems:

• Labor cost: Manual batch loading required dedicated operator time and could not be left unattended.
• Throughput: Batch filling created start-stop cycles that slowed the production line.
• Product integrity: The whole nuts embedded in the 10,000 cps viscosity cream could not be exposed to centrifugal impellers, progressing cavities, or other shear-generating pump mechanisms without being crushed or damaged.

The chocolate cream itself — at 10,000 cps viscosity and 35–40°C temperature — demanded a pump with strong suction capability and positive displacement action. Most pump types either couldn't generate enough suction to lift the product or damaged it in transit.

The Solution

KECO specified a Rotho MS2 (M Series) peristaltic pump fitted with a Butyl (BL) tube. Butyl rubber is approved for food contact applications and provides the chemical compatibility needed for continuous use with fats, oils, and sugar-based products like chocolate cream.

The peristaltic operating principle is the critical differentiator for food applications: the product is squeezed gently through the tube by external rollers. The whole nuts pass through the tube bore without encountering any blade, impeller, or narrow clearance. The gentle squeezing action is literally indistinguishable from hand-pumping in terms of product shear.

Flow range: 500 kg/h at 6–30 RPM, 2 bar discharge pressure. The variable speed range allows precise filling rate control for different vessel sizes.

Results

"The customer applied the Rotho pump to automate the filling without any damage of the product and above all the whole nuts."

Why Peristaltic Pumps Are Ideal for Food Processing

The food and beverage industry has unique demands that most pump types cannot satisfy simultaneously:

• Product integrity: High-value ingredients — whole fruit, nuts, spices, live cultures — cannot be sheared, crushed, or homogenized during pumping. Peristaltic pumps are the only pump type that can pass solids up to 45% of the tube internal diameter without damage.
• Hygiene: The product contacts only the interior of the replaceable tube — no dead zones, no seals, no complex geometries that harbor bacteria. Tube replacement is a complete product-path renewal.
• Viscosity handling: Peristaltic pumps handle viscosities from water-thin to 100,000+ cps without cavitation — critical for confectionery, sauces, and pastes.
• Compliance: Butyl and other food-grade tube materials meet FDA and EU food contact regulations. No risk of lubricant or metal contamination from wetted mechanical parts.

The M Series MS2 handles up to 28,000 L/h and is available with Butyl (BL) tube for food-safe applications. The variable speed drive enables precise metering for automated filling operations.