Self-optimizing, adaptive industrial chocolate production system, and corresponding method thereof

A self-optimizing, adaptive industrial chocolate production system the system comprising:

• a chocolate mass processing line including
• a doser;
• one or more mixers;
• one or more refiners comprising a pre-refiner and a finer, the pre-refiner having at least two pre-refiner rollers having a controlled roller pressure and/or
• roller gap/distance and speed and/or roller temperature, and
• an inline, real-time measuring circuitry configured to measure changes in the plasticity of the pre-fining chocolate mass,
• the finer having a plurality of finer rollers having a controlled roller pressure and/or roller temperature and/or roller gap/distance and speed;
• one or more conches or one or more liquefiers, each of the conches at least comprising a container or conche vessel having an inner surface and at least one moveable shaft or rotatable rotor situated inside said conche vessel;
• and
• a temperer having a temper meter for measuring crystallization, wherein
• solid and/or liquid feed materials are precisely dosed, conveyed and discharged to the one or more mixers by the doser;
• the feed materials are mixed and/or kneaded to a basic chocolate mass with a defined plasticity and homogeneity by the one or more mixers and transferred to the one or more refiners,
• the basic chocolate mass is pre-processed to a chocolate mass with a predefinable plasticity and fineness by the at least two pre-refiner rollers and processed to a refiner chocolate mass with a predefinable powder fineness by the plurality of finer rollers, and transferred to the one or more conches,
• the refiner chocolate mass is processed to a conching chocolate mass with a given moisture, viscosity, texture and fat content by the one or more conches and transferred to the temperer, wherein the shearers press the conching chocolate mass against the vessel surface during operation and/or between overlapping shearing elements, wherein the conching chocolate mass is processed to a predefined moisture, degree of crystallization, and fat content by adding cocoa butter and/or other fats by the liquefier, and wherein the chocolate mass as final conching chocolate mass is processed to the end product at least by the temperer varying temperature to achieving the predefined degree of crystallization measured by the temper meter;
• and
• an adaptive machine-to-machine control circuitry configured to automatically adjust the pressure and/or roller distance (gap) settings of the pre-refiner to provide an autonomous plasticity control with a given plasticity parameter value,
• wherein the finer further comprises an optical, inline, non-invasive, real-time measuring system detecting a particle size of the finer chocolate mass, wherein the detected particle size of the finer chocolate mass is compared to a defined target particle size, and in response to triggering a deviation from the target particle size, the adaptive machine-to-machine control circuitry is configured to dynamically adapt a drive speed of at least one of the finer rollers until no deviation between the detected the particle size and the target particle size is measured.

A self-optimizing, adaptive industrial chocolate production system the system comprising:

• a chocolate mass processing line including
• a doser;
• one or more mixers;
• one or more refiners comprising a pre-refiner and a finer, the pre-refiner having at least two pre-refiner rollers having a controlled roller pressure and/or
• roller gap/distance and speed and/or roller temperature, and
• an inline real-time measuring circuitry configured to measure changes in the plasticity of the pre-fining chocolate mass,
• the finer having a plurality of finer rollers having a controlled roller pressure and/or roller temperature and/or roller gap/distance and speed;
• one or more conches or one or more liquefiers, each of the conches at least comprising a container or conche vessel having an inner surface and at least one moveable shaft or rotatable rotor situated inside said conche vessel;
• and
• a temperer having a temper meter for measuring crystallization, wherein
• solid and/or liquid feed materials are precisely dosed, conveyed and discharged to the one or more mixers by the doser,
• the feed materials are mixed and/or kneaded to a basic chocolate mass with a defined plasticity and homogeneity by the one or more mixers and transferred to the one or more refiners,
• the basic chocolate mass is pre-processed to a chocolate mass with a predefinable plasticity and fineness by the at least two pre-refiner rollers, and processed to a refiner chocolate mass with a predefinable powder fineness by the plurality of finer rollers, and transferred to the one or more conches,
• the refiner chocolate mass is processed to a conching chocolate mass with a given moisture, viscosity, texture and fat content by the one or more conches and transferred to the temperer, wherein the shearers press the conching chocolate mass against the vessel surface during operation and/or between overlapping shearing elements, wherein the conching chocolate mass is processed to a predefined moisture, degree of crystallization, and fat content by adding cocoa butter and/or other fats by the liquefier, and wherein the chocolate mass as final conching chocolate mass is processed to the end product at least by the temperer varying temperature to achieving the predefined degree of crystallization measured by the temper meter;
• and
• an adaptive machine-to-machine control circuitry configured to automatically adjust the pressure and/or roller distance (gap) settings of the pre-refiner to provide an autonomous plasticity control with a given plasticity parameter value,
• wherein each of the one or more conches further comprises an inline, non-invasive, real-time measuring and control circuitry with a positioning encoder or sensor, configured to generate an elevation profile of the conching chocolate mass along a measurement line of a working area by conducting position measurement by the positioning encoder or sensor along said measurement line, wherein based on the measured elevation, the non-invasive, real-time measuring and control circuitry of said each of the one or more conches is configured to measure profile parameter values of coaching chocolate mass, and wherein in response to triggering a deviation of a measured parameter value of a target parameter value, the inline, non-invasive, real-time measuring and control circuitry of said each of the conches is configured to dynamically adapt at least one of the operational parameters of said each of the conches aligning the measured parameter values with target parameter values.