Seattle Chocolates Replaces Pneumatic Cylinders with Exlar’s Tritex II ® Actuators

An application story from Exlar

Chocolate  dispensing machine with two Exlar actuators
Chocolate dispensing machine with two Exlar actuators

Dispensing and pressing chocolate truffles

Seattle Chocolates, located in Seattle, Washington, produces gourmet chocolate truffles and truffle bars. They produce multiple chocolate recipes such as raspberry, mint, and coconut on the same dispensing machine.

CUSTOMER CHALLENGE

Seattle Chocolates used pneumatic cylinders to dispense and press their chocolate truffles and truffle bars. With the pneumatic cylinders, Seattle Chocolates adjusted physical stops each time they switched product recipes. This was very time consuming because an employee needed to leave the control room to the production level to make the adjustments on the machinery. Seattle Chocolates was looking for a solution which would simplify and speed up this process. They had limited space on their machine to mount electronic components and the bulky cables associated with a component servo system. Seattle Chocolates needed a compact actuator that didn’t require an additional drive in the control panel.

SOLUTION

Seattle Chocolates found Exlar’s Tritex II® was the perfect replacement for their pneumatic cylinders. The Tritex II actuators were easily integrated into Seattle Chocolates existing PLC system and allowed them to pre-program multiple settings for their various product recipes. Now, the employee pushes a button to set the machine for the new batch of chocolate truffles. Exlar’s Tritex II actuator also offered a longer life than comparable products and was available in a smaller size without sacrificing force levels. Since the Tritex II actuator is fully integrated, Seattle Chocolates did not have to find space for separate drives. Exlar’s Tritex II actuator was a complete solution for Seattle Chocolate’s multiple challenges.

Tri-Phase Automation is a distributor of Exlar in Wisconsin.
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