Bogatyr Moscow – How to combine high capacity and flexibility in hard candy forming

Confectionery factory Bogatyr

It is a modern enterprise offering its customers a wide range of confectionery products like nougat and soft caramel candies, candies with cereal case, candies with cream fillings, bars and pralines muesli, chocolate, confectionery bars, caramel.

The company was founded by Mr. Vladimir Gamuletskiy in Zelenograd, near Moscow in 1996.

Their production is dedicated to private labels and brands of retail chains.

Bogatyr’s vision is to develop its own brand, in line with the expansion of production capacity, which would allow the manufacturing of large volumes and a wide flexibility in new product development.

The requirements: maximum efficiency in candy production

We met Vladimir for the first time at Interpack Fair in Dusseldorf in 2014.

For the few who didn’t know, it is the world’s leading trade fair for food processing, packaging and confectionery.

Bogatyr had already been active in the production of snacks such as energy and chocolate bars for years; on that occasion, he explained to us that he needed to expand his product portfolio also in candies. To realize this project, he decided to create a new department completely dedicated to the production of candies, with the highest modern standards of automation, hygiene and efficiency aiming at a high capacity of 2000 kg/h.

Now, to better clarify what it means to produce 2,000 kilograms of candies per hour, I can help you with some numbers.

2000 kg/h is equivalent to:

over 10.000 candies per minute.
that is 600.000 candies in one hour of production.
basically 14.000.000 candies in one day of production.

Whereas – according to Wikipedia the population of Moscow in 2020 was about 12.692.466 people – this means that:

Bogatyr would be able to offer a candy to every resident of Moscow every day.

But this was not the only challenge that Vladimir presented to us: the high production capacity was only the beginning. He also demanded extreme flexibility of the production line, to quickly change products both for recipe and for filling and shape.

The goal was clear:

To produce the maximum possible quantity of a product, in the shortest possible time, and then move quickly to manufacture the next.

In this way, Vladimir could fulfill the orders from his customers, without having a high stock of products and with a rapid turnover in his warehouse.

This request may seem relatively simple, if we are talking about low production or if we produce just one or two ranges of products.

In case of low production – typically between 300 and 700 kg/h – with semi-automatic or batch preparation processes, it is relatively easy to manage product changes. Each batch can be worked in a discontinuous and independent way – compared to the previous one and you can also afford to stop production, just for a little time, for recipe, filling and size changes.

If we produce only one product (with one shape, one type of filling, one recipe), once we find the correct production parameters, it would be enough to mechanically repeat the same operations every day and the mission would be accomplished.

But when we talk about fully automated systems, high production volumes, products with different colors, with different fillings or even double filling in the same candy, then the whole context changes.

Bogatyr request foresaw, not only an XXL production volume but also extreme flexibility of shapes and combinations:

Hard candy one color with the following combination: Solid not filled, Liquid fruit jam, Pectine base filling, Double centerfilling (one inside the other), Nougat paste filling, Crunchy layered fat filling, Powder filling.

Hard candy two colors 50%-50% side by side

Hard candy to colors random stripes with the following combinations: Liquid fruit jam, Pectine base filling, Double centerfilling (one inside the other), Crunchy layered fat filling, Powder filling.

A multitude of possible combinations that also had to be replicable on three different shapes, from the smallest 1.45g to the largest 4g.

With such a wide variety of products and combinations, it could be difficult to stop a continuous automatic cooking process with a production of 2000 kg/h. It’s almost like stopping a train launched at high speed…. it takes some time to manage the shutdown and subsequent restarting of the plants.

The cooking plant must provide the change of product flavours/dyes “on the fly”, so as not to have to completely stop and restart the system. This would create high energy consumption – for the shutdown and restarting of the plant – and high production stoppages.

The candy forming line also has to adapt to the rapid change of product, with high capacity and therefore the following points have to be considered:

The production speed of the die set must be very high in order to produce a small candy 1.45g at a speed of 2000 kg/h.
The wear on parts in contact with sugar can be accelerated.
The precision in combining and controlling the position of two sugar ropes of different color/flavour in a single candy.
Avoid product contamination, when changing the type of filling, especially those fat-based such as creams, that require the washing of the filling pump.
Effectively cool a production of 2000 kg/h of filled candies, which must be sent directly to the wrapping machines, avoiding breakage during wrapping.
Downtime is required to change candy size or filling type; when we work at these speeds, this means losing valuable time in production and waste.

The solution: customized candy production line with high-speed chain-forming system

So, what did we do to meet Bogatyr’s request to

combine high capacity and maximum flexibility in products?

We have put in place the most flexible and customized solutions, which we have been developing for our customers over the years:

A new generation high-speed chain-forming system:

Designed to be able to absorb all the production of the 2000 kg/h continuous automatic kitchen.
Able to produce candies with high percentages of filling.

2. Research and use of special materials:

Designed to withstand high mechanical stress and contact wear with sugar.
Capable of prolonging die set life working at high speeds and on several continuous production shifts.

3. The perfect combination of two batch rollers to produce two-colors candies:

It allows to work two masses of different colors/aromas and then combine them in a single rope.
It perfectly maintains the proportion of the two masses and the position of colors.

A double filling pump:

It allows a quick change of the filling, that is to pass in production from one type of filling to another, without stopping the pump for cleaning.
It allows to produce a candy with double filling, that is the possibility to combine two different fillings in the same product.

A super-efficient cooling system:

Suitable for cooling up to 2000 kg/h of candies to be sent directly to the wrapping machines.
To cool the filling inside the candy, increasing the time of permanence of the product in the tunnel and thus reducing the possible breakages in high-speed wrapping machines.

An extreme quick shape change:

In one minute, thanks to the new generation chain die set that allows a quick coupling in the forming machine without having to disassemble its components.
It avoids the interruption of the mass flow that arrives continuously from the kitchen and thus prevents production stops.

The result: a modern candy production line supplied with Explorer chain

The introduction of all these solutions in the Explorer line designed for Bogatyr, created a modern hard candy production department with technologies, equipment and formulations unique in Russia.

Chocotech’s latest cooking technology allows the production of low-water candies (up to 1%), which therefore maintain a longer shelf life without sticking to the wrapping.

At the beginning of 2015, Bogatyr launched the lowest weight candy produced in Russia, only 1.45g.

The triangular shape gives a touch of originality and uniqueness on the Russian market, this is further amplified by the combination of two colors and two tastes in a single product.

The same triangular shape, but with 4g, is instead produced with a filling based on fat cream, laminated in layers, which gives the product a crisp and crumbly texture.

The forming line is able to absorb the total production of Chocotech high capacity continuous cooker and to transform that mass into mini candies of 1.45g, expelling about 11,000 candies per minute.

In this way, the candy production process is never interrupted; it goes completely automatically, from the dosage of the ingredients to the final product wrapping.