Every October, Americans buy 600 million pounds of Halloween candy. From gummy ghosts and ghouls, to marshmallow monsters and chocolate pumpkins, these festive treats require precise high-speed manufacturing to meet the massive holiday demand.
What most trick or treaters never think about is the technology behind the manufacturing of their favorite sweets: compressed air.
The Pre-Production Process
From the moment raw ingredients enter a candy factory, pneumatic systems are hard at work. It starts with mixing and moving ingredients through production lines without contamination- critical for meeting food safety standards.
Manufacturers rely on oil-free rotary screw and scroll compressors to get the job done. When higher pressure variations are required, Class 0 reciprocating compressors are used.
Molding and Shaping
Gummy bats and broomstick shapes aren’t created in a witches cauldron. Compressed air drives the injection and depositing equipment that fills molds with precision. Without this process, it would be impossible to produce millions of pieces in short periods of time to meet demand.
The same oil-free or oil-less compressors are used in this process, which is typically aided by a food-grade air filtration system. This includes multi-stage coalescing filters and air dryers that remove moisture to prevent bacteria growth.
Coatings
The shell on the most popular candies, such as M&M’s and Skittles, is applied with compressed air. This requires high-velocity streams of continuous, clean air. After misting the coating evenly on these sweet treats, they are dried and set using cool air from a pneumatic system.
This requires an ISO 8573-1 Class 0 certified oil-free rotary screw compressor. This guarantees zero contamination risk, and is the most energy efficient choice for candy manufacturers.
Packaging
Those Peeps marshmallow ghosts aren’t going to put themselves in spooky packaging. The packaging process depends on pneumatic actuators that drive high-speed wrapping and sealing equipment. Without it, 35 million pounds of candy corn couldn’t be sealed, labeled and shipped as a tactical glitter bomb of sugar each year.
If you’re cooking up some spooky sweets at your factory, or you manufacture food or beverages throughout the year, Compressor Services can help keep your production on-line and your products contaminant free. We specialize in oil-free compressed air systems sales, service, and maintenance for your industry. Contact us today to schedule a free consultation.
Compressor Services is an industrial air compressor and compressed air equipment sales, service, installation, rental and repair company.
