Melanger 20 kg retro-styled

• If the chocolate in the melangeur is too thick, then causes may relate to:

  Insufficient grinding time.

  It will take about a day for the chocolate to pass into the liquid phase and become fluid.

  Solution: Be patient and wait.

• Loading of ingredients into the melanger is too fast.

  Solution: Load the ingredients in small portions, starting with the fattest. To speed up the grinding process and the transition of the mass into the liquid phase, you need to increase the pressure of the millstones and, if necessary, heat the mass with a heat gun

• Mass temperature during grinding is too high.

  The chocolate has overheated and thickened.

  Solution: Control the temperature, reduce it if it exceeds the allowable one. The allowable temperature mainly depends on the composition. Each nut or type of ingredient has its own characteristics, so the optimal temperature for grinding is usually 45–50ºC. Anything containing milk should not be heated above 60ºC for a long time.

• Mass temperature during grinding is too low.

  Solution: Heat up the mass with a heat gun.

• Problem with the recipe.

  If the substance's balance in the recipe is shifted to dry ingredients, such as sugar, skimmed milk powder, then the mass will be too thick.

  Solution: Adjust the recipe by increasing fatty ingredients, their optimal content is from 35 to 40%.

• If all of the above causes are excluded, but the mass still seems too thick, add lecithin at the end of the grinding (5–10 minutes before the melangeur stops). It improves the rheology (fluidity) of the mass and makes it more convenient in the further production of chocolate products.

• Jamming of stones during the work may relate to the following:

  Loading of ingredients into the melanger is too fast.

  Solution: Load the ingredients in small portions, pausing, thereby allowing the already loaded ingredients to grind a little.

• Loading fraction is too big (for small melangeur models).

  Solution: Large ingredients such as almonds, hazelnuts, peanuts and others first need to be crushed to a finer fraction (the size of a bread crumb), and cocoa products (cocoa butter and cocoa liquor) need to be melted to a liquid state before being loaded into the melanger.

• Temperature is too low, so ingredients, such as cocoa butter, harden.

  Solution: Use a heat gun while loading the ingredients to heat up the mass (especially important for a cold room). It’s also important not to forget to adjust the pressure of the stones.

• Caramelization of milk powder, sugar or other ingredients on sliding sleeves.

  Solution: You need to monitor the temperature during grinding, so the axles are covered with the mass of the product and not overheat. Do not squeeze the clamps and slow down the speed if the mass is difficult for grinding.

• A more serious reason for millstones to stop is sleeves wear.

  Solution: To prevent premature wear, you need to follow the rule: load the melangeur with a mass to the level of the axles, so the sleeves are immersed in the mass — that serves as a lubricant and doesn’t allow dry working. If the sleeves remain dry during operation, then their wear occurs many times faster. Also solid particles of loaded ingredients, such as sugar, often get inside, caramelizes, hardens, makes it difficult to rotate the millstones and, as a result, leads to breakage. We recommend changing the sleeves once a year if your melangeur works full-time.

• Usually unground particles remain in some masses even after prolonged grinding of 1–2 days (for example, sesame seeds). These unground particles can be seen floating on the surface of the mass. The causes may relate to an incorrectly selected millstones rotation speed. If the rotation is too fast, the particles do not have enough time to be dragged under the stones and remain unground.

  Solution: You need to gradually reduce the speed of the millstones until the mass from the surface begins to drag down. Check this video.

• The stones and the bottom may have various irregularities and may not fit perfectly. During the work these irregularities are erased and the contact becomes tighter. So the new melangeur may not be as effective as the used one. The bedding time depends on how many irregularities there were initially. Sometimes parts can fit perfectly right from the box.

• Any new melangeur requires bedding of stone parts. During it more stone dust gets into the chocolate. So if you load a white chocolate recipe into a new melangeur that hasn’t yet been lapped, then most likely the mass will have a grayish tint. While making dark/milk chocolate or any other dark masses, the bedding process goes unnoticed. This does not affect the taste of the finished product.

  Solution: If the melangeur produces a gray mass, then it must be stopped, disassembled and washed (axles with bushings). Then reassemble everything. Contact your KADZAMA manager for a melangeur’s self-service video instruction..

• Melangeur is not just about grinding, there are 3 processes: pre-grinding, fine grinding and conching. We’ve been able to reduce the grinding time with our patented spiral grooved stones.

  More about spiral groove here.

• Milk particles stick together as a result of prolonged mass heating above 60°C.

  Solution: Monitor the temperature of the mass during grinding and do not allow heating above 60ºC. The mass heats up due to the friction force of the stones, you can reduce the temperature by reducing the rotation speed of the millstones. Melangeurs of our classic line (35/65/85 kg) have a built-in smart thermal sensor — you set the maximum allowable temperature of the mass, and the melangeur monitors the speed of work itself to not overheat the contents.

The minimum load of melangeur can be found in the table:

You must load the melangeur by the level of the axles, so the sleeves are completely covered with mass. This is necessary in order to avoid jamming of stones and to reduce sleeve wear (check picture).