When Chocolate Meets Engineering

Added 17.10.2014

When you need to store over 540 tonnes of liquid chocolate, you need some serious engineering – seven precision fabricated vessels, each nearly eight metres long and weighing over 11 tonnes. Confectionary and precision engineering are industries that seldom cross paths, but on rare occasions they meet in a big way.

Manthorpe is nearing the successful completion of a large contract for the manufacture and installation of seven large, stainless steel chocolate tanks to Magna Specialist Confectioners of Telford.

Making use of Manthorpe’s new £1.5 million fabrication unit, multiple tanks were able to be manufactured at the same time. The sheer scale of the product would have challenged many companies. However, the fabrication shop’s ample floor space and 50 tonne capacity cranes, each with 10.2 metres under the hook, meant that the project went off without a hitch.

Mark Allen, Fabrication Shop Manager, has overseen the contract from its inception. “This project has given us the chance to show our full range of capabilities as a fabrication shop.

“Not only have we manufactured the tanks, we have also managed the transportation and the installation of the tanks, difficult processes for products of this size.”

The tanks were delivered in convoy using wide-load, flat-bed lorries, each requiring a dedicated escort due to the size of the load. On arrival, Manthorpe staff unloaded the cargo using 100 tonne and 40 tonne cranes to manoeuvre them into position.

Simon O’Neill, Lead Development Engineer at Magna said: “Working with Manthorpe on this project has proved to be a success with engineers thinking thoroughly about the manufacture of the vessels.

“Employing Manthorpe to transport and install the vessels has also proved to be the right decision.  The quality and traceability systems Manthorpe used helped us in fulfilling the auditing process for the manufacture and installation of the vessels.”

The first six tanks are now on site at Magna and are in the process of being fitted out, with the final tank due in November.