42 Technology has partnered with Gabler to help Mondelēz International make a dramatic improvement in the efficiency of its chewing gum manufacturing process.

The two companies have developed a new generation of high speed cooling tunnels that are helping Mondelēz to significantly increase production throughput, reduce work in progress by 60 per cent and further optimise downstream processing and packaging.

42 Technology was appointed by Mondelēz to work with Gabler, the companys existing supplier of cooling tunnels, to identify new ways of using combined conductive and convective cooling technologies to help speed up the cooling of extruded gum before it is scored, shaped and moved into the conditioning phase.

The consultancys role included working with Gabler to develop a new system design, developing a theoretical model of the cooling process, advising on the final tunnel design and helping with commissioning the new equipment. Gabler then built and tested the prototype system before manufacturing and installing the final design.

Miles van Niekerk, associate director, new process development at Mondelēz International, comments, "The new tunnels have significantly shortened the time needed for gum cooling and conditioning and are also 40% smaller than the equipment they replace."