Quality lubrication is essential to Cadbury’s chocolate manufacturing process. By nature, chocolate is an exceptionally fine and abrasive product. Without regular equipment maintenance and proper lubrication, chocolate contamination of the lubrication system can cause harm to equipment. In the past, their lubrication process was overlooked with little or no control over lubrication requirements.

Cadbury Ltd. enlisted the help of AV Technology to monitor and handle their equipment maintenance. In 2001, Paul Needham of AV Technology, and Reliability Engineer for Cadbury, learned about Petro-Canada’s food-grade lubricants. With help from Petro-Canada’s sales representative, Needham switched the lubricant used in Cadbury’s Duyvis Cocoa Presses to Petro-Canada’s PURITY FG AW Hydraulic Fluid 46. The hydraulic system in the cocoa press has a capacity of 1,015 litres and works at a system pressure of 510 bars. With this pressure system, and the product’s fine, abrasive powders, a strong lubricant was chosen to protect the equipment.

Running eight lines, Needham is conscious of cost savings, down-time and fluids replacement. After successfully testing PURITY FG on cocoa presses, Needham made the decision to use Petro-Canada food-grade lubricants for all applications across the Chirk production facility.

“Switching to Petro-Canada’s PURITY FG has reduced costs, increased our up-time and improved the performance of our equipment,” said Needham. ”We have over 10 years of experience with Petro-Canada and we are pleased with the performance that their Purity FG AW 46 Hydraulic Fluid has provided.”

“Working with Petro-Canada has been excellent across the board,” said Needham. “Throughout our ten years working together, customer service – from technical help to delivery lead time – has been first-rate.”