Transparent Chocolate Production

“We want to make the production of chocolate transparent for our visitors so they can experience it themselves,” says Dr. Christian Unterberg-Imhoff, Managing Director of the museum. And where transparency is needed, ACRYLITE® is the ideal solution as it is one of the most transparent materials ever. Since it is also completely colorless in its initial form, objects behind it are displayed without distortion in the correct proportions and colors. It provides the perfect view, regardless of the material thickness. Transparency and brilliancy are retained permanently, which is why ACRYLITE® is a popular material for viewing windows, aquariums and display cases in museums.

Since the Chocolate Museum already uses protective shields and machine casings made from the brand acrylic glass, it seemed obvious to also use the proven material from Röhm for the Chocolate Studio – not the least to create a uniform and high-quality appearance.

The ACRYLITE® enclosure of the hollow figure studio reaches up to the ceiling and creates a hygienically sealed room within a room. This is important as food is produced amidst the museum traffic. Two unobtrusive doors are cut in the enclosure, providing access for the maître chocolatiers. The enclosure also protects the visitors against the machines that are in operation, such as the spinning machine for hollow figures.

Top logistical performance

While the extensive redesign of the Chocolate Studio was completed several months ago, the museum director still needs to catch his breath when talking about it: “That was a big challenge!”

Tim Kulisch from the ACRYLITES® processing partner Hans Fischer Kunststoffverarbeitungs-GmbH from Cologne explains which challenges they faced. The company designed, planned and installed the enclosure. The dimensions of the viewing windows posed special requirements on statics, transport and installation. “Some of the ACRYLITE® elements installed here nearly have the maximum available sheet size of two times three meters.” This made transporting them through the building challenging in narrow spaces.

“The most challenging part was transporting the large ACRYLITE® sheets unscathed to the museum’s second floor. Vacuum lifters were used for this that resemble large suction cups and safely grip bulky parts. We used two cranes with vacuum lifters – one that lifted the sheet from below and another that received it at the top,” says Kulisch in explaining the process. How fortunate that ACRYLITE® only weighs half as much as glass and is many times more durable.

ACRYLITE® can be adjusted during installation

Kulisch also appreciates that ACRYLITE® is a material that can be adjusted to handle unexpected situations during installation. For example, if a component protrudes somewhere. Or if a sheet gets scratched during transport. “If it were glass, the entire part would have to be thrown out. ACRYLITE® on the other hand can be cut to fit on site and scratches can be polished away.” This was not necessary in the case of the Chocolate Museum project where everything went off without a hitch.

ACRYLITE® with the best thickness tolerance

Over a length of ten meters, 15 ACRYLITE® elements are fixed between stainless-steel strips on the floor and ceiling. The specialist company chose extruded acrylic from POLYVANTIS with a thickness of 25 millimeters for this project. “ACRYLITE® is excellently suited to such applications that require high dimension accuracy due to its low thickness tolerance,” explains Kulisch. The individual elements fit perfectly into the strips. The construction is stable, with no wiggling or rattling.