Nestlé Canada stocks up on brass, copper, stainless to service candy making machinery

There’s nothing quite like taking a break from the hectic workday with your favorite chocolate bar … especially when it’s a Kit Kat. What you may not know is by the time that delicious Kit Kat bar reaches your mouth, it has been through a maze of machines, conveyor belts and delivery trucks that Nestle Canada wants to ensure are operating at full capacity so it can reach the consumer in record time.

For Nestle Canada, the chocolaty magic starts in the North York, Ontario, manufacturing site. The company has been operating in Canada since 1918, and this site is responsible for making many of Canada’s favorite chocolate bars, such as Kit Kat, Coffee Crisp, Smarties and Aero. With their state-of-the-art manufacturing lines, the company is able to produce tens of thousands of treats each day. The maintenance staff is charged with making sure the assembly line stays operational. When the engineers and machinists need materials to service the assembly line and surrounding workspaces, they call on Metal Supermarkets Etobicoke.

“When my guys need to order metal, we need those items right away,” explains Asif Ali in Nestle’s maintenance department. “We’re Nestle; we’re a fast moving place, and they don’t want to wait too long here. We purchase all kinds of metal, usually to make pieces, parts or tools for the machines. Recently, we placed an order for bronze flat bars because we were doing some high precision machining to make precision parts for machines on the assembly line.”

Jonathan Kennedy at the Metal Supermarkets Etobicoke store notes that bronze is a metal alloy that is copper based with tin as the main additive. Some tins, though, can have phosphorous, manganese, aluminum or silicon as the main alloying ingredient. Bronze is typically strong, tough and corrosion- resistant with high electrical and thermal conductivity.

The technology found in many modern candy manufacturing machines is truly sophisticated. The industry has evolved from hand operations to fully automated manufacturing lines. The machines are often highly automated, computer-controlled and have user friendly touch screen interfaces. There are machines made for specific processes as well as complete integrated candy manufacturing processing lines.

To ensure Nestle keeps Kit Kat lovers satisfied, staff mechanics and engineers are trained to service and repair all the machinery on the line. Ali with Nestle explains, “When parts break down, we don’t send out for outside contractors. We usually make it ourselves and then keep it in our stock room. This helps keep productivity moving forward.”