Page 40 - DWV PROMO BOOK

Engineering Ice Cream - Fixing The Mixing

Ben & Jerry’s found me and asked if I could help them improve the consistency of distribution of their “mix-ins.” You know, all
those special treats they throw into their ice cream to make it amazing and unique: Heath Bars, fudge chunks, cookie dough, and
on and on. Turns out they were maniacal about the consistency of where these bits fell within a given pint of ice cream. The leader
of the maniacs was Ben Cohen. Yes, that Ben. Their “consistency of distribution was good, but they’d get a rare complaint about
how all the mix-ins were at the bottom of the tub. It drove him mad.

I guess he figured I’d bring a new approach to improving consistency. For my part, it was the first of what would be many situations
where I was asked to do something I didn’t really know much about. It was a great test. A great challenge. And I got to hang out
at the factory watching the crew smashing cases of Heath Bars and other stuff I loved, while Ben cheered them on and then rushed
me up to the test kitchen to sample his experiments. My contribution to every pint of Ben & Jerry’s was to apply my aerodynamics
studies to the flow of ice cream product through the pipes running around the factory. It seemed to me that turbulence in the flow
as pipes turned corners could create “eddies” that could separate the bits from their surrounding cream. It worked. You can check
it out anytime you want. In your grocer’s freezer! – DW

1990 • Ben & Jerry’s ice cream • DWV was hired to re-engineer mixing production systems to improve distribution uniformity of “mix-ins” in each product