In the commercial bakery industry, to manufacture your products perfectly you have to know what is happening inside your oven. Thermal profiling systems from Reading Thermal will provide information you can use to make reliable data-based decisions about your processes and products.
Headquartered in Sinking Spring, Pennsylvania, the heat transfer experts at Reading Thermal have studied the commercial baking process for more than 25 years. We manufacture and support the SCORPION® 2 Profiling System which is a standard in the baking industry.
What We Can Measure
Connecting smart sensors and sensor arrays to the SCORPION® 2 Profiling System and passing them through the oven with the product, enables the measurement system to capture the four main baking parameters:
Temperature (air, band and product core): Oven temperature impacts oven-spring, drying/dehydration, and color formation during baking. Insufficient or excessive heat can also lead to unwelcome changes in texture and taste. The Scorpion® 2 Temperature Sensor Array measures the temperature at product level, in fixed positions across the conveyor, and delivers a precise picture of temperatures from side-to-side and end-to-end.
Air flow (velocity): In a convection oven, the airflow comes primarily from the air distribution plenums. In a radiant oven, it comes from the moving conveyor, the exhaust system, and natural combustion air currents. Measuring oven air velocity with the SCORPION® 2 Air Velocity Sensor is crucial because airflow will influence the texture, firmness, coloration, and baking time of the final product. The profiles will help you spot airflow differences between baking zones and undesirable air currents at the entrance or exit of the oven that can cause inconsistent baking.
Heat flux (energy transfer): Certain product characteristics are defined by the amount and type of heat applied during the baking process. The differences explain why one oven bakes differently than another. And analyzing and controlling these differences is critical to understanding how the finished characteristics of your products will be affected. The SCORPION® 2 Heat Flux Sensor measures radiant and heat fluxes at product level and displays the results in Btu/hr·ft2 or convective W/m2.
Humidity: This is the amount of water vapor in the air. As your products bake, they use the available moisture in your oven. Without humidity, the quality and texture of your products will not turn out as expected. High oven humidity can lighten the crust color of baked goods and prevent it from burning. Lower humidity typically results in crustier bread. Global bakeries trust the SCORPION® 2 Digital Humidity Sensor, to accurately measure the absolute moisture content of the thermal environment in heating and cooling processes.
If you experience inconsistent product quality, learn how to optimize your oven with thermal profiling. The bakery industry counts on the Reading Thermal SCORPION® 2 Data Logger and our various sensors and sensor arrays. Contact us online, or call our headquarters in Sinking Spring, Pennsylvania at (610) 678-5890 Ext. 2 to learn more about our state-of-the-art products.