Oven profile data loggers from Reading Thermal are designed to take the guesswork out of oven control and provide your bakery with added safety and quality control measures.
Located in Sinking Spring, Pennsylvania, Reading Thermal has focused on measuring and understanding the commercial baking process for over 25 years. We manufacture the SCORPION® 2 Data Logger, which is a standard in the baking industry and offers you an easy way to validate your kill step for food safety.
Connecting our different smart sensors and sensor arrays to the SCORPION® 2 Data Logger and passing them through the oven with the product enables the system to capture the four main baking parameters: temperature (including the temperature of both the air and the oven belt surface), heat flux (energy transfer), humidity, and airflow (velocity).
Sensor Measurements
Connecting smart sensors and sensor arrays to the SCORPION® 2 Data Logger and passing them through the oven with the product, enables the measurement system to capture the four main baking parameters:
1) Temperature: Oven temperature has an impact on 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.
2) Air 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.
3) Heat flux: Specific 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 a product 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.
4) Humidity: Humidity 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 Humidity Sensor, to accurately measure the absolute moisture content of the thermal environment in heating and cooling processes.
Oven profiling with the data logger and sensors from Reading Thermal can help you make adjustments in order to achieve superior products. Call us in Sinking Spring, Pennsylvania, at (610) 678-5890 Ext. 2, or contact us online to explore our innovative products.