From sanitation and environmental footprint to control and cost savings, bakers
look for ovens that maximize efficiency.
Bakers have a wide range of options to choose from when buying a new oven. Across the board, efficiency is the key word in oven advancements, from sanitation to environmental impact to the level of control available.
As a result, ovens today are made of stainless steel, which provides increased sanitation and allows for easy wash down. Clean-in-place systems make pressure washing the oven interior easier than ever.
In addition, oven manufacturers are building ovens to be more energy efficient. Bakers increasingly are interested in reducing emissions, using recirculated air and reducing fuel usage to manage operating costs.
Control and automation continue to advance, allowing bakers to track everything from formulation adjustments to the reason behind a breakdown on a line. A sampling of ovens offering efficiency and advancements follows.
Auto-Bake offers the Serpentine® oven, a patented process that provides enormous advantages over preceding technologies. The Serpentine oven provides a consistent bake and a reduced footprint that is one-tenth that of an equivalent tunnel oven, due to the signature S-shaped transport path that traverses multiple levels. Other features include energy efficiency, radiant or thermal heat, flexibility, zone control and humidity control. The oven is modular for future expansion and can be custom built to meet specific product parameters and space requirements.
Dunbar Systems Inc.
630 257 2900
www.dunbarsystems.com
www.auto-bake.com
C.H. Babb offers the air impingement oven, featuring full seam-welded, stainless-steel oven chambers with integrated drains, allowing all interior surfaces to be cleaned with pressure washers or fully-automated clean-in-place systems. Highly efficient, it uses a re-circulated air heating system that significantly reduces operating costs. It provides superior baking control and a quality bake with no flash heat regardless of loading pattern, independent top and bottom heat control, even bake across the full width and precise humidity control throughout the oven. The oven reduces bake times by 25 percent to 35 percent. It is built in pre-assembled modular sections for quick installation and oven expansion.
C.H. Babb Co. Inc.
508 977 0600
www.chbabb.com
Revent offers a complete line of rack and convection ovens for any size bakery. The Revent 724 double rack oven holds one double rack or two single racks. It features a mechanical rack lift, digital computer controls, unique airflow design and high-volume steam system. With optional computer controls for 500 bakery product formulas, Revent's rack ovens are available with single-, double- and four-rack capacities.
Revent
800 822 9642
www.revent.com
AMF Bakery Systems offers its new Vesta A-70 tray oven for bread and rolls. The Vesta A-70 is a direct-fired gas oven with triple zone burners, far side sensing and an automated DSI system. The Vesta A-70 features include stainless-steel paneling, VFD-controlled exhaust and dual-drive options. High density insulation and precise burner control increases energy efficiency. A new Parallel Link chain monitoring system ensures longer chain life and less downtime. The Product Trac system tracks product versus burner location to eliminate flash heat, resulting in extremely even baking.
AMF Bakery Systems
800 225 3771
www.amfbakery.com
The Henry Group's indirect gas-fired Turbo Therm tunnel oven is extremely versatile and energy efficient. The design of the air turbulence system in the bake chamber allows the oven to operate at lower temperatures and provide faster bake times. An integrated catalytic oxidizer uses the latent heat energy of the ethanol oxidation process to improve baking efficiency for a typical reduction of 13 percent to 20 percent of fuel consumption.
The Henry Group
800 356 7591
www.thehenrygroup.com
WernerPfliederer Matador Stone Hearth Deck ovens are constructed with stringent quality standards: strong, robust, even-heating system (no rotations necessary) with quick recovery for 24-hour per day production. NAVIGO controls ensure precise baking and steaming, allowing each baker to achieve the same quality. Multiple loading options are available. WP Matador offers energy saving technology-up to a 30 percent savings compared to similar oven types. More than 60,000 ovens have been installed worldwide. WP Matador is the most trusted name in deck ovens for the professional baker.
Kemper Baking Systems, North American Subsidiary for WP Bakery Group
203 929 6530
www.kemperusa.com
With so many oven options, bakers should test the many varieties before making a selection. Suppliers offer test facilities where bakers can compare and contrast the ovens to find the perfect fit for their bakeries.
Control has always been an important factor in choosing an oven. PLCs are doing more than just offering additional control of the oven. Technological advances allow PLCs to manage the entire system and track information, so operators can look back as far as a year and gather information on who changed a formula, or what caused a line to break down and who was responsible.
Management systems also are becoming PC-based, so bakers can dial in and check the oven from a home office, notes Charlie Foran, president, C.H. Babb Co., Raynham, Mass. Management systems can perform formula trending, downtime analysis, preventative maintenance prompting and show critical faults.
AMF offers a Product Trac system to track product in relation to burner location to eliminate flash heat for a more even bake. Using high density insulation and precise burner control through independent flame adjustments increase operating efficiency in ovens, says Larry Gore, AMF Automation Technologies, Richmond, Va.
Environmental efficiency is another trend affecting ovens. “We're doing a lot of work with major corporations doing efficiency tests. We were able to reduce our emissions to 30 percent of the calculated California emissions standard for an oven without a scrubber,” Foran says.
When it comes to gas usage, the amount that can be saved depends on the oven in question. Installing gas meters on ovens allows bakers to monitor the energy used.
Exhaust is another area that can be managed. “With the exhaust systems we're using, we're cutting way down on energy usage by optimizing recirculation and controlling output on the oven exhaust and what goes out of the building,” Foran notes.