Optimize the conditions in your commercial bakery oven by monitoring temperature, heat flux, air velocity, and humidity with the innovative SCORPION® 2 Profiling System and Data Logger from Reading Thermal.
Reading Thermal, a Reading Bakery brand, has researched and measured the commercial baking process for more than 25 years. We manufacture and support the SCORPION® 2 Data Logger, the “brain” of our measurement system and a powerful diagnostic tool that has become an industry standard for understanding and improving your proofing, baking, cooling and freezing processes.
Sensor Measurements
Connecting smart sensors and sensor arrays to the SCORPION® 2 Data Logger and passing them through the oven with your products, allows the measurement system to capture the four primary 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. In high temperature and very high dew point processes, the SCORPION® 2 Digital Humidity Sensor contains a proprietary humidity sampling system with patent-pending Anti-Saturation Technology™.
Contact Us Today
Oven profiling with data loggers from Reading Thermal can help you make adjustments in your commercial bakery oven 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.