Controlling steam and humidity in your bread and bun production line baking processes with Reading Thermal’s Scorpion® 2 Digital Humidity Sensor is a great way to ensure high-quality baked goods.
The heat transfer experts at Reading Thermal, a Reading Bakery Systems brand based in Sinking Spring, Pennsylvania, have focused on measuring and understanding the commercial baking process for more than 25 years. We manufacture and support the SCORPION® 2 Profiling System that has become a standard in the baking industry
Profiling Bread and Bun Ovens
Humidity is the amount of water vapor and steam in the air. Your products make use of the available oven moisture as they bake. Without humidity, the quality and texture of your products will not turn out as expected. Low humidity typically results in crustier bread, while high humidity can lighten the crust color of baked goods and prevent them from burning.
The new SCORPION® 2 Digital Humidity Sensor provides a better way to measure humidity in your oven, proofer, dryer and cooling tunnel. It measures the absolute moisture content of the thermal environment in both heating and cooling processes. The sensor travels through the oven with your product, yielding a precise profile of the moisture the product experiences.
The Digital Humidity Sensor is engineered to be compatible with direct gas fired (DGF) ovens. Unlike oxygen sensor technology, which can be off by up to 25% as a result of combustion gases in DGF ovens, the accuracy of the Digital Humidity Sensor remains the same regardless of the oven platform.
Temp+Airflow Sensor Array: This sensor array simultaneously profiles temperature and airflow across the width of large tray and grid conveyor ovens. It consists of nine Temp+Airflow sensors that are spaced evenly across the length of an aluminum bar. The array is available in three sizes to match the most popular bread oven conveyor widths.
Pan+Dough Probe: This probe consists of a copper plate that is placed in the pan and remains fixed at the same single point as it travels through the oven. It simultaneously captures the pan/dough interface temperature and the dough core temperature. The Pan+Dough Probe provides accurate repeatable results unattainable with hand-placed thermocouples. It connects to the Temperature Interface device which can accommodate five dual probes.
Bake Cycle S-Curve Analysis: The Bake Cycle S-Curve Analysis optimizes the baking profile and provides the critical insight needed to make adjustments to ingredients, bake time, and zone temperature settings. SCORPION® Software Version 8 (SV8) automatically calculates the three key S-Curve data points: yeast kill, gelatinization, and arrival.
Equipment Placement
Profiling large bread and bun ovens, like BakeTech, AMF and Turkington, presents a few challenges with regard to the placement of the SCORPION® 2 equipment in the oven. Placement is critical in order to produce accurate and repeatable data collection.
Unlike biscuit and cracker tunnel ovens where the SCORPION® 2 rides on the conveyor, bread and bun ovens need a specialized carrier. Additionally, long bake times and the need to produce the Bake Cycle S-Curve lead us to design a set of solutions specifically for the bread and bun baker.
Controlling humidity and steam in your bread and bun production line is important. Get a precise picture of what is happening during your baking processes with the Scorpion® 2 Digital Humidity Sensor. Call us at (610) 678-5890 Ext. 2, or contact us online to learn more about our state-of-the-art products.