If you experience inconsistent product quality, moisture retention, or uneven baking in your commercial bakery oven, consider the heat flux measurement sensor from Reading Thermal and our other state-of-the-art sensors and sensor arrays.
Reading Thermal, headquartered in Sinking Spring, Pennsylvania, has been researching, measuring, and understanding the commercial baking process for over 25 years.
We manufacture and support the SCORPION® 2 Data Logger that measures and maps the key baking parameters of temperature, air velocity, heat flux and humidity, and is now a standard in the baking industry.
What is Oven Heat Flux?
Oven heat flux refers to the amount of energy transferred per unit area per unit time from or to a surface. It is the best non-intrusive indicator of the performance of ovens during baking in terms of the product.
Heat transfer follows three different modes of heat transfer during baking – radiation, convection and conduction – and heat flux involves all three components. Every product will have its own unique mix of these components and its own heat flux profile. There is no single optimal heat flux profile for all products.
Why Is Heat Flux Profiling Important?
The characteristics of specific products are defined by the amount and type of heat applied to the product during the baking process. The differences explain why one oven bakes differently than another. And analyzing and controlling these differences are critical to understanding how the finished characteristics of a product will be affected.
Heat flux profiles are often used when trying to produce the same product on two different lines, or when trying to transfer product from one line to another. When the heat flux component profiles are matched, the two lines will produce the same product.
The SCORPION® 2 Heat Flux Sensor measures convective and radiant heat fluxes at product level and displays results in Btu/hr·ft2 or W/m2. Convective and radiant heat is absorbed by the band, which serves as the conduction mechanism to the product. While traveling through the oven with the product (in a fully loaded oven), the sensor produces a precise profile of heat flux components the product experienced.
Mechanically, the Heat Flux Sensor is comprised of two copper spades and a bulk air temperature sensor. The black spade provides a measurement summation of convective and radiant heat fluxes, and the gold spade provides a measurement of only the convective heat flux component. The gold-plated temperature sensor provides a measurement of the free stream air temperature associated with convection.