Precise oven profile data loggers from Reading Thermal will take the guesswork out of oven control and provide your industrial bakery with added quality control and safety measures.
For over 25 years, Reading Thermal has focused on measuring and understanding the commercial baking process. We manufacture and support the SCORPION® 2 Profiling System and Data Logger, which has become a standard in the baking industry.
The SCORPION® 2 Profiling System enables you to monitor actual in-process conditions and get the critical information you need to correct problems and maintain optimum process control. This powerful diagnostic tool is appreciated by commercial bakeries around the world for understanding and improving bakery proofing, baking, cooling, and freezing processes, and for FSMA kill-step validation.
Measuring Oven Temperature
The Reading Thermal SCORPION® 2 Temperature Sensor Array is designed to measure temperature at product level, in fixed positions across the conveyor, and deliver a true representation of what your product experiences over time.
The sensor array is connected to the SCORPION® 2 Data Logger and travels through the oven with your product(s), yielding a precise picture of temperature from side-to-side and end-to-end.
Different types of pluggable sensors are available:
- Type A: This Air/Conveyor sensor measures air temperature immediately above the conveyor and the surface temperature of the conveyor itself. It is designed for solid or tight mesh conveyors. One thermocouple in each pair measures air temperature while the other is spring-loaded down onto the conveyor surface.
- Type B: This Air/Air sensor measures upper air temperature immediately above the conveyor as well as the temperature of the lower air that is rising through the conveyor. It was created for open mesh conveyors. The upper and lower thermocouples are separated by a thin shield.
After gathering the data, the SCORPION® Software (SV8) Food Safety Module simplifies the lethality calculation and then generates a comprehensive report displaying cumulative log reduction. By combining this ease of measurement with robust data capture, the SCORPION® 2 System makes it simple to optimize your process and products while meeting food safety standards.
Case Studies:
- A Kaiser-roll bakery was running products through its tunnel oven for 16 minutes. The SCORPION® 2 Profiling System and Temperature Sensor determined that the products had already reached an internal temperature of 200°F after 10 minutes of baking time. This enabled the bakery to shorten baking time and significantly increase capacity.
- Reading Thermal assisted a large bakery client in determining the proper baking time for a wheat sandwich line it was baking in an 84-ft. continuous impingement tunnel oven with eight zones. With the SCORPION® 2 Profiling System, internal dough temperatures were measured at 200°F at 74% of the 19:30 baking cycle rather than at the target rate of 85%. To slow internal baking, overall oven temperatures were reduced an average of 15°F, resulting in thousands of dollars of savings on natural gas per month.
Oven temperature in industrial bakery ovens can have a marked effect on the oven-spring, structure, appearance, and texture of your baked goods. When you need a precise thermal profiling solution, the Scorpion® 2 Profiling System from Reading Thermal can help. Call us at (610) 678-5890 Ext. 2, or contact us online for more details about our innovative products.