Baking & Snack - July 2005 - 70

PROCESSING TECHNOLOGY

separate North American projects encompass
Danish pastries and cheesecakes.
Indirect heating that ducts hot air into oven
zones is now being tested in serpentine systems.
To date, electricity and thermal oil were the only
fuel choices. "Thermal oil bakes well, but it is
expensive in terms of capital costs especially for
smaller wholesale bakers," the president said.
Maintenance issues - automatic oilers, greasers
and belt tensioning systems among others - are

ᮡ Large doors allow ready access for maintenance and sanitation of this
vertical oven design.
GOUET

ᮢ A bottom bake booster system in this 3-deck oven improves baking
performance for baguettes and other hearth-baked items.
MECATHERM

also being addressed.
This spring, an oven manufacturer based in
northern France introduced a new dual vertical
system that won First Prize for the Best Innovation at Europain. The new oven can switch
between stone plates secured in frames or
conventional metal trays.
Describing preheating of stones as essential, the
company's New York-based sales manager said,

74 / BAKING & SNACK / July 2005

portion will be at the end to finish the bake and to dry
the product," he said.
According to him, bakers are basing their initial oven
selection decision around what they are already familiar
with. They often choose brand names they've used before. However, bakers should choose an oven based on
the type of product they will be baking. "If you have a
short bake time at high temperature, tunnel ovens are
still the best choice," he said, "But, if you have a long bake
time, then a modular, compact oven system becomes a
good choice because it takes up less floor space."
FLEXIBILITY FACTORS. Simply put, hybrid ovens are
flexible. And an oven that can bake more than one type
of product is something most bakers are looking for.
According to the Ohio-based supplier, one aspect of
flexibility is that the oven is capable of baking at a wide
range of temperatures. "The whole key is being able to
better control time, temperature and humidity," he said.
"You've got to watch these factors. People are looking
for an oven that can be adjusted to handle different
products, each requiring different amounts of humidity
and different temperatures and bake times."
The vice-president for a Pennsylvania-based manufacturer agreed that bakers are looking for increased
flexibility in their oven selection. This manufacturer
offers an oven that uses multiple forms of heat to create
a flexible baking platform. "It uses radiant heat, convection and conduction in various forms to do this," he
said. These ovens are ideal for a variety of extruded
snack products made from potato, wheat and corn
doughs. This oven saves space because it is set on top
of the dryer. "The oven, generally heated to between 400
and 600°F, cooks the products before they drop into the
dryer, set at 200 to 300°F to reduce moisture," he said.
According to another manufacturer, pre-fabricated
oven modules are flexible because they can be installed
in a relatively short amount of time. Conventional ovens
have to be completely assembled on site by a qualified
workforce - a process that can take up to eight weeks. In
sharp contrast, installation of an oven based on a module
system takes from one to two weeks, he said.
A representative from an Ohio-based manufacturer
said that integration with upstream and downstream
equipment is of utmost importance because it not
only adds flexibility but also process control and efficiency. "In the majority of applications, the ability for
the oven to communicate with the other equipment is
crucial," he said.
EFFICIENCY MATTERS. One manufacturer offers a
thermal oil oven, which has several efficiency advantages.
"The whole idea is that in a lot of ovens you're circulating
hot air gasses through tubes above and below the baking

Baking & Snack - July 2005

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