Banner-Day Bakery Solutions

Bakery Technical Briefs

Operating Performance

Oven Maintenance

Assessment of Existing Burners and Benefits of New Burners
 
While talking with bakers recently, we realized that, unlike many businesses that are struggling to make ends meet with the “stay at home” restrictions, bakers in many parts of the country are seeing greater demand than usual. During these unusual times it is more important than ever to have the ovens working and performing consistently. At the heart of any oven are the burners and related equipment; allowing the burners to operate at maximum efficiency. 

Oven Controls: Power Interruption Protection

We have seen bad weather throughout the country for an extended period and it appears that it will continue.  Depending on where you are located you may have been experiencing more or less power outages or interruptions at your baking facility.  The following summary will focus on the challenges you could be experiencing as a result of this bad weather.

How Air Flow Can Impact Oven Performance

Bakers are constantly concerned with product quality, particularly when it is not within specifications, and they look to see what’s wrong with the oven. Often times there is something that can be adjusted with the bake time or temperatures to correct the problem. However, even after trying to make the routine adjustments the baker may find he has improved or reduced the problem somewhat but still has unresolved problems. After exhausting all of the normal oven adjustments it may be time to consider what external conditions may exist that prevent the oven from performing correctly. So what should you look for next?

Challenges of Lateral Heat

In the commercial baking industry, tunnel and tray ovens fired by ribbon burners are very common. These ovens consist of a conveyor which carries the product along the length of the baking chamber, passing over a series of burners throughout the oven. The burners are grouped into zones, with each zone individually controlled to a specific temperature set-point.

While a standard oven control system is designed to control the heat along the length of the oven, there is another consideration, and that is the heat distribution across the width of the oven. This reference to heat distribution across the width of the oven is commonly referred to as lateral heat.

Oven Performance - What Makes a Difference?

We realize that there are any number of manufacturers out there that can provide you with a DSI system for your oven, be it new, used or a retrofit of existing equipment. All of these systems have a number of things in common – burners, ignitors, DSI modules. What sets one manufacturer apart from another is the attention paid to the details. Note worthy and little known is that Banner-Day pioneered and developed DSI in the 1970’s and their continued research lead to some of the advancements that are discussed in this article.