Industrial Processing Equipment

Steel is a time tested material which has proven to be very effective for belt ovens. The main use for Steel Belt Ovens is biscuits/cookies, however, they can also be used for pies, pastries and even some pet food products.

Steel belts are often exposed to extreme mechanical and thermal stress. For this reason it is important to purchase your steel belt oven from a reputable manufacture who you know will provide steel that will withstand these extreme conditions. Process Systems Services Pty Ltd manufactures the highest quality steel belt ovens.

Hygiene advantages of Steel Belt Ovens

Steel belt ovens are primarily used in the food processing industry; this is due to its high hygiene level.  Steel has a completely flat, smooth surface; this means that it does not have any crevices for dirt and other foreign particles to lodge into. Steels hardness and durability enables for easy and efficient cleaning of all surfaces with a variety of different cleaning methods such as heat, scrubbing, high pressure sprays and chemicals. Additionally, the hard surface makes it more durable and therefore your oven will have a much longer life-span. Steel is not able of absorbing bacteria in the way that other, more natural materials are, for example, wood. A lot of foods contain acid which have a tendency to cause pitting which creates the perfect environment for bacteria to grow and bread. Steel is not affected by acid and therefore does not and therefore avoids this problem and is ideal for cooking acidic foods. When all these things are taken into consideration it is clear that steel belts is the most hygiene option for industrial ovens.

Conduction and Convection Ovens

Conduction heating is when thermal energy (heat) is transferred through direct contact, usually via a stainless steel or aluminium plate with heating element. This system is used for stove tops and more traditional ovens used for baking. Convection heating augments conduction heating by using a fan. Moving air strips away the insulating layer of air around the food, exposing it to hot air.

The benefit of convection ovens is that they can operate at lower temperatures than a conventional oven, while cooking the food more quickly. In fact, cooking temperature can be reduced by 25 degrees with the same result. By cutting down overall cooking time, it also allows for foods to retain more moisture. Convection ovens avoid cold or hot spots, cooking the food more evenly. In a traditional oven, the heated air remains mostly motionless and food has to be placed in the centre to avoid the direct heat of the elements. So in a convection oven, you can place more dishes inside since they don’t have to be placed in the centre.

Microwave and Infrared Ovens

Infrared ovens use electromagnetic radiation to cook food. It is used because it heats through absorption, targeting the object rather than the air around it. It is very efficient because the wavelength of the infrared heater can be matched to the absorption characteristics of the product being heated. Infrared ovens can be designed to heat from the top, bottom, sides or any of these combinations, in styles such as a flat belt, spindle, chain-on-edge or tow-line. It can reduce cooking times by up to 75%, and can be combined with a convection oven acting as a booster effect. This is often used in industrial ovens for purposes such as curing.

Microwave ovens have the benefit of cooking food very evenly through heating polarised molecules within the food. However microwave ovens do not brown or bake foods like convection or conduction ovens, and to achieve these effects the oven can be combined with convectional heating.

Uses for Commercial Ovens

Commercial ovens are primarily used for baking, a process of prolonged cooking by dry heat through convection. It is usually used for cooking baked goods such as bread, cookies, cakes, pies, pastries and so on. However it can also ovens can also be used to prepare vegetables, meats, casseroles, deserts, pasta dishes and other foods. Of course, ovens can also be used to bake other things such slurries of minerals, pet food, and pharmaceuticals.

Many commercial ovens are designed with different heating elements, one using convection to bake, conduction to heat and radiation to grill. Some food preparation requires a combination of these heating elements. One of the advantages to baking products is that the process does not add any fat to the product, as opposed to processes such as deep-frying.

Types of Ovens

Ovenscan be heated by different means. There are conduction systems, which involve the transfer of thermal energy between neighbouring molecules to equalise temperature differences, and convection systems which uses a fan to expose the food to hot air flows. Then there are infrared ovens which heat opaque and absorbent objects rather than the air around it. Microwaves are another method of cooking food. Microwaves as a technique for cooking food was discovered by accident by Percy Spencer in the 1940s while building magnetrons for radar sets.

A microwave oven cooks by using microwave radiation to heat water and other polarised molecules such as fat within food. Microwaves are a frequency between radio and infrared frequencies, usually ar around 2.5 gigahertz. Microwaves cook through dielectric heating. This is when molecules that have a positive charge at one end and a negative charge at the other, rotate as they try to align themselves with the alternating electric field of the microwaves. This molecular movement represents heat that is then dispersed as the rotating molecules hit other molecules, putting them into motion.