Baking & Snack - April 2024 - 76

CONVEYORS
ors that come into and out of ovens and freezers may require
increased energy use or could cause moisture buildup
in the freezer.
" The longer an infeed to an oven is, the more you have
to reheat the oven bands because of the time it spends out
of that heated chamber, " Hobbs said. " And the longer the
conveyor sticks out of the freezer, the more opportunity
for it to collect moisture because moisture is going to collect
on the coldest component in the room. You're just introducing
that moisture back into the freezer where you're
going to build up frost on your coils. "
The challenges associated with maintaining freezer belts
are similar to ovens, but more options are available to use
in freezers because plastic belting can be used, said Dan
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Regan, president, Custom Cut Metals.
" We've gone into freeze tunnels where it will be -400˚F
going onto our belting, and it means we just have to adjust
which of the plastic belting we are using because if you're
using the wrong one, it will start cracking and breaking because
it's frozen, " he said. " As long as we can anticipate that,
and we have the right belting on there, we're fine. "
Plastic conveyors and components are susceptible to
blackening and deformation in high temperatures, pointed
out Will Rollins, technical service engineer, Wire Belt Co.
of America.
" Some good practices when moving out of an oven is
having a system that can support the repeated temperature
changes, " he said. " No matter what material is chosen, you
will always find that the heat cycling will take its toll. "
Getting the setup right
Equipment experts enable bakers to ensure the integrity of
equipment for extreme temperatures. The differences must
be accounted for in the belt and drive design, Voshell said.
" Whenever possible, it is preferable to locate the drive
of the adjacent conveyors away from the heat to allow the
components to be a similar temperature where they engage
with one another, " he said. " A mismatch of temperatures can
cause tracking issues if not properly accounted for. "
Steel belts can be affected by temperatures if the heat is
not distributed evenly across the belt, said Craig Bartsch,
global sales and marketing manager, belts, IPCO USA.
" For example, if the left edge is 20 degrees warmer than
the right edge, the belt tracking will be affected and the
belt could track off and damage the edge, " he pointed out.
" Another potential issue is not having the baked product all
the way to the edge of the steel belt. If there is no product
to absorb the heat, the belt will not track straight and could
track off. The belt edges could also curl up. "
John Diver, engineer, Eaglestone Equipment, recommended
a comprehensive analysis be conducted of all the
components connected to the conveyors that will be exposed
to extreme temperatures when setting up a conveyor
76 Baking & Snack April 2024 / www.bakingbusiness.com
http://www.ipco.com/bake
Baking & Snack - April 2024

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