A wireless portable high temperature data monitor for tunnel ovens

Abstract

Tunnel ovens are widely used in the food industry to produce biscuits and pastries. In order to obtain a high quality product, it is very important to control the heat transferred to each piece of dough during baking. This paper proposes an innovative, non-distorting, low cost wireless temperature measurement system, called "eBiscuit", which, due to its size, format and location in the metal rack conveyor belt in the oven, is able to measure the temperature a real biscuit experience while baking. The temperature conditions inside the oven are over 200 °C for several minutes, which could damage the "eBiscuit" electronics. This paper compares several thermal insulating materials that can be used in order to avoid exceeding the maximum operational conditions (80 °C) in the interior of the "eBiscuit. The data registered is then transmitted to a base station where information can be processed to obtain an oven model. The experimental results with real tunnel ovens confirm its good performance, which allows detecting production anomalies early on. © 2014 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.