sustainable baking
MECATHERM unveiled its latest oven in October last year, at iba. Since then, the M-VT vertical oven has also been presented at Gulfood Manufacturing, which makes two/two for this piece of equipment in terms of trade shows attended vs. awards gained.
The M-VT is the latest entry in MECATHERM’s new generation of ovens designed around sustainability. It combines several new features to support a sustainable baking process for a generous range of products, from crusty to soft, from breads to pastries and patisserie specialties, from cake to brioche. It does so while occupying less space on the production floor, as its baking process is designed to literally aim high.
Going low: energy consumption and carbon emissions
The M-VT was made to answer today’s most stringent requirements, from lowering energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions and overall production costs, and it adapts to changes in portfolio while simplifying work, especially timely given the ubiquitous shortage of staff. To check this to-do list, flexibility was one of the requirements for the drawing board of the M-VT development team, along with the equipment’s ability to support energy transition and high industrial performance.
Xavier Gotti, Ovens Product Manager at MECATHERM, explained the company’s perspective on developing the M-VT oven: “In a context of unstable energy prices and therefore production costs, our customers are challenged on the industrial performance of their equipment; they also need to be supported on the issue of energy transition. We have therefore worked to offer them the most compact and sustainable oven on the market, ensuring optimal efficiency, precision and regularity of baking while consuming up to 30% less energy than a standard tunnel oven, for the same production volume.”
Several aspects contribute to achieving this level of energy savings, starting with its vertical build, which makes it about a fifth of the length of a tunnel oven. This design is instrumental in reducing energy loss, since it minimizes the surface of contact with the outside world. In total, it has an 80% smaller wall surface, so significantly less energy can be lost through the walls. Moreover, by having the tray elevator entirely enclosed inside the oven, any heat loss usually observed when conveying outside the baking chamber is eliminated. Besides using convection heating, which also means the M-VT oven requires lower temperatures when baking, the new heat exchanger reaches 91% efficiency to achieve more energy savings, Gotti explained.
Gotti highlighted an issue in need of quick solutions, with urgency: transitioning between energy sources – for new and existing ovens. This is why the M-VT is electricity-ready, so it can be used with renewable energy. The benefits of an electric power supply are immediately visible when comparing the costs between resources. What’s more, when an oven runs on electricity alone, it does not emit CO2 or smoke. In this mode, energy consumption can be further lowered, by up to 10%, MECATHERM calculates.
Energy is also recovered from baking vapors. MECATHERM installed a double heat exchanger on the upper part of the oven, to recover the energy produced by the baking vapors and reinject it, both into the oven itself as hot air, and into the rest of the line, thanks to a hot water circuit. Vapor energy recovery can reach up to 19% of the oven’s energy consumption, according to testing carried out by MECATHERM.
“The big challenge for this new vertical oven is to guarantee an identical energy level for all products. To achieve this, we worked on several parameters including adjusting the speed of the turbine, significant air renewal in each module,
and the addition of a flow of hot air in the lower part of the oven to homogenize the temperature at the oven entrance with that of the rest of the baking chamber.”
Xavier Gotti, Ovens Product Manager, MECATHERM
The oven’s industrial performance is ensured by a new, smart airflow design that can ensure a Δ BCU (Baking Contrast Unit for the product’s color) of around 0.2. The regulated flow of steam injection also contributes to it, thanks to a new steam header for even steam intake.
Going high: literally
The M-VT convection oven is designed around new kinematic principles, having its shock-less conveyors with swings that smoothly rotate – a tall carousel with motions so fluid that a glass with water placed on it will not lose drops or even have the liquid reverberate while it completes the circuit (and the accuracy remains the same with heavy loads, too). The elevator can handle trays of up to 50 kg each. When baking, this means that the intrinsic quality of the products will be preserved, especially in the stage before doughs or batters of various viscosities have baked and solidified. In this way, even notoriously fragile formulations can be baked with the M-VT.
It was used to bake cakes during a technology preview event for the press, held at MECATHERM’s Barembach Demo Center ahead of its official launch – a new type of product for an oven of this kind, demonstrating it is able to keep up with the bakery’s trends for “variability, seasonality and quality” while precisely following the required baking curve for the product, Marie Laisne, Marketing Manager at MECATHERM, pointed out. The pilot version of the oven (the M-VT has already received upgrades since this started working, in 2023) running in France features three baking zones, functioning as three independent ovens. The air velocity control can ensure speeds ranging between 10 to 30 m/s (measured at the nozzle).
A new air circuit also contributes to the precision of the baking process – with different requirements for various products. Each module can be independently adjusted so that exact baking curves can be set. Gotti explains: “The big challenge for this new vertical oven is to guarantee an identical energy level for all products. To achieve this, we worked on several parameters including adjusting the speed of the turbine, significant air renewal in each module, and the addition of a flow of hot air under each stack of the oven to homogenize the temperature in the entire baking chamber. Thanks to all these developments, our new M-VT oven delivers very homogeneous products.”
What is hygrometry?
Hygrometry control is a new, patent-pending feature developed for this oven. Aside from temperature, baking time and airflow, humidity is another variable that can perfect product quality. The Hygro Control System manages the humidity level of each baking chamber. It automatically regulates the opening of the steam damper, the entry of dry air and the management of steam in the baking chamber. By minimizing fresh air entry and steam injection into the oven, this new feature contributes to optimize energy consumption during baking. Precise management of hygrometry results in more precise control of certain product characteristics such as its crust thickness, softness, or water loss, MECATHERM explains. It ensures high baking homogeneity, with a guaranteed hygrometry setpoint regardless of fluctuations that might occur in production.
The Hygro Control System is not exclusive to the new M-VT, as it can also be retrofitted on existing ovens. “This is a new parameter, which could not be set up before. Hygrometry rates can be adjusted to each module, to control product characteristics such as crustiness, product softness, or water loss,” Laisne explains.
The M-VT oven user guide
For easier cleaning and maintenance operations, the M-VT provides ample access: everything that needs regular checks has been positioned on the lower part – including the conveyor motor and the steam system. Parts with fewer maintenance needs are placed on the oven’s sides. There is no need to climb on the roof of this tall oven for any maintenance procedures, so its space requirements do not move from the floor vertically. With a footprint of 31 sqm for two modules, it has an available baking surface of 115 sqm; it is simply a compact machine. Depending on the number of modules which can go up to seven, the total baking surface can go as high as 400 sqm. It can work with pan sizes of 1,200 x 800 mm and 2,000 x 800 mm.
Energy consumption along the baking line
+ Dividing and forming – 1%
+ Proofing – 3%
+ Baking and steaming – 60%
+ Cooling – 12%
+ Freezing – 20%
+ Pan drying – 3.5%
+ Scoring, depanning, pan brushing, storing, conveying – 0.5%
The M-VT has four large doors – a new feature – which allow full access to the internal conveying system. The swings can be easily removed from the conveyor and cleaned outside of the oven. The baking chamber was also designed for easy cleaning. Its bottom is flat and slightly curved, featuring draining ducts. Optionally, a stainless-steel version is also available so that the oven can be washed down.
The oven management is automated so that it independently adjusts actuators to reach the optimum balance for minimum energy consumption, based on presets for all four baking parameters (temperature, baking time, air speed and humidity rate).
Moreover, as a new piece of equipment should, the M-VT oven is fully connected to manage production data, consumption monitoring, as well as preventive and predictive maintenance through the Mecatherm interface. It comes with several digital tools that streamline its day-to-day use and gain important insights into its operation. It is equipped with sensors on a large part of the actuators, so that it collects data, compiles performance reports, and monitors its energy consumption. The oven also helps minimize waste, by automatically detecting and adjusting to the load introduced for baking. By recirculating the air in the oven every 5 seconds, the trays entering production first after changeovers will only be minimally affected by the flash heat effect, so the quality will remain consistent, with no need to discard products.
After its official launch at iba, the M-VT entered the pre-series sales phase, a limited number of installations with selected partners. Following some adjustments, the series sales will be open soon.
