Oven zone lengths

Question

How designers decide oven zone length, no. of zones required for given biscuit variant?

Aurangzeb khan · Accepted Answer

Dear Manohar,

No of zones or length is decided for setting what capacity you need and you synchroniz your mixing,cutting,oven, (sandwiches if any) and packaging.

All are kept at almost same capacity minor differences are may be but no section should be bottleneck.

Ideally all kind of zones dgf, convection and cyclotherm zones are kept its better but dgf and convections are also ok.

If anything else your concern you can ask further.

John Blair · Answer

Hi Manohar,
It very much depends on the product type(s) you plan to make and the throughput capacity you need to match your other equipment , as Aurangzeb says.   Also the degree of flexibility you need is important.  If for example you were going to make only Cracker type products you would want DGF with high performance burners for the early stages of baking and ideally a pre-heat section on the return circuit.   On the other hand if you were making only cookies you would probably opt for a convection oven with the benefits of more even baking.    Hybrid ovens , where the first half of the oven is DGF and the second half is convection offer the most flexibility if you have a range of different product types to make. 
In any case all good oven manufactures will calculate the exact thermal requirements based on available cost, available footprint for the oven and dough making and wrapping capability (either existing or planned).
Hope that helps
Regards
John