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  • Improved Quality
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  • Pressure Reducing Valves

Major Australian Bakery Rises with Low-Pressure Steam

Problem

High product reject rate after oven start-up

Every day, a major Australian bakery was forced to throw away significant portions of bread batches made at the start of the production run that had not risen or crusted properly.

After investigating the reason for the bread’s poor quality, the bakery found that there was insufficient moisture at the oven entry during start-up. Moist steam is vital at the start the bread baking process, as the surface of a loaf needs to be moist to expand easily and develop a crust. Because moist steam was not sufficiently injected into the oven at start-up, the bread was not rising sufficiently or developing hard crusts.

The time, energy, and raw materials that the bakery invested in producing these products thus went to waste each day.

Bakery

Baked Bread

Location Canberra, Australia
Appliance Steam Injection Oven
Business Operations Bread Production

Reason for Contacting TLV

Read about TLV online

Searching the internet for companies that could help with steam-related issues, the bakery manager came across TLV. He was impressed by TLV’s track record in helping major companies solve difficult problems, and the useful resources on the TLV website. He decided to contact TLV via email.

To his relief, a TLV Australia Steam Specialist replied straight away and offered to provide a one day walk-through assessment of the steam system at the bakery for free.

Solution

COSR pressure reducing valves installed at oven entry

After assessing the bakery, the TLV engineer devised a custom solution for the bakery’s moisture issue. To increase the moisture in the oven, the engineer designed a system where two COSR pressure reducing valves would reduce the pressure of the steam at the oven entry, allowing for controlled injection of low-pressure steam into the oven whenever it is needed.

Utilizing Shock-Absorbing Spherical Piston (SAS) technology, the COSR valves allowed for steam to be supplied at a constant low pressure, maintaining the temperature of the oven and keeping the bread moist when needed.

The large amount of high-temperature water stored in the tanks makes the factory hot and the working environment poor.

Result

Top quality bread produced from start-up, saving the plant time, energy and resources

Thanks to the COSR solution, the bakery was able to inject low-pressure steam into the oven at start-up, which kept the bread moist and helped it to rise and crust effectively.

By eliminating the vast majority of poor quality products, the bakery has reduced resource and energy costs by an estimated 1000 AUD per day.

On top of this, thanks to the low-pressure steam injected in the oven maintaining the ideal temperature, the bakery is now producing higher quality products in less time.

The large amount of high-temperature water stored in the tanks makes the factory hot and the working environment poor.