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IPCO highlights its bake oven belts, laser cleaning and conveyor technologies


PCO is the world’s largest manufacturer of solid and perforated steel bake oven belts, supplying OEMs and end users alike. Belts are available in widths from 800 mm to 3500 mm, and are suitable for products as diverse as bread, biscuits, brownies, crackers, pastries, sponges, all-butter cookies and pizza bases. Steel conveyor belts bring a unique combination of benefits to the baking process. These include excellent thermal conductivity and outstanding durability; with good maintenance a working life of 20 years is not unusual. Being lighter than mesh belts, they are also a more sustainable choice, requiring up to 30% less energy to heat as they re- enter the baking chamber.


A high-quality bake oven belt will have certain mechanical properties – flatness, straightness – ‘engineered in’ at the production stage to ensure that it runs through the oven as it should. Consistency of colour is important too; dark areas absorb heat while light, shiny areas reflect it, so uneven belt colour could result in an uneven bake. This also has to be engineered into the belt. A flat, smooth surface ensures clean release at the end of the oven with minimal risk of damage to fragile products. And when cleaning is required, steel is easier to clean than other materials. Various cleaning techniques can be used including chemicals, dry ice, baking release agent and detergents, but all require intensive manual labour. IPCO has overcome this with the development of a belt cleaning system based on laser technology. The laser is installed above the belt and


“A high-quality bake oven belt will have certain mechanical properties – flatness, straightness – ‘engineered in’ at the production stage to ensure that it runs through the oven as it should”


Biscuits on a solid steel bake oven belt.


as the belt travels beneath the beam, deposits are burnt off and collected by a vacuum system. Once the strip has been cleaned, the laser head can be moved across to the next section. Depending on belt size and level of build-up, a typical bake oven belt can be cleaned in a day The quality of the belt – its straightness and flatness – is


central to its long term performance but bake oven belts also require effective tracking systems. IPCO produces active and passive belt alignment solutions, including the IPCO Compact Belt Tracker (CBT), which works with virtually any belt edge detector system.


Tracking solutions


Conveyor components undergo testing at IPCO’s development center.


are just one aspect of a comprehensive range of conveyor components supplied by IPCO. These include rolling supports, sliding supports (e.g. skid bars and graphite stations), frames, end stations, pulleys, cleaning devices and more. IPCO has been involved in


bake oven conveyor design for decades, often working hand in hand with oven builders to ensure that an oven reaches its full potential. This extends to ongoing partnerships with bakeries and the company has a Special Engineering team who can provide expert technical support. This experience has resulted in an in-depth understand


of how a belt behaves in an oven and how it interacts with the many other component parts that make up the system. As a result, IPCO can deliver inspection and maintenance services that go beyond the belt, with investigations encompassing the entire line to understand how the system as a whole is performing.


Number of employees Location (HQ) Website URL


IPCO’s new bake oven belt laser cleaning system in action.


20 Kennedy’s Bakery Production June/July 2023 600+


Sandviken, Sweden ipco.com/bake


Contact (Name and email) Marko Leber, Global Product Manager, Food


marko.leber@ipco.com bakeryproduction.co.uk


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