Lubrication in baking oven chains

In the food sector, high temperature lubricants are used in baking ovens for the production of tortillas, waffles, pizza dough, and other baked goods. Proper lubrication of ovens reduces wear of the equipment, can prevent corrosion and contamination and saves energy costs. How? Lubrication lowers the friction between the elements of the machine. The higher the friction, the more electrical energy for the oven chain is needed to do its work.

Given that ovens raise to high temperatures during the baking process, it is important that the lubricants used in baking ovens have high temperature stability and lubricity. Additional requirements lubricants should meet include avoiding smelly or even toxic degradation of products, harm in case of incidental food contact, give an extended service intervals and reduce production scrap.

To meet these high requirements, especially at high temperature, lubricants based on PFAS - in this case per-fluorinated polyether oils (PFPE) and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) greases- are used. PFAS lubricants are designed for extended life-time or even for-life lubrication. They help companies prolong the lifetime of their own technical products as well as their production equipment, as such they contribute to the sustainability ambitions set out in the EU Green Deal.

There are no alternative raw materials to PFAS that offer the combined properties of good quality lubricity over a broad temperature range, energy savings through extremely low friction, high oxidative and temperature stability, and  hydrophobic and lipophobic /water- and fat-repellent.