Due to their operation in demanding environments, steel belts are the preferred conveying medium in continuous baking ovens worldwide.   Bake oven belts have to be able to withstand extraordinary stresses. They are tensioned, tracked, heated up, cooled down, and turned around rollers thousands of times a day. And the inherent stability, durability and resistance to stretching of a steel belt means it is capable of providing reliable operation for 20 years or more.   In terms of bake quality, a steel belt stays flat, keeps its shape and offers excellent thermal conductivity, ensuring consistent results across the full width of the belt. The solid surface provides a crisp base that cannot be achieved on any other conveying medium, and its hard, smooth quality delivers a clean product release. Products as varied as cookies, crackers, pizza bases, granola bars, cakes, macaroons and brownies can all be baked on a steel belt.   Steel belts also have the advantage of being lighter than wire mesh so cost up to 30% less to heat. Each time the belt exits the baking chamber it begins to cool and has to be heated up again, so the savings are continuous.  The inherent qualities of stainless steel – chemical and bacterial neutrality, inherent inertness, and ease of sanitizing – also make steel belts the obvious choice for conveying food products including chocolate and other bulk ingredients.  Wear-resistance is a useful quality when considering materials like sugar, whose abrasive properties mean rubber or plastic belts are often unsuitable, not only due to a limited lifespan but also because of the risk of contamination by rubber fragments. And for applications such as meat cutting and tomato sorting, durability and resistance to damage caused by corrosion or impact are other important factors.