Commercial Low Arched Gueulard Bread Oven

[Alf]

Here are some photos of one of our commercial bread ovens we are building in Sheffield. The oven is of a low arched design (300 mm at the sides, 370 mm in the middle) and has a furnace under the ovens floor. The flames and gases enter the oven via a hole in the top of the furnace and are directed down the oven by the cast iron gueulard

Photo 1is of the hole in the existing wall where the oven is to be built
Photo 2 is of the insulated floor going in
Photo 3 is of the ovens side walls being installed
Photo 4 is of the furnace door and baking chamber door being bricked in

I will post some more photos of the finished oven

Alf

[Unofornaio]

Re: Commercial Low Arched Gueulard Bread Oven

Pretty cool ALf. I was not able to see the chimney though, where is it?

By the way can I run my white oven design by you???. Its all ready to go I just have to shoot the plans to you via email.

Check out the span of that opening in the original brick wall..what 10'?

[Alf]

Re: Commercial Low Arched Gueulard Bread Oven

This type of commercial oven is fired from the front to the back. That is to say the heat enters the oven from the furnace situated at the front and under the oven. The gases then travel down the oven and exit via two flue ways situated in the roof of the oven and at the back of the oven.

I will post some photos of the flue arrangement latter.

Sure send your plans, it will be interesting to see them.

The original hole in the wall is 3.2 m (10.5') wide; the baking chamber of the oven is 2 m (6.5'') wide x 2.8 m (9.1) deep

Alf

[trev]

Re: Commercial Low Arched Gueulard Bread Oven

Cool oven, Alf. Will it have a rotating deck? I'm contimplating trying to build one of those from scratch. Seems like there will be quite a bit of metal work involved...

[tmackey7]

Re: Commercial Low Arched Gueulard Bread Oven

I am doing a remodel of an old building that was a bakery in late 1800's early 1900's. Underneath the collapsed rear of the building (an addition)we found this wood fired brick rotary oven. it occupies 2 floors with the basement section being where the clean outs are. The owner had the oven cosmetically fixed and is using it as a centerpoint for the restaurant he is putting in the building. The drive section uses 2- opposing tapered wooden rollers for speed control and a worm gear drive for the turntable. I have not been able to find much info on this type of oven but believe it to possibly be a gueulard type oven. Any info or links to info would be appreciated. It was suggested that I post this in this thread by a member.

[Dutchoven]

Re: Commercial Low Arched Gueulard Bread Oven

This is a link to a similar oven manufactured in Spain...don't know how long they have been making these but it may lead you in the right direction...hopefully Alf will be able to jump back in on this one...really cool oven!!! Good luck!
Dutch
TMB Baking - A Global Concept

[Unofornaio]

Re: Commercial Low Arched Gueulard Bread Oven

This is NOT Gueulard type oven. Gueulard ovens have the Gueulard or Cowel in the front of the oven that directs the flame to the back and sides of a slightly inclined hearth. This typically sits directly above a fire box in the center of the oven front.

This appears to be similar to a Spanish design, several of these ovens are NEW and operating in this country (USA) probably the most famous baker to use this style is Thom Leonard, he used a Llopis oven. Another similar design is called a Farjas, again Spanish.

Good Luck

[Dutchoven]

Re: Commercial Low Arched Gueulard Bread Oven

Thanks Uno I forgot to mention the differences of the guellard oven to this one and I racked my brain trying to remember the other ovens and all I could remember was the llopis.
That is why we have comrades!
Dutch

[trev]

Re: Commercial Low Arched Gueulard Bread Oven

Thanks very much guys.

As it turns out one of our supermarket chains had a go at importing two Farjas's a year or two ago. Naturally I couldn't wait to go have a look. To my disappointment the oven (which took up almost half the bakery space) was out of use due to trouble with it's powerful extractor fan. It concerned me that such a seemingly old and proven design had come to rely on electrical power to function at all. There was also mountains of ash in the bottom fire chamber. The baker seemed to have a love hate relationship with the oven, clearly missing the superior quality bread which emerged from there.

I had a peep at the roof of the oven as well and was further alarmed at loose bags of lime stacked there. The baking platform drive chain was imbedded in this substance. Clearly the Farjas team had not given it their best shot.

A local South African contractor who happens to manufacture the "competition" gas ovens apparently came in and quoted an amount to fix the oven similar to that of completely replacing the oven (ie the sort of amount you could buy yourself a small flat with).

My big decision will be whether to undertake building one of these indirect fire ovens, or stick with the trusty Allen Scot design which has served me so well. I have gotten quite used to the ritual of re-firing and waiting for the next bake...

Trevor

[Dutchoven]

Re: Commercial Low Arched Gueulard Bread Oven

Trev
Research some oven designs that have "lateral throats" as opposed to the inferior throat. You would then be able to refire at will and there is no need to clean the oven floor...could be designed to draw outside air into the firebox and have an outside ash dump(like some fireplaces)...seems to me a AS design could be made to work with a lateral throat!
Good luck!
Dutch

[trev]

Re: Commercial Low Arched Gueulard Bread Oven

Sounds good! I think they call that sort of system a "Bourry Box" in the kiln trade...

[Dutchoven]

Re: Commercial Low Arched Gueulard Bread Oven

Trev
Where about in SA are you? A place I have always wanted to visit...we are also proud owners of 5 Rhodesian Ridgebacks!
Dutch

[kellybaugh]

Re: Commercial Low Arched Gueulard Bread Oven

I am getting ready to build one of my own and i am in need of the building plans .any chance you could help me out?
Living green bakery

[ATK406]

Re: Commercial Low Arched Gueulard Bread Oven

Originally Posted by Kellybaugh "I am getting ready to build one of my own and i am in need of the building plans .any chance you could help me out? Living green bakery"

FYI..You have replied to a thread that is over 6 years old. Most of the participants have not been active on this site for over 2 years. I doubt you will get a response - you might have better luck using the search function to look up newer threads that have similar content.

Good luck on you project.

[shuboyje]

Re: Commercial Low Arched Gueulard Bread Oven

I would personally build it very similar to a Pompeii when it comes to mass and insulation. You can probably eyeball the firebox size from some videos on youtube, I'd assume the throat is about a foot diameter and the firebox in the range of a 2' cube. I'd build the firebox of stainless to keep the mass down and insulate it well.

One thing I think that gets overlooked is the floor that slopes up as you go from front to back. The assumption is that is helps the flue gases move toward the vent at the back of the oven chamber. Based on my limited experience with the coal oven I've built recently that has some similarities, I think the slope helps the flame to contact the floor and aid in it's heating.