Stainless Steel Floor Warping when Heated

[Oven_Man]

Hi All

I have posted before about my Stainless Steel oven build and so far it's been working extremely well - I have been churning out some beautiful pies.

I have been having a challenge with the floor from the time I have the oven. Oven internal size is 700mmx700mm and I tried to get 350mmx350mm firebricks so I only have 4 bricks inside but couldn't find a manufacturer. Now my issue is I have 230mmX115MM firebricks and there's a total of 18 bricks in the oven. The base of the oven is stainless steel that has a 50mm gap which is filled with Ceramic Fiber Blanket for insulation. The issue I have is when the oven is at operating temperature, the base expands and contracts because the ceramic blanket is not solid, the entire floor bows and sort of caves in with the high heat.
All the bricks ends up shifting and creates a very uneven floor with lots of gaps - it's a nightmare to use the peel in the oven with speed - I have to work very carefully so the peel doesn't tear the pizza.

Please give me some suggestions to alleviate this issue without having to dismantle the entire oven and fill the 50mm gap with something solid so it keeps it's shape better when heated.

P.S: I attached a picture of a visual representation of oven oven floor design so you can make sense of my description above if I didn't do a good job of words only

Thanks

[david s]

Stainless does warp badly and the thinner it is the greater the problem. Not sure how thick the piece you used was, but if you replace it with something thicker it may solve your problem. The other drawbacks with stainless for a floor are that it is many times more conductive than firebrick (see attached link) which means it will heat up fast but also lose heat just as fast.
The other problem is that wet dough sitting on a stainless floor traps the moisture under the pizza base often leading to a soggy pizza. Folk who cook on pizza trays have this problem and usually remove the pizza from the tray and place it on the firebrick floor to crisp the bottom, which of course results in double handling. Perforated trays have been developed to counter this problem. Firebrick being porous will suck excess moisture into the brick as well as containing far more thermal mass than stainless, provides a superior solution.

https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/thermal-conductivity-d_429.html

[Oven_Man]

Stainless does warp badly and the thinner it is the greater the problem. Not sure how thick the piece you used was, but if you replace it with something thicker it may solve your problem. The other drawbacks with stainless for a floor are that it is many times more conductive than firebrick (see attached link) which means it will heat up fast but also lose heat just as fast.
The other problem is that wet dough sitting on a stainless floor traps the moisture under the pizza base often leading to a soggy pizza. Folk who cook on pizza trays have this problem and usually remove the pizza from the tray and place it on the firebrick floor to crisp the bottom, which of course results in double handling. Perforated trays have been developed to counter this problem. Firebrick being porous will suck excess moisture into the brick as well as containing far more thermal mass than stainless, provides a superior solution.
https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/t...ity-d_429.html

Hi David
Thank you for your response

Firebrick sits on top of the stainless steel floor and my pizza's are baked directly on the firebrick. The problem is when the floor warps, the firebrick become uneven and is a challenge to use a peel on it. The stainless is 1.2mm thick but it's just there to encase the Ceramic Blanket so it's no exposed. I'm trying to avoid dismantling the oven as the company that built it for me is no more so if I can do some outside of that, it would be great.

Thanks for help