For ready-to-eat proteins like nuggets and patties, the temperature of every piece leaving the oven, fryer, or freezer is the clearest signal of how the line is running. It tells you whether the cook was complete, whether the freeze was even, and how much margin you're carrying. Most plants only see that signal a few times a shift, from a probe on one piece at one spot on the belt.

Thermal Intelligence by Eigen uses thermal cameras and AI models to read the thermal state of 100% of product in real time, so you can catch deviations as they emerge, tune line speed and setpoints to actual conditions, and trace every batch back to the minute.

What Thermal Intelligence can identify

Undercooked or under-frozen product

Every product’s external temperature is monitored, and models trained on your product flag thermal patterns likely to indicate a cook deviation. Where probes spot-check a sample, Thermal Intelligence watches 100% of production, so an anomaly triggers a targeted probe check instead of surfacing hours later.

Throughput and energy lost to overcooking or overfreezing

Cook and freeze times are usually set with margin, because the variables that drive the actual cook never hold still: incoming meat temperature, ambient temperature, oven balance, oil condition. To stay safe against the worst case, most lines run slower and hotter than the product needs on a typical day, and every extra second is throughput you're not getting and energy you're paying for. Thermal Intelligence shows the real thermal state of every product leaving the oven, fryer, or spiral freezer, so you can set line speed and setpoints to the conditions on the line right now, run at the fastest speed that still delivers a full cook, and stop spending energy on margin you don't need.

Uneven cooking across the belt

A normal setpoint doesn’t guarantee a normal cook. Airflow, humidity, oil condition, burners, fans, dampers, and heat exchangers all shift the effective cook, creating unevenness across the belt that the eye can’t see, and the consumer eventually notices.

Other key features

Automated SKU switching

Changeovers take care of themselves: the system learns what good and bad thermal patterns look like for each specific SKU, and when the PLC signals a product change, the right model loads automatically. No operator training, no manual re-tuning.

Complete records for traceability and isolating faulty batches

Every inspection is recorded, so when a problem surfaces, you can trace it back and isolate the faulty batch to the exact minute. Instead of scrapping or recooking hours of production, you pull only what’s actually affected.

Integration

The camera is typically mounted above the line or to the side depending on steam, oil, and the conditions at your line.

An Eigen OneView edge device processes every image on-device and drives an operator HMI that shows the result for the last product inspected, with results and images streaming to OneView Cloud for tracking, trending, and review.

Find out how much margin is on your line

Our engineers install the system on your line for a demo and show you the thermal data from your own product in real time. Most teams see unevenness or excess dwell time they didn't know was there before the demo is over. Contact us to learn more.