In 1988 Checker Machine began manufacturing a line of low-tension, direct- inject spiral steam ovens. Between 1988 and 2014 they manufactured more Spiral steam ovens than anyone else, and shipped them to four different continents. In 2015, Anderson Dahlen acquired the Checker spiral steam oven business with the idea of combining it with their own linear steamers and expanding the total product offering. Along with that purchase Anderson Dahlen added several key Checker design, sales and manufacturing people to their staff to assist them in their new endeavor. With these additions Anderson Dahlen has over 40 years of experience in spiral steam oven manufacturing, application analysis and installation.

More Cooking Power, Smaller Space and Lower Operating Costs



What are unique challenges to this industry you solve?

Our spiral cookers put more cooking power into a smaller space at a lower cost than any other system.

Typical Solutions

  • Spiral and linear steam ovens for cooking raw fish, meat and poultry products directing on the belt
  • Spiral and linear steamers for cooking pouched product in the package
  • Spiral and linear steam ovens for post package pasteurization
  • Low temperature spiral dryer for the food and non-food industry
  • Spiral or linear booster ovens to add capacity to the end of high temperature cooking lines
  • Spiral chillers, both air and Hydro, to cool packaged products
  • Custom engineered equipment tailored to individual customers needs

Who we serve

We serve the dairy, meat, poultry, seafood and packaged product industries with steam cookers. We serve the pharmaceutical and manufacturing industry with low temperature spiral dryers.



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We have experience with advanced manufacturing techniques

The original Checker Steam Oven team had been designing, building and installing machines for over 25 years. Anderson Dahlen has some of the most advanced manufacturing techniques in the upper Midwest. Combining these two attributes make for a winning scenario. Our customers are some of the worlds largest food companies in the world. Fortune 500 companies that have demanding applications that require the machine to run around the clock 6-7 days a week with over 99.5% up-time. Checker Spiral Steamers have performed up to their intended design criteria in every application that they have been put in, a 100% success rate. We have never had a machine removed because it did not produce the desired results. How many manufacturers can say that? We also design and build linear steamers which can stand alone or be installed as a booster.

Key Benefits

Standard product line

Standard product lines are advantageous for customers because they reduce the machines’ cost to the customer. We have standard machine sizes, but, they can be all be customized to the individuals needs. We do not take the shotgun approach of one size fits all.

Fully welded 304L/316L stainless steel construction

Long product life, low maintenance. Even the structural components are fabricated 304 stainless no carbon steel at all. All internal bearings are stainless steel as well. Our machines normally have a 20-year plus useful life.

Low maintenance costs

Typical Checker Steamer maintenance costs (including belt amortization costs) are between $5 and $10 per operating hour compared to $50-$100/hour for high temperature ovens. Most Checker Steamers log 5,000- 6,000 run hours per year.

Boost yield without expansion

A fortune 500 company comes to Anderson Dahlen with a problemhow can we increase capacity, boost yield and improve the production environment on a pizza topping production line, without increasing the footprint of the existing equipment.

Increase capacity in existing lines

The Anderson Dahlen team creates a unique solution by replacing an inclined discharge conveyor with a sealed, inclined, linear booster steamer which achieves all the necessary improvement in the customers process. The customer goes on to incorporate horizontal and inclined booster steamers to additional production lines. Our steamers, whether spiral or linear, can be incorporated into existing lines to increase capacity, yield or both.

Complex heating requirements made easy

Another Customer comes to us with the following requirement: How can we change a batch bagel steaming process, with multiple process temperatures, which step up from lower temperatures to higher temperatures, and turn it into a continuous production process. A process like this is common in batch processing, but, is more difficult in a continuous process production line.

Our solution was to create a multiple zone spiral steamer, all on a single spiral, which mimicked the batch process to achieve all the necessary product parameters.

Let’s Get Started On Your Next Steam Oven Project

Let's Get Started On Your Next Project

Anderson Dahlen is an ISO-9001:2015 certified company that custom manufactures advanced equipment & solutions to make organizations deliver better products, faster.

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