Air impingement conveyor over

Details Air impingement conveyor over Air impingement conveyor over

2004-03-12

2004-12-21

Pelham, Joseph (Department: 3742)

Electric heating

Heating devices

Combined with container, enclosure, or support for material...

C219S388000, C126S21400R, C099S44300R, C099S474000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06833533

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to ovens for food baking. More particularly, this invention relates to such ovens which incorporate food product supporting conveyors for transport of food to be baked through the ovens, and which further incorporate air driving blower and duct assemblies for accelerated cooking through impingement of streams of heated air against the conveyed food products.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Air impingement conveyor ovens are commonly utilized in the food processing and restaurant industry for swift baking of pizzas. Such ovens may be utilized for swift baking of numerous other types of food items. Accordingly, references below to pizzas are intended to generically refer to all types of baked foods which are amenable to cooking or baking upon a foraminous conveyor and which are amenable to accelerated cooking through hot air impingement during conveyance.
Within the cooking chamber of an air impingement conveyor pizza oven, it is desirable to achieve even or consistent rates of cooking across the lateral width of the conveyor. A known means of attempting to achieve a consistent lateral cooking rate includes introduction of an air duct assembly into the oven and configuring such assembly to evenly laterally disperse hot air jets or air discharge ports along the laterally extending lengths of the oven's air ducts. Graphic depictions of such industry practice appear in U.S. Pat. No, 6,250,296 issued Jun. 26, 2001 to Norris, et al. (See Drawing FIGS. 1-6, 8, 9, 11, 15, 19A-21, and 23); U.S. Pat. No. 6,227,189 issued May 8, 2001 to Dougherty (See Drawing FIGS. 1-5, 8, 9, 11, 15, 19A-21, 23 and 35); U.S. Pat. No. 6,481,433 issued Nov. 19, 2002 to Schjerven, Sr., et al. (See Drawing FIG. 1C); U.S. Pat. No. 6,526,961 issued Mar. 4, 2003 to Hardenburger (See Drawing FIGS. 4, 6, and 11); U.S. Pat. No. 5,584,237 issued Dec. 17, 1996 to Moshonas (See Drawing FIGS. 3, 5, and 8); U.S. Pat. No. 6,192,877 issued Feb. 27, 2001 to Moshonas, et al. (See Drawing FIG. 4); U.S. Pat. No. 6,655,373 issued Dec. 2, 2003 to Wicker (See Drawing FIGS. 9 and 10); U.S. Pat. No. 5,671,660 issued Sep. 30, 1997 to Moshonas (See Drawing FIGS. 3 and 8); U.S. Pat. No. 4,753,215 issued Jun. 28, 1998 to Kaminski, et al. (See Drawing FIG. 1); U.S. Pat. No. 5,454,295 issued Oct. 3, 1995 to Cox, et al. (See Drawing FIGS. 3, 3a, 9, and 10); U.S. Pat. No. 4,679,542 issued Jul. 14, 1987 to Smith, et al. (See Drawing FIGS. 2, 4-6, 8, 10, and 11); U.S. Pat. No. 5,423,248 issued Jun. 13, 1995 to Smith, et al. (See Drawing FIGS. 3, 7, 9, and 10); U.S. Pat. No. 5,131,841 issued Jul. 21, 1992 to Smith, et al. (See Drawing FIGS. 3, 7, 9, and 10); U.S. Pat. No. 4,960,100 issued Oct. 2, 1990 to Pellicane (See Drawing FIGS. 2, 5, and 6); U.S. Pat. No. 5,025,775 issued Jun. 25, 1991 to Crisp (See Drawing FIGS. 7 and 8); U.S. Pat. No. 4,457,291 issued Jul. 3, 1984 to Henke (See Drawing FIG. 1); U.S. Pat. No. 4,471,750 issued Sep. 18, 1984 to Burtea (See Drawing FIG. 2); U.S. Pat. No. 6,592,364 issued Jul. 15, 2003 to Zapata, et al. (See Drawing FIG. 2); U.S. Pat. No. 4,626,661 issued Dec. 2, 1986 to Henke (See Drawing FIGS. 2 and 15); U.S. Pat. No. 4,576,090 issued Mar. 18, 1986 to Burtea (See Drawing FIG. 2); U.S. Pat. No. 4,556,043 issued Dec. 13, 1985 to Bratton (See Drawing FIGS. 2 and 11); U.S. Pat. No. 4,462,383 issued Jul. 31, 1984 to Henke, et al. (See Drawing FIGS. 2 and 3); U.S. Pat. No. 5,683,240 issued Nov. 4, 1987 to Smith, et al. (See Drawing FIGS. 3, 7, 9, and 10); U.S. Pat. No. 5,231,920 issued Aug. 3, 1993 to Alden, et al. (See Drawing FIGS. 4-6); U.S. Patent Application No. 2003/0217645 published Nov. 27, 2003, Jones, et al. Inventor (See Drawing FIGS. 3 and 4); U.S. Pat. No. 5,180,898 issued Jan. 19, 1993 to Alden, et al. (See Drawing FIGS. 4, 5, and 7A); and in U.S. Pat. No. 4,591,333 issued May 27, 1986 to Henke (See Drawing FIGS. 2, 3, and 5).
The practice of evenly laterally dispersing a pizza oven's air discharge ports across the lateral width of the oven's conveyor undesirably causes uneven cooking rates. Air duct chambers or plenums immediately overlying and underlying the air discharge ports depicted in the above referenced patents include closed distal ends. As heated air moves laterally and distally through such ducts, a substantial portion of the air is stopped by and rebounds laterally toward the duct's proximal end. Such air flow stoppage and rebound effect creates zones of relatively compressed air at the distal ends of the ducts. Accordingly, the duct chambers overlying and underlying the air discharge ports depicted in the above cited patents tend to create an air pressure gradients wherein the air pressures are lowest at the proximal ends of the ducts, and wherein the air pressures are relatively higher at the distal ends of the ducts. The depicted industry practice of evenly laterally dispersing such ducts' air discharge ports undesirably allows air to emit from the ducts at rates which conform with such laterally or distally increasing air pressure gradient.
The apparent intent of the industry practice of evenly laterally distributing air discharge ports across the lateral width of an air impingement conveyor oven is to achieve even lateral cooking rates. However, such industry practice undesirably produces uneven rates of air flow across the lateral width of the oven and, contrary to such apparent intent, undesirably causes uneven cooking rates across such lateral width.
The instant inventive air impingement conveyor oven solves or ameliorates the problems discussed above by progressively lessening the size and/or segmentation of air discharge ports positioned along the laterally extending lengths of the ducts, the progressive lessening resulting in even air flow and even cooking rates across the lateral width of the oven.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A first structural component of the instant inventive air impingement food conveying oven comprises a cooking chamber including or incorporating air heating means such as a natural gas burning heater or an electrical resistance element heater. The cooking chamber preferably comprises a longitudinally oblongated box. Longitudinally opposed walls of the cooking chamber preferably situate a horizontally oblongated food loading port at one end of the chamber and situate a similarly configured food dispensing port at the opposite end of the chamber.
A front wall of the cooking chamber preferably comprises a removable panel allowing easy access to internal structures for maintenance and cleaning, and preferably, the panel includes a hinged supplemental access door. Preferably, all walls of the cooking chamber are thermally insulated. Suitably, though less desirably, the cooking chamber may be configured as depicted in Kingdon, et al., supra, wherein the loading and dispensing ports comprise open ends, and wherein the cooking chamber assumes the configuration of a forwardly and longitudinally opening “C” channel.
A further structural component of the instant inventive oven comprises a food supporting conveyor which is mounted upon the cooking chamber, the conveyor extending longitudinally through the cooking chamber for carrying food products from the loading port to the dispensing port. Preferably, the conveyor comprises a foraminous continuous loop belt, the belt's foramens allowing heated air to flow from locales below the conveyor to impinge upon lower surfaces of food products resting upon the conveyor. A preferred configuration of the preferred foraminous continuous loop belt comprises a flexible chain linkage of parallel laterally extending bars, the bars serving as a moving cooking grate. Alternately, the conveyor may comprise foraminous food supporting trays or trolleys which are guided through the cooking chamber along longitudinally extending tracks. Other known means for longitudinally moving or conveying food products while cooking are considered to be includable within ovens falling within the scope of the instant invention.
A further structural component of the instan

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