Article dispensing – With article treatment – With cooling or heating
Patent
1994-08-12
1996-10-15
Noland, Kenneth
Article dispensing
With article treatment
With cooling or heating
99357, A24F 2714
Patent
active
055645941
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to an automatic food dispenser. According to a preferred embodiment, the automatic dispenser is peculiar to precooked food using one or more microwave ovens.
The prior art can be defined by the following patents: food preserved at low temperature, under vacuum, sterilized and the like, and served hot in a fully automatized manner. It comprises an electronic section programmable by its keyboard, which is the "brain" of the dispenser, a refrigerated storage compartment for the food, and an automatic food conveyor device to take food from refrigerated storage to the microwave ovens to be reheated. The assembly according to the invention is more specifically directed to the automatic precooked hot food dispensation".
This device well defines the prior art. The fact that a bank of microwave ovens is put at disposal of the public is the main drawback. The microwave ovens have to comply to very severe safety rules. The fact that microwave ovens are useable by a large public creates problems. So, those ovens can be submitted to vandalism acts or bad uses.
FR-A-2 611 465: "This invention is directed to an automatic device for serving, in a hot or cold state, food contained in a sealed bag. This device comprises several storage cabinets, several microwave ovens, a conveyor system for conveying food from the stock to the ovens and a pay system. The dispenser can provide several choices of food but it is essentially characterized in that it serves sealed bags and not open air food, which results in a new storage architecture."
FR-A-2 556 859: "This invention is directed to a type of automatic dispenser for hot and cold meals, including an electronic command. It comprises four essential elements: a power compartment regrouping the electronics controlling the functions and the motor of the refrigerator; a dispensation compartment regrouping two microwave ovens which also can be used as cold output mode for providing a meal dispenser; a refrigerated compartment regrouping double rows of shelves for storing the food; and a group device for grasping the food, which comprises a shovel moving between two rows of food shelves. The invention can be advantageously used for providing hot and cold meal dispenser containing a great number of prepared and stocked food in a compact fashion, providing the optimum profit for the machine."
FR-A-2 458 851: "This invention concerns a directed temperature foodstuff dispenser for stocking foodstuffs that would be otherwise perishable. Those foodstuffs are reheated by a microwave oven at the time of their dispensation. The invention is directed to the industry of a quick consumation."
U.S. Pat. No. 3,866,755: "This document describes an automatic dispenser according to the preamble of claim 1."
The automatic hot food dispenser according to the invention aims to solve all those problems. Particularly, it allows to dispense hot food without public access to the microwave ovens.
The dispenser according to the invention provides many other advantages. The dispenser comprises food or commestible product columns fixed in a cabinet which in turn is fixed on the frame of the dispenser, the cabinet and the columns are adaptable to the products to dispense and are not specific of a particular product. The dispensation is performed by gravity for simplifying the mechanism. The dispenser comprises a perforating system that can perforate, if necessary, the sealed package of the commestible products in order that those products do not explode because of the compression of the vapor when they are heated, and asepticize the perforating needles after use. The dispenser can treat commestible products at room temperature, at positive cold, at negative cold. The dispenser comprises a programmable vendor. It can be connected to a microcomputer for the stock management and the after sale service.
The automatic dispenser according to the invention is of a type using means for stocking commestible products, one or more microwave ovens, guiding means for guiding food from the stock to
REFERENCES:
patent: 5144879 (1992-01-01), Alessi
patent: 5168795 (1992-12-01), Okada
Bednarek Michael D.
Noland Kenneth
LandOfFree
Automatic hot food dispenser using one or more microwave ovens does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Automatic hot food dispenser using one or more microwave ovens, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Automatic hot food dispenser using one or more microwave ovens will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-1239662