Foods and beverages: apparatus – Cooking – Convertible
Reexamination Certificate
2001-03-27
2001-11-13
Simone, Timothy F. (Department: 1761)
Foods and beverages: apparatus
Cooking
Convertible
C099S401000, C099S444000, C099S445000, C099S447000, C099S450000, C126S0250AA, C126S04100R
Reexamination Certificate
active
06314868
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to an outdoor cooker or grill that cooks food by providing direct or indirect heat from a heat source of the grill to the food. In particular, the present invention pertains to an outdoor cooker that has a gas or charcoal heat source that provides direct and indirect heat to foods supported on a cooking surface of the grill by operation of a louver assembly. The louver assembly is added to the grill and is comprised of a manual actuator and a plurality of louvers. Movement of the actuator moves the plurality of louvers between first, upright positions of the louvers that provide direct heating of the food and second, angled positions of the louvers that provide indirect heating of the food.
(2) Description of the Related Art
The typical outdoor cooker or barbecue is basically comprised of a base that encloses a source of heat, a grill that functions as the cooking surface of the outdoor cooker and a cover that protects the interior components of the outdoor cooker when not in use and can optionally be used in cooking. Outdoor cookers are provided in a variety of configurations but are most often given circular or rounded configurations or rectangular or box-shaped configurations. The rounded cookers have a generally semi-spherical base comprised of a bottom wall and a single sidewall that extends around the bottom wall. The box-like cookers have a box shaped base with a bottom wall and four sidewalls surrounding and extending upwardly from the bottom wall. The sidewalls of both cooker configurations support the grill cooking surface above the base bottom wall and above an interior volume of the base that is dimensioned to accommodate a source of heat. In outdoor cookers the common sources of heat include charcoal bricks or briquettes and gas heat.
A disadvantage encountered in using outdoor cookers that employ either charcoal or gas as a heat source is adjusting the heat of the source to achieve the desired cooking rate for food. The cooking heat of charcoal cookers can be adjusted by adjusting the amount of charcoal used as fuel and, in some cookers, adjusting the opening of air vents in the base of the cooker. The cooking heat of gas cookers can be adjusted by adjusting the flow of gas to the cooker.
In both types of cookers the foods can be cooked with the cover removed from the base to allow the heat source to sear or quickly cook the food on the grill on one side before turning or flipping the food to allow searing as quickly cooking the food on its opposite side. Alternatively, the food can be cooked with the cover in place on the cooker where the heat source of the grill will quickly cook the surface of the food resting on the grill cooking surface and will gradually bake or cook by convection the opposite surface of the food. However, in both situations of cooking with or without the cover of the grill in place, the bottom surface of the food resting on the grill cooking surface is subjected to the direct heat of the heat source and cooks quickly, and in many situations cooks at a faster rate than desirable.
Some outdoor cookers have been developed that include drip pans that can be inserted between the source of heat and the grill cooking surface when it is desirable to cook food by indirect heat, and then removed from between the source of heat and the grill cooking surface when it is desirable to cook food with direct heat. In addition, some cookers have been designed with an elaborate system of shutters, moveable channels or heat deflector plates that are component parts of the interior of the outdoor cooker that can be moved between opened positions where they allow direct heat to the grill cooking surface and closed positions where they provide indirect heat to the grill cooking surface. However, the elaborate constructions of these heat controlling mechanisms contributes significantly to the overall cost of the outdoor cooker and to the complexity or difficulty in assembling the component parts of the cooker.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
What is needed to overcome the disadvantages associated with the prior art outdoor cookers is a mechanism that can be easily assembled to a cooker without significantly increasing its cost of manufacture and can be easily operated to enable the cooker to be used in both the direct and indirect cooking of food. The above set forth objectives are achieved by the construction of the direct and indirect outdoor cooker of the present invention.
In the preferred embodiment, the cooker has a box shaped configuration and a gas burner as its heat source, although the novel features of the cooker are equally well suited for use in a cooker having a rounded configuration and employing charcoal or other burning fuel as its heat source. Much of the construction of the direct and indirect outdoor cooker of the invention is typical of outdoor cookers. It includes a base having a rectangular bottom wall and four sidewalls that extend upwardly from the edges of the bottom wall. The interior volume of the base accommodates a heat source, in the preferred embodiment a gas burner that is adjusted by manual controls that regulate the supply of gas to the burner to adjust the burner flame. A grill having a cooking surface is supported on the base sidewalls above the burner. A cover having a complementary configuration to the base is removably positioned on top of the base covering the grill cooking surface and enclosing the interior volume of the base. The cover may be completely removable from the base or can be hinged to the back sidewall of the base.
The mechanism that enables direct and indirect cooking of food by the cooker of the invention is provided in the base interior between the grill cooking surface and the gas burner. The mechanism is basically comprised of a plurality of louvers and a manual actuator that controls movement of the louvers.
Each of the louvers is substantially identical to the others and has a flat, rectangular configuration with a longitudinal length between opposite first and second ends of the louvers. Each louver has a width across its longitudinal length with first and second longitudinal edges on opposite sides of the width. First and second pivot pins project from the respective first and second ends of the louvers. The pivot pins are coaxial and are positioned on the louvers in off-center positions relative to the width of the louvers, slightly closer to the first longitudinal edges of the louvers than the second longitudinal edges.
Each of the plurality of louvers are mounted in the interior of the cooker base by their pivot pins being supported on opposite front and back sidewalls of the base. The louvers are basically suspended between the front and back sidewalls by their pivot pins so that they hang in vertical or uprightly oriented positions with their first longitudinal edges over their second longitudinal edges. The first positions of the plurality of louvers where they are oriented uprightly is employed when direct heat cooking is desired. The louvers are moved by the actuator to their second positions where the louvers are angled relative to each other when indirect cooking is desired.
The actuator of the louvers is mounted between the left and right sidewalls of the cooker base beneath the plurality of louvers. The actuator is basically a bar that extends beneath the louvers and is mounted to the cooker sidewalls for pivoting movement. In the preferred embodiment, the bar is formed of a deformed rod having ends mounted in holes provided in the left and right sidewalls of the cooker base for pivoting movement of the rod about a pivot axis that passes through the holes. Inside the base interior volume an intermediate portion of the rod is bent eccentrically from the pivot axis of the rod. A plurality of wedges are secured to the bar intermediate portion and function as start up edges of the actuator. The positions of the wedges correspond to gaps between adjacent pairs of louvers suspended in the base interior. One end of t
Christensen David M.
Hart John A.
Thuenemann Wayne E.
Empire Comfort Systems, Inc.
Howell & Haferkamp LC
Simone Timothy F.
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