Conveyors: power-driven – Conveyor frame or casing – Casing – cover – shield or load supporting surface
Reexamination Certificate
1998-10-20
2001-07-17
Olszewski, Robert P. (Department: 3652)
Conveyors: power-driven
Conveyor frame or casing
Casing, cover, shield or load supporting surface
C198S860300, C198S860500
Reexamination Certificate
active
06260694
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a circulating type conveyer passage disposed along an eating and drinking counter for conveying food and drink, and more specifically, to a food and drink circulating conveyer passage provided with opening and closing doors for preventing food on the conveyer passage from becoming dry and foreign matters from depositing on the food.
2. Description of the Related Art
There have been widely used circulating type eating and drinking counters provided with an endless circulating type food conveyer passage disposed along the counter for conveying vessels placed thereon such as plates and the like in which commodities, for example, food and drink such as “sushi” and the like are served because customers can eat and drink and cooks can cook without the need of movement and further the customers can eat and drink while selecting desired commodities at their seats.
In the eating and drinking counters arranged as described above, there is a distance from a kitchen from which food such as sushi and the like as a commodity is charged to a place where the customers exist as well as there is a possibility that the food becomes dry and foreign matters such as dusts and insects are deposited thereon because the conveyer passage circulates. To cope with this problem, there is employed a method of conveying the vessels such as the plates and the like by covering them with upset-bowl-shaped lid members. In this case, the customers eat and drink by taking out the vessels in which food is served from the conveyer passage together with the lid members and placing them on the counter.
However, the method of using the lid member is troublesome because the customers must remove the lid members from the vessels each time they eat and drink and the removed lid members are obstructive to eating. Further, since the lid members must be washed when necessary likewise the vessels, a lot of manpower and a considerable cost are necessary to wash them as well as since the lid member must be placed on the vessel when food is charged onto the conveyer passage, a troublesome job is required by it.
To solve the above problem, there has been recently proposed a method of conveying food and drink on a conveyer passage by shutting off them from the outside by providing a cover member for entirely covering the upper portion of the conveyer passage and permitting customers to eat and drink desired food and drink by taking out them through opening/closing portions formed to the cover member.
The cover member, however, must be periodically cleaned and washed to keep it sanitary because stains, foreign matters and the like are deposited thereon when it is used. Since, however, the conventional cover member is fixed or even if it is arranged to be removable, it is troublesome to remove the cover member, there is a problem that it is difficult to execute maintenance of the cover member such as cleaning, washing and the like.
When the cover member is arranged to be removable, there is a possibility that it is removed by a customer when he or she opens or closes an opening/closing portion, if an excessive force is applied thereto at the time. Thus, there is a problem that when the cover member is composed of glass or the like, it may be broken if it is carelessly removed and this is dangerous to the customer.
Further, since the cover member is composed of a transparent material such as, for example, acryl, glass or the like so that food and drink which is being conveyed can be visually confirmed from the outside, there is a problem that when the transparent material is transported by being equipped with a conveyer passage, the transparent material is liable to be scratched.
An object of the present invention made in view of the above problems is to provide a food and drink circulating conveyer passage provided with opening and closing doors, the conveyer passage being arranged such that maintenance such as washing and cleaning can be easily carried out to it, there is not a possibility that a cover member and the like are carelessly removed and they are not scratched while transported.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
To solve the above problem, a food and drink circulating conveyer passage of the present invention provided with opening and closing doors and disposed along an eating and drinking counter for conveying and supplying food and drink is characterized by comprising a tunnel unit which has at least one side formed to a curved portion having a prescribed radius of curvature and is disposed on the conveyer passage and slide rails for guiding the opening and closing doors along the curved portion in an up and down direction, wherein when the opening and closing doors have been moved to an upper position of the tunnel unit, they are disengaged from the slide rails and can be removed from the tunnel unit.
According to the characteristic, since the openable and closable opening and closing doors can be removed at the upper position of the tunnel unit which is beyond the positions to which the doors are moved in an ordinary opening and closing operation, the opening and closing doors can be easily removed as well as maintenance for cleaning and washing the tunnel unit can be easily carried out.
Further, since the opening and closing doors are not disengaged from the slide rails so long as they are not moved beyond the ordinary opening and closing positions, when a customer opens and closes an opening and closing door, it is not carelessly removed, whereby safety is assured and the opening and closing doors are not scratched.
A food and drink circulating conveyer passage of the present invention provided with opening and closing doors is preferably arranged such that each of the slide rails is composed of an outside guide and an inside guide and the outside guide is not formed to the upper position of the tunnel unit.
With this arrangement, there can be simply realized a mechanism capable of preventing the opening and closing doors from being disengaged from the slide rails at the ordinary opening and closing positions and easily removing the opening and closing doors at the upper position of the tunnel unit where the outside guides of the slide rails are not provided by easily disengaging the opening and closing doors from the slide rails, even if the mechanism is composed of a smaller number of parts.
A food and drink circulating conveyer passage of the present invention provided with opening and closing doors is preferably arranged such that removable lid members having a radius or curvature approximately the same as that of the curved portion are placed to the upper position of the tunnel unit and the inside surfaces of the lid members serve as external guides for guiding the opening and closing doors.
With this arrangement, since the opening and closing doors are guided from the outside and inside thereof at all times regardless of that a simple structure is employed to them, the opening and closing doors can be smoothly opened and closed.
A food and drink circulating conveyer passage of the present invention provided with opening and closing doors is preferably arranged such that a grip projecting toward the outside of the tunnel unit is disposed to each of the opening and closing doors and engaged with each of the lid members to thereby prevent the opening and closing doors from sliding more than a predetermined amount.
With this arrangement, a mechanism for preventing the movement of the opening and closing doors more than a prescribed amount can be easily provided as well as it can be also prevented that the opening and closing doors are removed by being moved more than the prescribed amount.
A food and drink circulating conveyer passage of the present invention provided with opening and closing doors is preferably arranged such that a thin polyolefin layer is formed to each of the portions of the opening and closing doors which are in contact with the slide rails.
With this arrangement, the opening and closing doors can be smoothly open
Hayes Soloway Hennessey Grossman & Hage PC
Ishino Seisakusyo Co., Inc.
McAllister Steven B.
Olszewski Robert P.
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