Electric heating – Metal heating – Of cylinders
Patent
1991-12-02
1993-09-14
Reynolds, Bruce A.
Electric heating
Metal heating
Of cylinders
219 1055A, 219 1055M, 221 6, 221101, 221150HC, 99357, 165 61, 165 63, B23K 1510
Patent
active
052451500
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention and Discussion of Background Information.
Various types of reheating devices are known utilizing heating mechanical such as microwave ovens, reheating of products stored on trays in a refrigerated enclosure. However, in these reheating devices the operation is performed manually, by introducing each tray that one wishes to heat in the microwave, for just the length of time necessary to reheat the products that it contains. This operation is both long and laborious.
Various types of vending machines for food products or cooked dishes are also known, which, once received by the consumer, are also introduced manually by the consumer into a microwave oven, in order to be reheated in it.
None of these devices are programmable. These devices cannot reheat dishes individually and automatically according to selective reheating sectors; and nor can they automatically dispense them to the consumer.
However, DE-A-3,625,015 describes an automatic device adapted to remove precooked food products, such as pizzas, hamburgers, fries, from a refrigerated enclosure by means of a journalled arm, and introduce these products into a microwave oven to reheat them or to complete their cooking. These products are then placed in a paper plate by virtue of a conveyor belt.
GB-A-1,170,051, describes an automatic dispensing machine for hot food products having of an enclosure that is thermally insulated and includes a storage system having horizontal guides in which mobile containers slide, which may be brought selectively into a microwave oven by means of a complex mechanism enabling horizontal and vertical movements to be combined. Once the articles are heated, they are simply removed from the oven by the consumer after opening an insulating door.
The common elements between the devices is that they use very complex means to manipulate the products to be reheated, and consequently, are subject to functional breakdowns. Further, these devices cannot be applied to the dispensing of meal trays that simultaneously include hot and cold dishes.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The device that is described according to the invention overcomes these disadvantages, and enables reheating and individual dispensing of a cooked dish, whether contained in a tray or not, and according to the choice of the consumer. The products to be reheated are stored in stand-by in a refrigerated enclosure.
The device according to the invention can be presented in the form of a dispensing cupboard, composed of a refrigerated enclosure in which a certain number of cooked dishes or trays containing complete meals are stacked on shelves in one or more columns, and one reheating zone for the dish to be warmed.
On the side, or at the rear of the stack of trays, an endless ball screw can be vertically positioned and parallel to the stack of trays.
This ball screw bears an oven, preferably a microwave oven, that can be displaced from top to bottom, or vice versa, such that it can stop in front of the tray that has previously been selected by the consumer. The displacement of the microwave is done by the rotation of this self lubricating endless screw and is activated at its base by a motor that can make it turn in one direction or in the other.
Moreover, various types of thermal energy may be envisioned other than a microwave, to reheat or to cook, such as infra-red burners, halogen tubes, induction heating, or any other system that can be adapted to it, and be efficient, while retaining the same system of entry of the trays.
For the latter types of heating, that are less expensive and less cumbersome, another variation of the cooking enclosure may be envisioned according to the manufacturing costs of the implementation. In particular each tray-bearing shelf can be equipped with a mini-oven with infra-red burners, halogen tubes, or other heating means, in which the tray penetrates. For this type of variation, no vertical or horizontal translation is necessary.
Two slide rails covered with a silicone based film enable
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patent: 4687119 (1987-08-01), Juillet
patent: 4784292 (1988-11-01), Johndrow et al.
patent: 5069273 (1991-12-01), O'Hearne
patent: 5086834 (1992-02-01), Grandi
Hoang Tu
Reynolds Bruce A.
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