Foods and beverages: apparatus – Cooking – Automatic control
Reexamination Certificate
2000-05-03
2001-05-29
Simone, Timothy F. (Department: 1761)
Foods and beverages: apparatus
Cooking
Automatic control
C099S467000, C099S448000, C099S476000, C099S483000, C099S516000, C126S020100, C126S369000, C126S369200, C219S401000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06237469
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to gas powered pressureless steam cookers, especially to gas powered steam cookers for commercial or restaurant use. The term “pressureless steam cooker” as used herein is intended to mean a steam cooker in which no great pressure of steam is developed, although minor pressure of up to about ½ lb. per square inch may be permissible.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Steam cookers conventionally cook foods by the use of hot steam and may be powered by a steam generator which is either gas fired or electrically powered. Large steam cookers for commercial or restaurant food preparation typically comprise one or more large cooking compartments mounted on top of a base compartment containing a gas or electric steam generator, sometimes referred to as a “boiler”. Typically, each compartment of a large steam cooker has dimensions sufficient to accept five or six trays, each tray having a depth of about 2½ inches. Most typical steam cookers have two such cooking compartments, mounted one on top of the other, bringing the total capacity of the steam cooker to ten or twelve trays. In order to provide sufficient heating capacity to quickly and completely cook large amounts of food, a powerful steam generator is required. Conventional steam generators of this type are relatively bulky, and typically only one such steam generator will fit into a 24 inch wide base compartment typical of such steam cookers.
Although a single steam generator, typically having a heat output of about 240 kBTU/hr, is sufficient for a ten or twelve pan steam cooker, such steam generators have a number of disadvantages. Firstly, the steam generator consumes the same amount of fuel regardless of whether one or both of the compartments are being used, resulting in a considerable waste of fuel during times when the steam cooker is not being used to its full capacity. Secondly, steam generators of this type tend to be relatively inefficient, having an efficiency of about 50% based on the amount of heat produced from a given amount of fuel. In order to meet efficiency standards in some jurisdictions, it may be necessary for such steam generators to be outfitted with relatively expensive devices to recapture heat which would otherwise be wasted.
Other types of steam generators have been developed which are more compact and more efficient than the conventional steam generator described above. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,000,392 discloses a steam cooker in which one steam generator is provided for each cooking compartment, and in which the steam generators are sufficiently small to allow them to be arranged in side-by-side relation to the cooking compartments. This type of steam generator has an efficiency of about 70%, considerably higher than that of conventional steam generators, and generates a large amount of high quality steam in relation to its size. However, the heat output of this type of generator is limited, and therefore it is used primarily in smaller steam cookers in which one such generator supplies steam to a single compartment having a capacity of three pans.
Therefore, the need exists for a more compact, efficient steam generator for large capacity steam cookers.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The above-mentioned problems of the prior art have been overcome by the present invention, which provides a gas powered pressureless steam cooker having one or more cooking compartments and one or more steam generators, with each steam generator serving one cooking compartment.
The steam generator according to the invention has an efficiency of about 80%, greater than the efficiencies of either of the prior art steam generators discussed above. The greater efficiency of the steam generator according to the present invention is provided by a unique steam generator design, which utilizes inshot burners and a heat exchanger unit in the form of an S-shaped heat exchanger tube.
Furthermore, the steam generator of the invention has a heat output which is significantly greater than that provided by the steam generator described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,000,392, with each steam generator of the invention being sufficiently powerful to meet the steam requirements of a five or six tray cooking compartment.
In addition, the compact size of the steam generator of the invention permits two steam generators to be mounted in a base compartment of a large capacity ten or twelve tray steam cooker. As the steam generators are operated independently of one another and each serve one cooking compartment, fuel consumption is effectively cut in half when only one compartment is being used.
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Abidor Alexander
Mueller Edward A.
Stritzl Josef
Crown Food Service Equipment Ltd.
Ridout & Maybee
Simone Timothy F.
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