Griddle
OwnerLawrence P. Zepp, Dale Taylorinventors
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Abstract
A steam chamber has enhanced planarity of its cooking surface, and a method for making the same via friction welding is provided. An array of stays within the steam chamber are friction welded to the undersurface of the upper plate, opposite the cooking surface, thus minimizing the heat affected zone and distortion of the cooking surface as compared, for example, to arc welding. A lower plate includes an array of holes sized and configured to be engaged by the array of stays, and is then welded to the array of stays via plug welds or rosette welds at the hole/stay junction. The resulting steam chamber preserves a high level of planarity in the cooking surface, while allowing the use of a relatively thin top plate for thermal and cooking efficiency.
Claims20
A method of producing a steam chamber, comprising:
- friction welding at least one stay to an undersurface of a first plate, the first plate having a cooking surface opposite the undersurface;
- and
- fixing a second plate to the first plate and to the at least one stay to create a hermetically sealed interior of the steam chamber.
A method of producing a steam chamber, comprising the steps of:
- friction welding an array of evenly spaced stays to an undersurface of an upper plate, the upper plate having a cooking surface opposite the undersurface;
- and
- fixing a lower plate to the upper plate and to the array of evenly spaced stays to create a hermetically sealed interior of the steam chamber
- wherein friction welding each stay of the array of evenly spaced stays includes creating a deviation from planarity of less than 1.5 thousandths of an inch throughout an area adjacent the weld.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.