US 4,346,756 AGranted

Apparatus for selectively heating an individual food item in a refrigerated environment

AssigneeUop LLC

InventorsMalcolm J. Dodd, Joseph A. Juhas

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Abstract

A cabinet type enclosure, for refrigerating a plurality of food items on a plurality of specially configured meal trays has a plurality of thin, generally horizontal, fixedly mounted heater shelf members extending into the enclosed space from one side wall thereof. One or more covered containers of food to be heated are positioned on one side of the trays and are mounted on the trays slightly above the top surface of the tray and with their bottom surfaces in contact with heater plates on the heater shelf members. The meal trays have integral transverse abutment means which cooperate with portions of a container for hot food placed on the tray adjacent the abutment means for preventing longitudinal movement of the hot food container past the transverse abutment means by frictional contact of the container with the heater shelf as the tray is moved into or out of the enclosure and relative to the heater shelf along tray guides. The heater shelf members are preferably sufficiently narrow that they will terminate short of the transverse abutment means. Guide means, which may comprise elongated side runners on the bottoms of the containers and spaced complementary retaining ribs on the tray surface, prevent the containers from rotating as they are moved along the heater shelves. The apparatus is particularly useful for inflight feeding as well as for institutional feeding.

Claims13

Dependent claims

An apparatus for heating at least one covered container on a meal service tray while other items on the tray are refrigerated comprising an enclosed housing having a plurality of cooperative pairs of guide rail portions therein for supporting a first pair of opposed side edges of a plurality of trays;

a plurality of vertically spaced, generally horizontal, thin heater shelves extending from a side wall of said housing;
a ramp surface on at least one end of each of said heater shelves;
a plurality of meal service trays, each of said trays having at least one abutment portion thereon which extends transversely over a portion thereof relative to said first opposed pair of side edges, said abutment portion being located on said tray to permit restraining contact with said at least one covered container relative to the tray while allowing the tray to be slid along one of said plurality of cooperating pairs of guide rail portions so that one of said thin heater shelves will pass above the tray surface and under the container contacted by said abutment portion, and at a spaced horizontal distance from said abutment portion, the ramp surface on each of said heater shelves being adapted to lift a covered container located on said tray adjacent said at least one abutment and permit a flat heater plate portion of said heater shelf with which said container is frictionally engaged to pass under said container as said container is restrained by said at least one abutment portion, said at least one container and said tray and/or said heater shelf having longitudinally extending rib and groove complementary guiding portions thereon for insuring that said at least one container will be restrained from rotational or transverse movement as said container and tray are moved relative to said heater shelf.

A stackable food service tray for use in a food serving system wherein a covered container of food to be served hot must be heated while positioned on the tray with the tray and container located in a refrigerated environment, said tray being integrally molded of plastic and having a flat bottom whose upper surface is divided into a "hot" forward portion and a "cold" rearward portion by an upwardly extending longitudinal rib portion which extends to the sides of the tray and is joined to side rib portions and to a rear rib portion so as to completely surround the "cold" portion;

said tray also having an upwardly extending front rib portion which cooperates with said longitudinal rib portion to define the fore and aft extent of the "hot" portion, the sides of said "hot" portion being free of upwardly extending rib portions so as to permit a fixed, generally horizontal heater shelf to be moved relative to the tray and longitudinally from one side over the surface of the tray and under a food container positioned thereon;
said front, side and rear rib portions each having a height at least as great as the height of said longitudinal rib portion, and integral food container restraining means extending upwardly from said tray and adapted to engage lower portions of a longitudinal runner on a food container placed on said tray and restain the container against any substantial longitudinal or transverse movement relative to the tray when a heater shelf is slidably moved under and relative to the container and in frictional engagement with it.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.