Forced convection tunnel oven
AssigneeDonald P. Smith
InventorsDonald P. Smith, William W. Plumb, Jarald E. High
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The tunnel oven generally includes a long cooking compartment through which a conveyor transports food products. The conveyor is spaced from a front wall of the cooking compartment to provide an air return route and to provide a walkway to facilitate cleaning and maintenance of the oven. A blower draws air from the cooking compartment and discharges air into an air distribution chamber formed in an upper portion of the cooking chamber and vertically spaced from the conveyor. A pair of plenums in the cabinet adjacent one edge of the conveyor deliver air from the distribution chamber to a plurality of air dispensing ducts communicating with the plenums on opposite sides of the conveyor for dispensing air onto opposite sides of the conveyor.
Claims10
A tunnel oven comprising:
- a cooking compartment;
- a front wall and a rear wall on said cooking compartment;
- a conveyor having edges and upper and lower surfaces, said upper surface lying in a plane in said cooking compartment, said conveyor being adapted to transport food through said compartment between said front wall and said rear wall;
- an air distribution chamber spaced from said conveyor;
- air circulating means having an intake to draw air from said cooking compartment and adapted to discharge air into said air distribution chamber;
- a plenum in said cooking compartment between said rear wall and one edge of said conveyor;
- air dispensing means having air dispensing openings communicating with said plenum for dispensing air toward one of said conveyor surfaces, said conveyor being spaced from said front wall of said cooking compartment a distance sufficient to permit passage of substantially all of the air delivered through said plenum between a first edge of said conveyor and the rear wall through space between the other edge of said conveyor and the front wall enroute to the intake of said air circulating means.
A tunnel oven comprising:
- a cooking compartment;
- means to control temperature of air in said compartment;
- side walls on said cooking compartment;
- a conveyor having edges and upper and lower surfaces, said upper surface lying in a plane in said cooking compartment, said conveyor being adapted to transport food through said compartment;
- an air distribution chamber spaced from said conveyor;
- blower means adapted to draw air from said cooking compartment and to discharge air into said air distribution chamber in a plane generally parallel to the plane of said conveyor;
- first and second plenums in said cooking compartment adjacent one edge of said conveyor;
- a gate adapted to divide air flow from said distribution chamber into said first and second plenums;
- a plurality of air dispensing ducts having air dispensing openings communicating with said plenums on opposite sides of said conveyor for dispensing air toward said upper and lower surfaces of said conveyor, said conveyor being spaced from walls of said cooking compartment a distance sufficient to form a walkway extending longitudinally of the cooking compartment and to permit passage of air adjacent an edge of the conveyor enroute to said blower without interfering with flow of air from said air dispensing ducts toward said conveyor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.