High velocity conveyor oven

A versatile conveyor oven effective to produce a variety of different cooking conditions comprising:

• an elongated hollow cabinet defining a cooking chamber having an inlet port at one end and an outlet port at an opposite end;
• an open mesh conveyor extending through the cabinet from outside the inlet to outside the outlet and means for moving said conveyor relative to said cabinet along a path of travel in a predetermined direction through the cooking chamber so that product to be cooked placed on the conveyor at the inlet will travel on the conveyor through the cooking chamber to the outlet;
• layered plate means disposed within the cooking chamber above said conveyor and extending substantially from the inlet to the outlet for dispensing heated convection air currents downwardly upon the conveyor including a lower plate having a plurality of mutually spaced slots extending perpendicular to the path of travel of said conveyor, and the length of said lower plate, each slot having forward and rear, depending flanges spaced on either side thereof depending downwardly substantially perpendicular to the path of travel of said conveyor, an upper plate mounted on said lower plate and having a plurality of mutually spaced ports extending laterally and longitudinally the width and length of said upper plate, registering on the slots in said lower plate for restricting the flow of convection currents through said slots whereby currents passing through the ports and slots expand laterally along the flanges but are directed downwardly thereby;
• nozzle means disposed within the cooking chamber below said conveyor and extending substantially from the inlet to the outlet for dispensing mutually spaced discrete jets of heated air upwardly onto the lower surface of said conveyor along the length thereof, each jet extending laterally across the width of said conveyor;
• heating means and blower means coupled thereto for supplying heated air to said plate means and nozzle means.