Selective reheating device for food products
OwnerRene Grandiinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Device for reheating and dispensing cooked meals arranged on a meal tray and stored on stand-by in a refrigerated enclosure. Each tray may contain different foodstuffs, and can therefore be selected by the consumer. Reheating is carried out by a sliding oven on an endless ballscrew, assisted by two slide rails. The oven moves in front of the selected tray. In the refrigerated enclosure, trays are stacked on shelves with slide rails, and an endless screw slides a camshaft provided with snugs so that it triggers the tray-moving mechanism, and a detector determines which snug corresponds to the selected tray. Once the snug is engaged in the mechanism the camshaft rotates from left to right and vice-versa to activate the mechanism's rocker bars which slide the tray into or out of the oven.
Claims20
Automatic device adapted to remove food products form a refrigerated compartment using a journalled system, in order to introduce the food products into an oven in order to reheat or complete cooking of the food products, and to remove the food products to put them at disposal of a consumer, comprising:
- an enclosure containing at least one refrigerated zone and at least one heating zone;
- at least one storage column located in said at least one refrigerated zone including at least one shelf for holding at least one tray for food products;
- at least one oven constructed and arranged to slide in at least in one of a vertical and horizontal direction to a position in front of at least one tray selected by a consumer on said at least one shelf;
- at least one moving mechanism located beneath at least one tray to be heated, and arranged to introduce at least one zone of at least one tray to be heated into said at least one oven, and to remove at least one tray from said at least one oven;
- a vertical cam shaft mounted for rotation by a first motor located at its base, and mounted to slide in upward and downward directions by association of an endless screw activated by a second motor, said cam shaft including a plurality of snugs that are constructed and arranged whereby sliding of said cam shaft causes at least one of said plurality of snugs to activate said at least one moving mechanism located beneath at least one tray to be heated;
- and
- a detector positioned on said cam shaft for determining and bringing at least one of said plurality of snugs corresponding to a desired at least one tray to be heated to activate said at least one moving mechanism positioned beneath the desired at least one tray.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.