System for storing and transporting food and beverages on board of aircraft
AssigneeDaimler-Benz Aerospace Airbus GmbH
InventorHans-Juergen Mueller
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system for storing and transporting food and beverages on board of an aircraft is equipped with a centrally arranged container having the configuration of a freight container for holding menu boxes and beverage boxes with at least one distribution station or pantry, and with a transport channel that communicates with the container and the pantry. The transport channel includes at least one vertical conveyor so that the container may be placed on a lower freight deck while the pantry is positioned on the passenger deck. Such a system can handle more menu and beverage boxes of standardized sizes than trolley based systems without sacrificing space for passenger seats.
Claims27
An apparatus for handling food and beverages on board an aircraft, comprising a container for storing a plurality of food and beverage boxes, at least one distribution station, and a transport channel for directly and independently transporting said boxes operatively interposed between said container and said distribution station, wherein said transport channel comprises at least one vertical conveyor and a substantially horizontally extending channel having a substantially flat cross-sectional configuration with a relatively greater horizontal channel width and a relatively smaller vertical channel height, and wherein said food and beverage boxes are substantially flat boxes having a relatively greater horizontal box width and a relatively smaller vertical box height.
An apparatus for handling food and beverages on board an aircraft, comprising a centrally arranged container having the outer configurations of a freight container for storing food and beverage boxes, at least one distribution station, and a transport channel operatively interposed between said container and said distribution station, wherein said transport channel comprises at least one vertical conveyor and at least one elbow channel section including a housing, a cross-channel and a longitudinal channel, wherein said elbow channel section interconnects said cross-channel and said longitudinal channel in said housing substantially at a right angle, said elbow channel section further comprises within said housing a tiltable 13 plate and rotatably driven conveyor rollers rotatably mounted in said tiltable plate, and said conveyor rollers have axes extending approximately perpendicularly to each other.
An apparatus for handling food and beverages on board an aircraft, comprising a centrally arranged container having the outer configurations of a freight container for storing food and beverage boxes, at least one distribution station, and a transport channel operatively interposed between said container and said distribution station, wherein said transport channel comprises at least one vertical conveyor, and wherein said distribution station comprises a pantry and a box transfer unit in said pantry, wherein said box transfer unit comprises a vertical shaft, a carriage guided for vertical movement by said vertical shaft, a vertical drive unit for said carriage, and a horizontal telescoping arm being horizontally extendable, being mounted to said carriage for a vertical up and down movement with said carriage, and having a gripper mounted thereon.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.