Low cost wire chafing stand and method

#This invention relates to a low cost wire chafing stand and method of fabricating an inexpensive wire chafing stand which can be readily stacked in a nested relationship with other wire chafing stands of the same design for compact storage and low cost transportation and which possesses adequate strength and stability to satisfy minimum safety and reliability requirements.

#A chafing stand is a device used to support aluminum or steel pans and uses auxiliary fuel heaters preferably supported within the chafing stand for the purpose of maintaining and heating pre-cooked food at a location remote from the kitchen where the food was originally prepared and cooked. The primary factors controlling the selling price of a wire chafing stand are: (a) fabrication cost attributable to labor, (b) the amount of wire rod used in the fabrication of the wire chafing stand and (c) the transportation cost for transporting the fabricated wire chafing stand from the point of manufacture to a distributor or purchaser. The costs attributable to labor can be substantially reduced by automating the fabrication to minimize human involvement. The amount of the wire rod can be minimized by using less wire rod and/or thinner wire rod. Lastly, the cost of transportation may be minimized by transporting a multiplicity of wire chafing stands in a nested relationship and disassembling them after shipment. However, a wire chafing stand must also have sufficient strength and stability to resist tilting and to resist collapsing in response to applied forces imposed when dispensing food from the wire chafing stand. Thus reliability, safety and strength must also be factored into the fabrication design and may offset any advantage realized by simply optimizing the primary factors.

#Heretofore, one could minimize transportation cost by nesting the wire chafing stands together during transportation. However, nesting may cause wedging which would make it difficult to separate the wire chafing stands after they are nested together. This problem was addressed and overcome in U.S. Pat. No. 5,996,948 and in U.S. Pat. No. 5,921,513, the disclosures of which are herein incorporated by reference, by incorporating “offsets” either in the wire legs of the chafing stand or in the rim of the stand during the fabrication of the wire chafing stand.

#Other advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings of which:

#FIG. 1 is an isometric view of a pair of wire chafing stands nested together with each chafing stand having a plurality of wire legs affixed to only the lateral sides of the chafing stand with the plurality of wire legs shown welded to both the upper and lower rims to form a gap “g” of no more than about 1¼″ in dimension to the centerline of the longitudinal sides and with the wire legs interconnected on each lateral side to form a handle;

#FIG. 2 is a front view of one of the wire chafing stands shown in FIG. 1 with the wire legs shown extending from the upper rim to below the lower rim and with an offset shown located in each wire leg just below the point of connection of the wire leg to the lower rim;

#Referring now to the drawings in which FIGS. 1-4 represent the preferred embodiment of the present invention showing two wire chafing stands 10 nested together with each wire chafing stand 10 being substantially identical in construction.

#Each wire chafing stand 10 of the present invention comprises an upper rim 11 composed of wire rod steel in a closed geometrical configuration having two lateral sides 12 and 12′ and two longitudinal sides 14 and 14′ adapted for the placement of a chafer containing a food product. The lateral sides 12 and 12′ lie substantially transverse to the longitudinal sides 14 and 14′ to circumscribe an open substantially rectangular surface area geometry. The upper rim 11 is spaced apart from a lower rim 15. The lower rim 15 has geometry substantially identical to the geometry of the upper rim 11 and includes two lateral sides 16 and 16′ and two longitudinal sides 17 and 17′, the dimensions of which are proportionally smaller than the lateral and longitudinal dimensions of the upper rim 11.

#Each wire chafing stand 10 further comprises a plurality of wire legs 18 joined, preferably by welding, to both the shorter lateral sides 12 and 12′ of the upper rim 11 and to the shorter lateral sides 16 and 16′ of the lower rim 15 on each opposite side of the chafing stand 10. The plurality of wire legs 18 preferably includes a first pair of wire legs 19 and 20 joined to the lateral side 12 of the upper rim 11 and to the lateral side 16 of the lower rim 15 and a second pair of wire legs 19′ and 20′ joined to the opposite lateral sides 12′, 16′ of the upper and lower rims 11 and 15 respectively. The first pair of wire legs 19 and 20 are welded to the upper rim 11 so that each of the welded connection 21 and 22 lies in close proximity to the longitudinal sides 14 and 14′ on the lateral side 12 of the upper rim 11 such that a gap or space “g” is formed between the welded connections on the lateral sides of the upper rim relative to the longitudinal sides respectively corresponding to a distance of above zero and no more than about 1¼″ in dimension to the centerline of the longitudinal sides and preferably less than ¾″ in dimension. Likewise, the second pair of wire legs 19′ and 20′ are welded to the upper rim 11 on the opposite lateral side 12′ in close proximity to the longitudinal sides 14 and 14′ of the upper rim 11.