Holding or cooking oven

• US 6,262,394 B1
• Filed: 01/09/2001
• Issued: 07/17/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Duke Manufacturing Company
• Original Assignee: Duke Manufacturing Company
• Inventors: Shei, Steven M., Luebke, Clement J.
• Primary Examiner(s): PELHAM, JOSEPH MOORE
• Application Number:
  US09/756,941
• Publication Number:
  US 20010007322A1
• Time in Patent Office: 189 Days
• Field of Search: 219/385, 219/394, 219/399, 219/428, 994/83, 222/146.5, 126/332, 126/337.R, 126/400
• US Class Current: 219/399
• CPC Class Codes: A47J 39/006 for either storing and preparing or for preparing food on serving trays, e.g. heating, thawing, preserving

Abstract

An oven for maintaining cooked foods at temperatures suitable for serving the foods or even for cooking foods has a cabinet containing multiple heat sinks of channel-shaped configuration. The ends of the heat sinks open out of the cabinet, so that any heat sink may receive a tray of food from either the front or back of the cabinet. The interior surface of the heat sinks generally conform to the cross-sectional shapes of the trays, so that the heat sinks lie along the bottoms and sides of the trays. The heat sinks have a heating elements extended along their sides and bottoms for elevating the temperature of the heat sinks and directing heat into the trays within the heat sinks. In addition, each heat sink also contains a cover which may close the top of the tray in the heat sink and thereby retard the escape of moisture from the tray or may vent the interior of the tray.

Claims

1. In combination with plurality of trays, each having a bottom wall and side and end walls attached to the bottom wall and extending upwardly to an upper rim to provide an upwardly opening interior for holding a food, an oven for transferring heat to the interiors of the trays and the foods in such interiors, said oven comprising:

a cabinet;

a plurality of tray-receiving members in the cabinet, each tray-receiving member having a generally horizontal cross wall and side walls connected to and extending generally vertically from the horizontal cross wall to provide a generally U-shaped cross section, each tray-receiving member being open at its ends, the trays being in at least some of the tray-receiving members such that the side walls of the trays are along the side walls of the tray-receiving members in which they are located, the side walls of the tray-receiving members serving to isolate the interiors of the trays from each other so that the flavors of foods in different trays do not transfer; and

an electric heating element positioned in the cabinet to direct heat into the trays in the tray-receiving members.

2. The combination according to claims 1 wherein the side walls of each tray-receiving member have horizontal edges located remote from the horizontal cross wall;

and wherein the oven further comprises a horizontal closing wall located in the cabinet along the horizontal edges of the side walls for at least one of the tray-receiving members for closing the tray-receiving member and preventing flavors from the foods in the tray that is in said one tray-receiving member from transferring laterally past the horizontal edges of the tray-receiving member.

3. The combination according to claim 2 wherein the horizontal edges on the side walls of multiple tray-receiving members are located along the horizontal closing wall.

4. The combination according to claim 3 wherein the horizontal closing wall is continuous along the multiple tray-receiving member.

5. The combination according to claim 2 wherein the heating element is located along one of the horizontal walls.

6. The combination according to claim 2 wherein the oven further comprises a heating element located along the horizontal cross wall and side walls of each tray-receiving member.

7. The combination according to claim 2 wherein the side walls of each tray-receiving member have upper and lower regions and horizontal offsets between the upper and lower regions;

and wherein the tray that is within the tray-receiving member has its rim located along the offset.

8. The combination according to claim 7 wherein the rim of each tray includes a lip which projects laterally from the side walls and lies along the horizontal offsets of the tray-receiving member in which the tray is located.

9. In combination with a plurality of trays, each having a bottom wall and side and end walls attached to the bottom wall and extending upwardly to a laterally directed lip to provide an upwardly opening interior for holding food, an oven for transferring heat to the interiors of the trays and the foods in such interiors, said oven comprising:

a cabinet;

first and second members within the cabinet to define open-ended enclosures for receiving the trays, each first member being generally U-shaped in cross-section and including a horizontal cross wall and side walls extending generally vertically from the horizontal cross wall, the second member providing a cross wall that extends generally horizontally between the side walls of at least one first member and is spaced from the horizontal cross wall of the first member to complete an enclosure in which one of the trays is located, whereby the trays in different enclosures are isolated from each other and flavors do not transfer laterally within the oven from the food in one tray to the foods in other trays; and

a heating element located along one of the horizontal cross walls at each enclosure for heating a tray in the enclosure.

10. The combination according to claim 9 wherein the side walls of each first member have regions that are remote from the cross wall for that first member and the cross wall provided by the second member extends between the remote regions of the side walls for the first member.

11. The combination according to claim 10 wherein heating element at each enclosure also extends along the side walls for the first member at that enclosure.

12. The combination according to claim 9 wherein the side walls of each first member have upper and lower regions and horizontal offsets between the upper and lower regions;

and wherein the tray that is within the enclosure formed in part by the first member has its lips located along the offset.

13. The combination according to claim 9 wherein the second member provides a cross wall for several first members.

14. The combination according to claim 9 wherein the heating elements at each enclosure are controlled independently.

15. The combination comprising:

a cabinet;

a plurality of heat sinks in the cabinet each heat sink being formed from a good conductor of heat and having a bottom wall and side walls that extend upwardly from the bottom wall and together with the bottom wall define a cavity having ends, at least one of which opens out of the heat sink;

a heating element on each heat sink for elevating the temperature of the heat sink, each heating element being controlled individually for controlling the temperature of its heat sink; and

at least one food container located in the cavity of one of the heat sinks, the food container having a bottom wall that is located along the bottom wall of the heat sink, side walls that extend upwardly from the container bottom wall and are located along the side walls of the heat sink, and end walls that extend upwardly from the container bottom wall and connect the container side walls, whereby heat from the heat sink is transferred to the food container.