GB2175196A - A food support device - Google Patents

Abstract

A food support device for use during grilling of a foodstuff comprises two frame members 11 pivotally connected together by means of hinges 12. Each frame member having pivotally mounted thereon a number of zig-zag wires 13. The arcuate portions 21 of each zig-zag wire 13 have a tip 41 bent at an angle of about 60 degrees to the substantially planar surface of the zig-zag wires; the tips 41 serving to grip the foodstuff supported by the device. The pivotal connection between each zig-zag wire 13 and the frame 11 enables the device to be used with foodstuffs of different thicknesses. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION A grill with fastening means BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field: This invention relates to a "Grill with Fastening Means", particularly to a grill, of which the zigzag wire is furnished a number of bent tips for the purpose of holding the food being brailed in place upon the food becoming shrunk.

2. Prior arts: Most of the general conventional grills comprise two clamping elements, of which includes a frame made of thicker wire either being welded or bent into a given shape, and a number of thin wires being welded to the frame in an intersecting manner with a suitable space among them. Each piece of the grill element is furnished with a handle. To the conventional grill, a user always feels it having a drawback, i.e., it can not adequately hold a piece of thin or thick food because that the wire after being intersected and welded in place they will become a rigid piece of net without any flexibility, as a result, a piece of thin food being broiled and shrunk in the grill is susceptible to sliding back and forth upon turning the grill.

Some grills are designed in accordance with the shape of food to be broiled, such as fish grill, of which the frame is formed into a fish shape, and the thin wires to be mounted on the frame are woven with a suitable curve to fit with curved thickness of a fish; however, that fish grill also has its drawbacks, such as being unable to fit the various sizes of fishes. If it is a big fish, the grill can not clamp it, and if it is small fish, the fish will slide back and forth in the grill upon turning the grill over the fire. Further, it is limited to grill fish only, having no versatility in broiling functions.

Moreover, some prior art of the kind are designed to use a side heating method; in that case, the conventional intersecting wire type of grill will be unable or very difficu It to operate; for example, upon the grill being put oblique or vertical position for boiling a food, some pieces of the food being broiled may slide in the grill or drop out of the grill because of their shrinking effect upon the grease and water thereof being out of food.

Therefore, the net wire portion of some grill for obliquely broiling are not woven or intersected, but are arranged in a saw-tooth shape in parallel so as to provide a suitable elasticity to the food clamped, whereby the food having different thick portions will all be fitted in the grill without sliding back and forth after being shrunk during broiling.

Summary of the invention The prime object of this invention to provide a grill, of which the net wires are formed into a zigzag shape or "V" shape, and are disposed in parallel without being intersected each other. On the top partion of each V-shaped angle, an inwardly bent tip is formed by pressing so as to have the bent tips thrusted into the food upon being clamped in the grill for broiling without sliding back and forth after the food shrinking as a result of the grease and water coming out of the food or meat.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a flexible and zigzag-shaped grill for clamping foods having different thickness, shapes, and sizes.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a grill that has a plurality of bent tips on the zigzag wires to thrust into a food or meat upon being clamped in the grill without sliding back and forth after the food or meat being shrunk and during turning the grill obliquely or vertically for sideheating broiling.

A still another object of the present invention is to provide a grill, which is a safe grill to clamp a food or meat securely; the zigzag wire is preferably made of a stainless steel wire so as to prevent the wire from deforming, corrosion, and rusting. The shape of the grill may be varied in accordance with the oven or heating method and the way of use.

A still further object of the present invention is to provide a grill, in which the connected portion between the end of the zigzag wire and the frame is pivotally joined so as to furnish a flexible rotation to wire. The V-shaped angles at one side of the zigzag wire are longer than the V-shaped angles at the other side of the zigzag wire so as to provide a different clamping tension between each side of the wire in order to obtain better elastic clamping effect.

Brief Description of the Drawing Fig. 1 is a perspective view of an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged view of the portion A in Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged view of the portion B in Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of the present invention upon the grill being closed together with a fish between the two grill elements.

Fig. 5 is an enlarged view of the portion C in Fig. 4, showing the top of V-shaped angle of the zigzag wires being thrusted into the fish body.

Fig. 6 is a sectional view, showing the zigzag wire to have a relative rotation to the frame after food being clamped therein.

Detailed Description Referring to Fig. 1, there is shown an embodiment of the present invention, which comprises two grill elements being hinged together with several hinge 12 so as to fold together or to open. Each frame 11 of the grill element is mounted with a number of zigzag wires 13 arranged in parallel, and each ofthe grill elements has an elasticity in the direction perpendicular to the surface of the grill element. At one side of the frame 11, the frame wire extends out perpendicularly from the middle of the longer side of the frame to form into a handle 14. After two handles of a grill being folded together, a ring is mounted on the handles by sliding to the root portion of the handles. So as to facilitate a person to broil food over a fire or the like.

The zigzag wire 13 is made of a stainless steel wire, and each of the zigzag wires is bent into a number of upper V-shaped angle 13a and a number of lower V-shaped angle 13b which is shorter than the upper V-shaped angle. On the top of the Vshaped angle, a small arcuate portion 21 is formed; every zigzag wire has many such small arcuate portions 21, which can apply different pressure to a piece of food being clamped in the grill so as to maintain a suitable elasticity to the food; in other words, if the food to be broiled has a rough surface, the zigzag wires can still maintain close contact with the food to prevent it from sliding away upon broiling.

Referring to Fig. 3 and 6, there are shown the zigzag wire 13 and the frame 11 being connected togetherthrough a round groove 31 on the frame 11 and a ring portion 32 of the wire 13. The object of the connecting method between the wire 13 and the round groove 31 is to furnish the wire 13 with a suitable elasticity upon a pressure of food being applied to the wires 13; otherwise, the wire 13 would be deformed, and the grill would be unable to clamp thick food to be broiled. Since the zigzag wire 13 and the frame 11 are pivotally attached together, the wire 13 portion on the frame will rotate at a given angle upon a thick piece of food clamped in the grill so as to reduce the torsional force applied to the wires 13.

In the conventional grill, the food being broiled is susceptible to sliding or displacement as a result of a shrunk food after the grease and water being out of it especially during turning or broiling one side of the food. In orderto obviate the aforesaid drawback, the wire 13 in the grill of the present invention has been designed to have a bent tip 41 at an angle of about 60 degrees formed on each V-shaped angle for the purpose of thrusting into the food clamped in the grill to fix it in position. That bent tip 41 being perpendicular to the surface of the grill and its application during broiling may be best understood by referring to Figs. 2, 4, and 5.

The aforesaid embodiment is merely used as an example to describe the present invention, and should not be construed as a limit thereto; any change or modification on the form of the frame, or change in configuration thereof should be deemed to be included in the scope of the claims of this invention.

Claims (5)

1. A grill with fastening means, comprising mainly a frame and a number of zigzag wires, each of said zigzag wires including a series of upper V-shaped angles and lower V-shaped angles, said upper V- shaped angles being preferably longer than said lower V-shaped angles; the tip of each or some said V-shaped angles being formed into a small arcuate portion which is bent at an angle to the grill surface, whereby food can be held in place flexibly and firmly during cooking.

2. A grill with fastening means as claimed in claim 1, wherein the V-shaped angle of said zigzag wire has a bent tip, which has an angle about 60 degrees.

3. A grill with fastening means as claimed in claim 1, wherein the connected portion between said zigzag wire and said frame is pivotally connected together.

4. A grill as claimed in claim 3, wherein said frame is furnished with round grooves, in which ring portions at the ends of said zigzag wires are rotatably mounted.

5. A grill with fastening means as claimed in claim 1, wherein said zigzag wire may be made of a flexible, stainless steel wire.