GB579578A - Improvements relating to installations for serving meals in canteens and analogous establishments - Google Patents

Abstract

579,578. Serving meals. DIXON, E. K. PORTMAN-. June 5, 1944, No. 10764. [Class 116] [Also in Group XXX] Apparatus for serving meals in canteens &c. comprises a bain-marie table having a line of food containers 5, Fig. 4, provided on one or both sides with a track 6 for plates and a splash guard 7 to prevent premature soiling of the plates. The tracks 6 may be mobile and propelled by pedal-operated means and may be varied in width by a rail on one side of the track operated by a screw-threaded stem. At one end of the table, a plate lift 20, Fig. 5, in a heated compartment is adapted to raise a stack of plates 17 so that one at a time is raised to the level of the track 6. Stacks of plates are delivered to the lift by a conveyer comprising carriages 44. The lift is slidably mounted on two rack pillars 19, 19A, Fig. 7. The pillar 19 is fixed and adapted to hold the lift in any position to which it has been raised by means of a pawl 23. The pillar 19A is vertically slidable and is operated by a foot pedal 38 to raise the lift by means of a pawl 23A. When the lift has reached its topmost position, L-section posts 27 are raised by a lever 34 and rollers 32, and guided by inclined slots 30 to engage and release the pawls 23, 23A and the lift is free to fall on to rubber buffers 26, and to receive a further stack of plates from the conveyer. The carriages 44 of the conveyer comprise spaced ribs adapted to interfit with the bars of the lift 20 and the central rib has a lug 46 forming an abutment for the bottom plate of a stack. The carriages are joined by links 47 and run on an endless track 42. The track is moved by hand by means of a spring tooth engaging a carriage. Curved plates 16 limit the travel of a stack of plates. The containers 5, Fig. 4, are maintained hot by a water pan 4 heated by a gas burner 8 below which is a heated compartment 11.