WO2008011921A1

WO2008011921A1 - Heating shelf, particularly for trolleys for carrying and distributing meals, with high safety against the risk of accidental burns

Info

Publication number: WO2008011921A1
Application number: PCT/EP2007/003254
Authority: WO
Inventors: Ivan Cattaneo; Diego Cattaneo
Original assignee: Rational Production S.R.L.
Priority date: 2006-07-27
Filing date: 2007-04-12
Publication date: 2008-01-31
Also published as: ITMI20061490A1; WO2008011921A8

Abstract

A heating shelf (1), particularly for trolleys for carrying and distributing meals, with high safety against the risk of accidental burns, comprising an elongated shelf body (2) intended to be arranged so that its longitudinal axis is substantially horizontal, supporting, on its lower face, lighting and/or heating means (3) and forming, with its upper face, a substantially horizontal supporting surface. The shelf body (2) is composed of at least two parts, respectively a lower part (5), which supports the lighting and/or heating means (3), and an upper part (6), which forms the supporting surface. The lower part (5) is spaced below the upper part (6), and an air passage duct (7) is formed between the lower part (5) and the upper part (6) and has at least one inlet (8a, 8b) for an air stream and at least one outlet (9) for the air stream. The at least one outlet (9) is formed in the upper part (6) and is located, when the shelf is in use, at a higher level than the at least one inlet (8a, 8b).

Description

HOEATING SHELF, PARTICULARLY FOR TROLLEYS FOR

CARRYING AND DISTRIBUTING MEALS, WITH HIGH SAFETY

AGAINST THE RISK OF ACCIDENTAL BURNS

Technical Field The present invention relates to a heating shelf, particularly for trolleys for carrying and distributing meals, with high safety against the risk of accidental burns.

Background Art

Trolleys for carrying and distributing meals are known which are generally constituted by a box-like body mounted on wheels, inside which there are one or more chambers intended to receive the baking pans or trays which contain the food to be distributed, and inside said chambers there are suitable heating and/or cooling means which can be operated to maintain, within such chambers, a temperature which is adapted for food preservation or distribution.

Some types of trolley, particularly trolleys for so-called

"multiserving" catering, i.e., trolleys intended to contain baking pans inside which amounts of food to be divided into servings during distribution are arranged, form, by way of their upper face, a horizontal worktop, which can be partly or fully heated and on which the baking pans are placed after they have been taken out of the trolley in order to divide the food into servings just before distribution.

These types of trolley are generally provided, above the worktop, with a heating shelf, whose body is usually made of metal plate and supports, on its lower face, i.e., on the face directed toward the worktop, lighting and/or heating means for lighting and/or heating the food deposited on the worktop.

In some cases, the lighting and/or heating means are simply constituted by halogen lamps, which in addition to providing effective lighting emit enough heat to keep the food at the temperature for consumption.

In other cases, in addition to the lighting lamps there are appropriately provided heating means which are constituted generally by infrared ray sources. These shelves, in addition to lighting and heating the food deposited on the worktop, form, with their upper face, a supporting surface on which the plates or baking pans containing the food divided into servings are deposited, making them available for pick-up by the consumer.

The use of heating shelves of this kind has revealed certain drawbacks.

The heat generated by the lighting and/or heating means in fact gradually heats the shelf, bringing it to temperatures which are even significantly higher than 60 ⁰C and exposing the consumer who must pick up the trays or plates that contain the food divided into servings and deposited on the shelf, to the danger of accidental burns.

In order to solve this drawback, shelves have been devised which are provided internally with an interspace or chamber in which, by means of fans arranged inside said interspace or chamber, air is circulated so as to dissipate the heat produced by the operation of the lighting and/or heating means, avoiding excessive temperature increases of the shelf body.

This solution has the drawback of increasing the complexity of the shelf and of requiring additional elements, constituted by the fans, which raise the production and assembly costs of the shelf.

Further, in these shelves, if the electric power supply to the motors of the fans is interrupted or in case of faults, the fans can cease to operate, interrupting their heat dissipation service and thus causing an increase in the temperature of the shelf and consequently exposing consumers to the danger of burns.

Disclosure of the Invention The aim of the present invention is to solve the drawbacks described above, by providing a heating shelf which offers adequate assurances of safety against the risk of accidental burns.

Within this aim, an object of the invention is to provide a shelf which avoids effectively the overheating of the worktop on which the baking pans or plates to be taken by consumers are deposited, without requiring the use of electrically powered components.

Another object of the invention is to provide a heating shelf which is structurally simple and is composed of a limited number of elements which are simple to manufacture and assemble. Another object of the invention is to provide a heating shelf which can be produced at competitive costs.

This aim and these and other objects, which will become better apparent hereinafter, are achieved by a heating shelf, particularly for trolleys for carrying and distributing meals, which comprises an elongated shelf body intended to be arranged so that its longitudinal axis is substantially horizontal, said shelf body supporting, on its lower face, lighting and/or heating means and forming, with its upper face, a substantially horizontal supporting surface, characterized in that said shelf body is composed of at least two parts, respectively: a lower part, which supports said lighting and/or heating means, and an upper part, which forms said supporting surface, said lower part being spaced below said upper part, an air passage duct being formed between said lower part and said upper part, said duct having at least one inlet for an air stream and at least one outlet for the air stream, said at least one outlet being formed in said upper part and being located, when the shelf is in use, at a higher level than said at least one inlet. Brief Description of the Drawings

Further characteristics and advantages of the invention will become better apparent from the following detailed description of a preferred but not exclusive embodiment of a heating shelf according to the invention, illustrated by way of non-limiting example in the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a trolley for carrying and distributing meals equipped with a heating shelf according to the invention;

Figure 2 is a transverse sectional view of the heating shelf according to the invention.

Ways of carrying out the Invention

With reference to the figures, a heating shelf according to the invention, generally designated by the reference numeral 1, comprises an elongated shelf body 2, which is intended to be arranged so that its longitudinal axis is substantially horizontal.

The shelf body 2 supports, on its lower face, lighting and/or heating means 3 and forms, with its upper face, a supporting surface 4 which is substantially horizontal and is intended to support the plates 26 or the trays which contain the food divided into servings which must be taken by the end consumer.

According to the invention, the shelf body 2 is composed of at least two parts, respectively a lower part 5, which supports the lighting and/or heating means 3 and an upper part 6, which forms the supporting surface 4. The lower part 5 is spaced below the upper part 6, and between the lower part 5 and the upper part 6 there is an air passage duct 7. The duct 7 has at least one inlet 8a, 8b for an air stream and at least one outlet 9 for the air stream. The outlet 9 is formed in the upper part 6 and is located, when the shelf is in use, at a higher level than the inlet or inlets 8a, 8b.

Preferably, the duct 7 has an air passage section which decreases gradually from the inlet or inlets 8a, 8b to the outlet 9.

Conveniently, the lower part 5 is accommodated at least partially within a recess 10 which is formed in the lower face of the upper part 6.

More particularly, the lower part 5 is inserted in the recess 10, so that it is suitably spaced from the walls of the upper part 6 which delimit the recess 10, so that the duct 7 is formed between the lower part 5 and said walls and in this way has the two inlets 8a, 8b, which are constituted by two intake slots which are delimited by the longitudinal edges of the lower part

5, proximate to its lower face, and by the longitudinal edges of the recess 10 arranged on the lower face of the upper part 6. The outlet 9 is constituted preferably by an outlet slot which lies longitudinally in the upper part 6 and passes through a central region of the upper part 6.

The recess 10 is preferably vault-shaped, with the outlet 9 formed at its apex. The side of the lower part 5 which is directed toward the upper part 6 is preferably cusp-shaped, with the tip of the cusp arranged at the outlet 9, even more preferably with the tip of the cusp arranged at the center of the outlet 9, so that the duct 7 has two branches which begin from the inlets 8a,

8b and converge toward the outlet 9. Inside the lower part 5 there is a cavity 11 which accommodates a reflective screen 12 which is directed downward and is closed in a lower region by a transparent screen 13.

The lighting and/or heating means, which can be constituted in a per se known manner by lamps 14 and/or infrared radiation sources, are arranged in the space delimited by the reflective screen 12 and by the transparent screen 13.

Preferably, the lower part 5 is constituted by a metallic profiled element which has a constant transverse cross-section and can be produced for example by extrusion and has a concave face, so as to form the cavity 11, in which the reflective screen 12 is arranged and which is closed by the transparent screen 13.

Preferably, the upper part 6 is composed of two metallic profiled elements 6a, 6b, which have a constant transverse cross-section, are optionally mutually identical, can be produced for example by extrusion, and are mutually adjacent and spaced so as to form between them the slot that constitutes the outlet 9. The upper faces of the two profiled elements 6a, 6b are flat and coplanar, so as to form the supporting surface 4.

The profiled elements which constitute the lower part 5 and the upper part 6 of the body of the shelf 2, at their longitudinal ends, are connected to a supporting structure for mounting the shelf according to the invention on a trolley for carrying and distributing meals, generally designated by the reference numeral 20, of a known type.

This supporting structure can be constituted simply by a pair of columns 21, which rise vertically from a worktop 22 of the trolley 20 and support the shelf at its longitudinal ends by means of brackets 23 which are fixed to the columns 21 and to the profiled elements which constitute the lower part 5 and the upper part 6 of the shelf.

For the sake of completeness in description, it should be noted that the shelf according to the invention can be provided with a hygienic protection screen 24 which is connected, for example by partial insertion in a seat 25 of the corresponding profiled element, to one of the metallic profiled elements 6a, 6b which constitute the upper part 6 of the shelf.

During the use of the trolley 20, the lighting and/or heating means 3 light up the worktop 22 and heat, by way of the emitted thermal radiation, the food deposited within baking pans 27 which are rested on the worktop 22 to be divided into servings.

The heat generated by the lighting and/or heating means 3 causes by convection a stream of air which enters through the inlets 8a, 8b and which, by flowing along the duct 7, exits upward from the shelf through the outlet 9.

Owing to the fact that the lower part 5, which supports the lighting and/or heating means 3, is spaced from the upper part 6, on which the trays or plates 26 to be taken by the end consumer are deposited, there is practically no heat transmission by conduction from the lower part 5 to the upper part 6. Further, the air stream generated along the duct 7, which thanks to its particular configuration achieves a sort of stack effect which facilitates said air stream, removes a substantial amount of the heat which would otherwise be transmitted by convection from the lower part 5 to the upper part 6. Thanks to this fact, heat transmission from the lower part 5 to the upper part 6 is reduced significantly and prevents the upper part 6, and in particular the supporting surface 4 formed thereby, from reaching temperatures which might be dangerous for the end consumer during the removal of the plates 26 or of the trays deposited on the supporting surface 4.

The same embodiment of the upper part 6 in metallic profiled elements achieves a further dissipation of the heat fraction, which is transmitted from the lower part 5 to the upper part 6, which is sufficient to keep the supporting surface 4 at such a temperature as to not cause burns to the end user in case of contact.

In practice it has been found that the heating shelf according to the invention fully achieves the intended aim and objects, since it reduces significantly the transmission of heat from the lighting and/or heating means to the supporting surface, thus ensuring high safety against the risk of accidental burns.

The heating shelf thus conceived is susceptible of numerous modifications and variations, all of which are within the scope of the appended claims; all the details may further be replaced with other technically equivalent elements. In practice, the materials employed, so long as they are compatible with the specific use, as well as the dimensions, may be any according to requirements and to the state of the art.

The disclosures in Italian Patent Application No. MI2006A001490 from which this application claims priority are incorporated herein by reference.

Claims

1. A heating shelf, particularly for trolleys for carrying and distributing meals, comprising an elongated shelf body intended to be arranged so that its longitudinal axis is substantially horizontal, said shelf body supporting, on its lower face, lighting and/or heating means and forming, with its upper face, a substantially horizontal supporting surface, characterized in that said shelf body is composed of at least two parts, respectively: a lower part, which supports said lighting and/or heating means, and an upper part, which forms said supporting surface, said lower part being spaced below said upper part, an air passage duct being formed between said lower part and said upper part, said duct having at least one inlet for an air stream and at least one outlet for the air stream, said at least one outlet being formed in said upper part and being located, when the shelf is in use, at a higher level than said at least one inlet.

2. The heating shelf according to claim 1, characterized in that said duct has a passage section for the air which decreases gradually from said at least one inlet to said at least one outlet.

3. The heating shelf according to claims 1 and 2, characterized in that said lower part is at least partially accommodated in a recess formed in the lower face of said upper part.

4. The heating shelf according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that said at least one inlet comprises two inlet slots which are formed between the longitudinal edges of said lower part proximate to its lower face and the longitudinal edges of said recess formed on the lower face of said upper part.

5. The heating shelf according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that said at least one outlet comprises an outlet slot which runs longitudinally within said upper part and passes through a central region of said upper part.

6. The heating shelf according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that said recess is vault-shaped, with said outlet slot formed at its apex.

7. The heating shelf according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that the side of said lower part which is directed toward said upper part is cusp-shaped, with the tip of the cusp arranged at said outlet slot.

8. The heating shelf according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that in said lower part there is a cavity which accommodates a reflective screen which is directed downward and is closed in a lower region by a transparent screen, said lighting and/or heating means being arranged in the space delimited by said reflective screen and by said transparent screen.

9. The heating shelf according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that said upper part is internally hollow.

10. The heating shelf according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that said lower part is constituted by a metallic profiled element with a concave face in the concavity of which, closed by said transparent screen, said reflective screen and said lighting and/or heating means are accommodated.

11. The heating shelf according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that said upper part is composed of two metallic profiled elements which are mutually side-by-side and are spaced so as to form between them said outlet slot, the upper faces of said two profiled elements being flat and coplanar so as to form said supporting surface.

12. The heating shelf according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that said profiled elements which constitute said lower part and said upper part of the shelf body are connected to a supporting structure at their longitudinal ends.

13. A trolley for carrying and distributing food, comprising a box-like body which is substantially shaped like a parallelepiped and forms, with its upper face, a worktop, characterized in that above said worktop said box- like body has a heating shelf according to one or more of the preceding claims, which is directed with its lower face toward said worktop.