WO2013110996A2

WO2013110996A2 - Combined apparatus for the maintenance of cold and the regeneration of food for the foodservice industry

Info

Publication number: WO2013110996A2
Application number: PCT/IB2013/000077
Authority: WO
Inventors: Simone LAZZER; Samuele LAZZER
Original assignee: Moduline S.R.L.
Priority date: 2012-01-27
Filing date: 2013-01-22
Publication date: 2013-08-01
Also published as: WO2013110996A3; ITTV20120013A1

Abstract

Combined apparatus for the maintenance of cold and the regeneration of food for the foodservice industry, with a chamber for the processing of food introduced through an openable door, which comprises, integrated in a piece of furniture, a first heating unit of said processing chamber, and a second cooling unit of the same processing chamber, wherein said apparatus for processing food has a logic unit for the control of the functions of said first and second unit, wherein the processing chamber comprises a technical space in communication with the food housing space, said technical space with at least one fan means, internal with respect to a resistor that surrounds it perimetrically, and with a heat exchange wall with respect to which said fan means is centrally arranged, said heat exchange wall having a gas recirculation coil enclosed within a metal sandwich.

Description

COMBINED APPARATUS FOR THE MAINTENANCE OF COLD AND THE REGENERATION OF FOOD FOR THE FOODSERVICE

INDUSTRY

[0001 ] This invention relates to a combined apparatus for the maintenance of cold and the regeneration of food, with a function control logic unit, in the sector of equipment for the foodservice industry and large kitchens in general, which apparatus comprises a regeneration/cooling chamber said chamber being of the type provided with electrical heating means and with cooling means.

Field of the invention

[0002] In principle, it is possible to reasonably state that in the foodservice industry, in the latest years, a particular technique for processing food has increasingly become established. The currently most widespread one is called Cook-Chill, a technique that requires the combination of various equipment specifically designed to perform some functions. Therefore, the traditional ovens and refrigerators have been joined by the recent blast chillers and, more recently, by regeneration equipment. Conventionally, the Cook-Chill phases are the following:

- Storage of raw materials

- Preparation

- Cooking

- Blast chilling

- Portioning

- Preservation

- Transport

- Regeneration

- Consumption

[0003] Leaving aside the adopted method of preparation, preservation and transport, the regeneration of cooked food requires that the cold food, before being regenerated, is kept at a temperature of about +5° C to then be subjected to a regeneration cycle. The regeneration phase that precedes serving should then be carried out in less than a hour allowing to reach a temperature of at least 65° C at the heart of the product, in such a way as to be kept until the moment of consumption, which should take place at the most within two hours from the start of regeneration.

[0004] Knowing the Cook-Chill processing technique, one can correctly state that some companies of the sector, for their production lines, within the foodservice industry, have operated in such a way as to obtain the combination of two devices suitable to complete the regeneration cycle, a unit of cooling and preservation of the food, upstream of the cycle, and a downstream regeneration unit before serving, respectively. It goes without saying that the main and intuitive problem is given by the substantial need to transfer the food from the cooling unit to the regeneration unit, a condition that in principle can modify or alter the chemical-bacteriological, as well as organoleptic, characteristics of the food, and be an expensive operation in terms of time and resources, with evident costs for the company devoted to the provision of food.

Prior art

[0005] In the solution of some of the mentioned problems, it has been essential to ensure that a single apparatus combined both functions, of cooling and regeneration. Short research in patent literature, although not much in depth, has allowed to find the following prior documents:

D1 GB1 274502A (Pecoraro)

D2 KR20020001 269A (Wang)

D3 US4884626A (Filipowski)

D4 US20041081 06A1 (Clark et al.)

D5 WO2005057093A2 (Landry et al.)

D6 WO2005060449A2 (LandModulinery et al.)

D1 describes a combined oven and freezer.

A freezer-oven unit comprises a preferably circular deflector spaced out from the back wall of the unit, a fan situated in said space between the diaphragm and the wall, electrical heating means, placed around the periphery of the fan blades for use in the heating cycle of the machine, and an input nozzle of liquid nitrogen in a position adjacent to said fan for use in the cooling cycle. The fan distributes hot air or cold nitrogen outwards radially around the annular space that surrounds the deflector at the centre of the oven. The deflector can have a central opening so that the air that circulates or nitrogen inside the unit can be drawn through the opening at the centre of the fan. An electrical control system for the unit is described. D2 proposes a hygienic and cheap food drying apparatus with an oven and a refrigerator to preserve food for a long drying period, particularly for agricultural and sea products, and to best use space, functionally combining a drying apparatus with a refrigerator and an oven. In particular the unit comprises a food drying device that is made up of a gas oven chamber for baking food and a refrigeration chamber for the production of cold, a closed drying chamber for drying food and an area with an evaporator, a condenser and compressors for connection to the drying chamber, a unit consisting of a duct and a fan for hot air or cold air circulation to the drying chamber and a control unit. The food is well preserved for a long time with the drying of food, and the taste of food is improved.

D3 describes a refrigerator-oven for the cooling and cooking of food in the closed chamber, it has both heating elements and cooling elements in the same apparatus. The resistors can be conventional heating elements and/or convection units and a microwave unit. Furthermore, the apparatus is of cooling with heating and temperature control means, which are activated by a microprocessor, programmable up to two weeks in advance, so that the cooling elements and the resistors are subsequently activated to process the food at particular temperatures for particular specific periods of time. The heating and cooling sequences can be carried out in any desired order. The unit includes a backup battery for supporting the time circuits, and the microprocessor logic during a power interruption and uses a frozen food product, a sheathing with a probe to facilitate cooking from a frozen state. The apparatus can also have a module containing burners or hotplates mounted on it so that the apparatus can work as an autonomous kitchen unit.

D4 describes a fridge-oven combination that comprises a closed chamber with a top, a bottom, and the vertical side walls. The refrigerator-oven also includes a heating unit and a cooling system. A controller is in communication with the heating unit and the cooling unit. When a cooling mode is selected, the controller activates the cooling unit to provide fresh air in the closed chamber. When a heating mode is selected, the controller activates the heating unit for the production of heat in the closed chamber. D5-D6 both describe a cooling/freezing and oven unit, for the cooling/freezing of food and the cooking in the processing chamber. Said functions can be operated by the operator from a variety of remote places throughout the world through an information exchange system by means of multimedia means, such as a public telephone network or via Internet. The oven has a heating element, such as an element with a heating resistor or a gas burner. A controller is in communication with the heating unit and the cooling/freezing unit. The controller activates the cooling/freezing unit when a cooling or heating mode is desired.

[0006] Given the foregoing it is therefore reasonable to consider as known an apparatus for processing food with a chamber for processing food introduced through an openable door, which comprises a first heating unit of said processing chamber, and a second cooling unit of the same processing chamber, wherein said apparatus for processing food is provided with a logic unit for the control of the functions of said first and second unit.

Drawbacks

[0007] It is possible to agree on the fact that the solutions described in the previous paragraph are all in all effective, because they allow that in the food processing chamber the food is processed in such a way as to be subjected to a cold and/or hot cycle, however the described solutions do not seem significantly effective in order to obtain a particularly efficient and functional apparatus with low energy and versatile consumptions, particularly suitable for the foodservice industry. For these and other reasons, in conclusion, it is necessary to find some improving proposals with respect to the currently existing techniques. Short description of the object of the invention

[0008] These and other aims are achieved by the present invention according to the characteristics as in the enclosed claims solving the mentioned problems by means of a combined apparatus for the maintenance of cold and the regeneration of food for the foodservice industry, with a chamber for processing food introduced through an openable door, which comprises, integrated in a piece of furniture, a first heating unit of said processing chamber, and a second cooling unit of the same processing chamber, wherein said apparatus for processing food is provided with a logic unit for the control of the functions of said first and second unit, wherein the processing chamber includes a technical space in communication with the food housing space, said technical space having at least one fan means, internal with respect to a resistor that perimetrically surrounds it, and with a heat exchange wall with respect to which said fan means is positioned centrally, said heat exchange wall having a gas recirculation coil enclosed within a metal sandwich.

Aims

[0009] In this way, by the considerable creative contribution the effect of which constitutes an immediate and non-negligible technical progress, various and important aims are achieved. A first aim was to obtain an apparatus that combines in a versatile way the function of maintenance of cold with the regeneration function, in such a way as to make a hot or cold flow, according to the preset programme, circulate with a convective motion inside the food housing space.

[0010] A second aim consists in optimizing the regeneration function, providing a humidifier device that, using some water in contact with the resistor, vaporizes it in a short time in such a way as to prevent the food from becoming dry during regeneration.

[001 1 ] A further aim consists in allowing a particularly homogenous, constant and fast function of maintenance of cold, dimensioning the surface of heat exchange adequately. These and other advantages will appear from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment with the aid of the enclosed schematic drawings whose details of execution are not to be considered limitative but only and exclusively illustrative. Content of the drawings

Figure 1 is a whole view of the combined apparatus for the maintenance of cold and the regeneration of food for the foodservice industry.

Figure 2 is a block diagram of the programme of cold maintenance.

Figure 3 is a block diagram of the combined programme of cold maintenance plus the hot regeneration/maintenance function.

Practical execution of the invention

[001 2] The object of the present invention (Figure 1 ) refers to a combined apparatus (10) for the maintenance of cold and the regeneration of food, suitable for the foodservice industry (Fig. 1 ), of the type made up of a piece of furniture (1 00) with a base (1 1 0) and on the front side an openable door (1 24), of the laterally hinged type, to access the processing chamber (1 20A, 1 20B).

[001 3] Said processing chamber (1 20A, 1 20B) is of the closed type and is provided with a bottom (1 21 ), a top, two side walls (1 2) parallel to each other and, finally, a back (1 23). In this case, the processing chamber (1 20A, 1 20B) is divided into a housing space of the food ( 1 20A) to be processed which is placed in front of a technical space (1 20B) that is obtained in the back part of the processing chamber (1 20A, 1 20B), by means of a vertical separation wall (200), which leaves laterally some longitudinal openings (21 0) in order to allow the circulation of the convective flows of hot/cold air.

[0014] Even more in particular, in correspondence of said technical space (1 20B), two fans (300) are present hinged in correspondence of the back (1 23) and in a central position, the one aligned and over the other, in such a way as to allow the radial circulation of the convective flows. Peripherally to each fan (300) some electrical resistors (310) are wound, slightly separated with, at the top, a water distribution device (400) in such a way as to supply water in a controlled way that, pushed into contact with the hot resistors (310), evaporates in a short time. [001 5] The two fans (300) are placed in such a way as to be arranged centrally also with respect to the heat exchange wall (500), which is made up of a metal sandwich (501 ) that includes the coil (502) in which circulates the freezing gas put in circulation by the compressor unit (51 0) that is placed below the processing chamber ( 120A, 1 20B) in correspondence of the base (1 1 0) of the apparatus (1 0). A transverse supporting technical element (520) keeps the supported thermal exchange wall (500) separated from the separation wall (200) in such a way as to realize a surface that, affected by the convective motions of the fans (300), allows the side circulation of the air flow.

[001 6] From the main menu, for example of the graphic interface, of the logic unit (600) of the apparatus (1 0) (see Figures 2 and 3), or another display system in a written form or made up of graphic symbols, one can select through conventional selection means, that is to say with keys, with a selector of the knob type, even in the touch screen version, some functions. For example it presents at least the following regeneration indications REGENERATION, HOT MAINTENANCE COMBINED, COLD MAINTENANCE, it is possible to select the COLD MAINTENANCE entry with the following possibility to set the maintenance temperature from a minimum value of 0° C to a maximum of 30° C. Upon start of the cold maintenance programme, the temperature inside the housing space (1 0A) will reach the preset temperature and it will be maintained for a period of time until the stop of the cold maintenance programme. In the same way one will operate selecting the REGENERATION function. The logic unit (600) of the apparatus ( 1 0) allows furthermore for the COMBINED function, providing first to the selection and setting of the cold maintenance temperature and afterwards setting the date and the time of the end of the COLD MAINTENANCE programme with the following automatic start of the REGENERATION programme. To this purpose the REGENERATION programme can be set ad hoc or selected from one of the stored programmes that in its turn can be made up of a real regeneration programme plus a maintenance programme once the regeneration has been reached. Reference

(1 0) combined apparatus for the maintenance of cold and the regeneration of food

(100) piece of furniture

(1 1 0) base

(1 20A, 1 20B) processing chamber

(1 21 ) bottom

(1 22) side walls

(1 23) back

(1 24) openable door

(200) separation wall

(210) longitudinal openings

(300) fans

(310) resistors

(400) water distribution device

(500) heat exchange wall

(501 ) metal sandwich

(502) coil

(510) compressor unit

(520) transverse supporting technical element

(600) control logic unit

Claims

1 . Combined apparatus (1 0) for the maintenance of cold and the regeneration of food for the foodservice industry, with a chamber for processing the food introduced through an openable door (1 24), which comprises, integrated in a single piece of furniture, a first heating unit of said processing chamber, and a second cooling unit of the same processing chamber, wherein said apparatus (10) for processing food is provided with a logic unit (600) for the control of the functions of said first and second unit, characterised in that the processing chamber comprises a technical space (1 20B) in communication with the food housing space ( 1 20A), said technical space (1 20B) with at least one fan means (300), internal with respect to a resistor (310) that surrounds it perimetrically, and with a heat exchange wall (500) with respect to which said fan means (300) is centrally arranged, said heat exchange wall (500) having a gas recirculation coil (502) enclosed within a metal sandwich (501 ).

2. Combined apparatus, according to claim 1 , characterised in that peripherally to each fan (300) some resistors (310) are wound, slightly separated, with, at the top, a water distribution device (400) in such a way as to supply water in a controlled way that, pushed into contact with the hot resistors (310), will evaporate.

3. Combined apparatus according to claims 1 and 2, characterised in that the processing chamber is divided into a food housing space (1 20A) placed in front of a technical space (1 20B) that is obtained in the back part of the processing chamber (1 0A, 1 20B), by means of a vertical separation wall (200), that leaves laterally some longitudinal openings (210) in such a way as to allow the circulation of the convective air flows.

4. Processing system of food in a combined apparatus (1 0) introduced through an openable door (1 24), which comprises, integrated in one single piece of furniture, a first heating unit of said processing chamber (1 20A, 1 20B), and a second cooling unit of the same processing chamber (1 20A, 1 20B), wherein said apparatus (1 0) for processing food is provided with a logic unit (600) for the control of the functions of said first and second unit, in such a way that from the main menu of the interface one can select at least the COLD MAINTENANCE entry with the following possibility to set the maintenance temperature from a minimum value of 0° C to a maximum of 30°C or alternatively the REGENERATION function, and wherein it is provided with the COMBINED function, providing first to the selection and setting of the cold maintenance temperature and afterwards setting the date and the time of the end of the COLD MAINTENANCE programme with the following automatic start of the REGENERATION programme.