Patent Application
20110079211
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1. Technical Field
The embodiments described and claimed herein relate generally to a cooking apparatus. More specifically, the embodiments relate to a removable cover for a burner assembly for a barbecue grill.
2. Background Art
Burner assemblies for barbecue grills often include a cover that protects the burner from the elements and keeps the burner clean when not in use. These burner assemblies use hardware such as handles and/or finger holes to allow the cover to be moved away from the cooking surface of the burner assembly. One problem with existing burner assemblies is that the handles/finger holes present a negative effect on the overall appearance of the burner assembly. An additional aesthetic and functional hindrance is that some burner covers are connected to the burner by a hinge. The hinge presents additional cost and limits the amount of space for cooking and creates inconveniences. These inconveniences include, but are not limited to falling covers that can be extremely dangerous, particularly when the burner has reached high temperatures.
The embodiments of a new cover detailed herein resolves at least some of the shortcomings associated with previous burner assemblies. The cover of the burner is improved so that it sits within a recessed portion of the burner assembly with its top surface generally flush with the housing of the burner assembly. In that respect, the cover resembles the surface of the burner's housing, giving the assembled burner a complete aesthetically appealing appearance. In order to have an aesthetically clean surface, the top wall of the rocker panel is provided with contoured side walls which depend from the top wall. These contoured side walls provide a stable platform for the cover, while at the same time enabling the cover to pivot about an axis that is parallel to the cooking surface of the burner. When pressure is applied to a portion of the top surface on one side of the pivot axis, the portion of the cover on the opposite side of the pivot axis emerges from the recessed portion of the burner assembly housing and allows the rocker panel to be easily gripped and removed from the burner. For this reason, the cover is also referred to herein as a rocker panel.
These and other features, aspects, objects, and advantages of the embodiments described and claimed herein will become better understood upon consideration of the following detailed description, appended claims, and accompanying drawings where:
It should be understood that the drawings are not necessarily to scale and that the embodiments are sometimes illustrated by graphic symbols, phantom lines, diagrammatic representations and fragmentary views. In certain instances, details which are not necessary for an understanding of the embodiments described and claimed herein or which render other details difficult to perceive may have been omitted. It should be understood, of course, that the inventions described herein are not necessarily limited to the particular embodiments illustrated. Indeed, it is expected that persons of ordinary skill in the art may devise a number of alternative configurations that are similar and equivalent to the embodiments shown and described herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the claims.
Like reference numerals will be used to refer to like or similar parts from figure to figure in the following detailed description of the drawings.
One embodiment of a burner assembly 10 is shown in
With particular reference to
The rocker panel 40 has a top wall 42 and a plurality of segmented walls 44, 46, 48, 50 which depend from the perimeter of the top wall 42. When the rocker panel 40 is appropriately positioned on the base burner 20, the segmented walls 44, 46, 48, 50 are received within the channel 34 whereby the top wall 42 of the rocker panel 40 is approximately flush with the top surface 28 of the housing 22 of the base burner 20.
At least one of the segmented walls 44, 46, 48, 50 is contoured to include a fulcrum that allows the rocker panel 40 to pivot about an axis A or B that is parallel to the surface of the base burner 20. In the shown embodiment, wall 48 is the same as wall 44, and wall 46 is the same as wall 50. In particular, segmented walls 46, 50 have a contour that is best described as an inverted isosceles trapezoid, with a bottom edge 52, and two angled edges 54, 56. The intersections of the bottom edge 52 and the two angled edges 54, 56 serve as the fulcrums for the rocker panel 40. The bottom edge 52 is generally parallel to the top wall 42 of the rocker panel 40. When the rocker panel 40 is sitting undisturbed in the base burner 20 above the cooking grate 26, the bottom edge 52 of the rocker panel 40 supports the rocker panel 40 in a stable position parallel to the top surface 28 of the base burner 20. As best demonstrated by
The segmented walls 44, 46, 48, 50 can be provided with other contours that would provide similar results. For example, the segmented walls could be provided with a parabolic or curvilinear bottom edge.
Although the inventions described and claimed herein have been described in considerable detail with reference to certain embodiments, one skilled in the art will appreciate that the inventions described and claimed herein can be practiced by other than those embodiments, which have been presented for purposes of illustration and not of limitation. Therefore, the spirit and scope of the appended claims should not be limited to the description of the embodiments contained herein.
