Patent Application
20180235400
The invention relates generally to catering devices and in particular, to portable chafer dish assemblies for use in food service.
Chafers or chafing dishes are commonly used by restaurants and by catering services for serving food outdoors. A conventional chafer includes a wire rack or frame that contains a burner. A chafing dish tray is typically filled with water and is supported by the rack above the burner. Trays containing food are then placed into the chafing dish tray to be heated by the warmed water.
The burner produces a flame that is commonly generated by combusted petroleum based gel contained within a can, such as the fuel can manufactured under the trademark, STERNO. In outdoor settings, the open flame of the burner is susceptible to being extinguished by gusts of wind or drafts. Also, there is the risk of fire from open flames and fuel spills.
Oftentimes, multiple chafers are staged by caterers in either an end-to-end or a side-by-side alignment, especially when staging for purposes of buffet serving. There have been windshield boxes designed for housing chafer racks in order to shield the chafers from the wind. However such box designs are unduly bulky and onerous for portable catering needs. But moreover, they are quite unsuitable for staging multiple chafer racks when, due to limitations in spacing, flexibility is needed to properly stage the chafers. Caterers desire the flexibility of staging the chafers outdoors at either an end-to-end or side-by-side alignment.
Also, during outdoor events, the wind may suddenly change directions. The prior art box type designs do not offer an efficient and expedient means for rearranging the access ports to the burners, prior to the burners' flames being extinguished by winds blown from a direction opposite to that for which the original staging was designed to protect. In most cases, it is problematic to protect the two sides of a chafer simultaneously, while also protecting the two ends of the same or contiguously stationed chafers when staged in multiple chafer alignments.
Commercially available box type wind shields for outdoor use of chafers are available today and include for example the chafer shield from Randware and the Harris Products windscreen. The Randware design is believed to be the subject of U.S. Pat. No. 5,819,640. Each has the drawbacks referred to above. Also, the long felt need for protecting outdoor use of chafers from wind drafts has been established since at least as early as 1925 as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,701,989 issued to E. N. Turner. More recent developments are further disclosed in for example US Design 275,643 by Petterson; U.S. Design 305,972 by Pearce; and in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,517,903 and 5,711,210 both issued to Kauffman; as well as a temperature controlled butane gas burning chafer dish as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,941,943 by Cahill, et. al. This long felt need however remains unsatisfied because the prior art devices have been either unduly cumbersome, too expensive, or they lack sufficient airflow to keep the flame lit, or they allow too much airflow to be universally acceptable to restaurants and caterers.
As will be described in greater detail hereinafter, the chafer and panel assembly of the present invention satisfies the aforesaid long felt needs while solving the drawbacks and problems of the prior art with improved efficiency and convenience. The invention is highly advantageous, lighter weight, more easily stored and transported, and generally more acceptable for purposes of portable chafer service and multiple chafer staging than are prior art chafer rack shield or windscreen assemblies.
Accordingly, it is a feature of the present invention to provide a chafer rack and panel assembly which protects the STERNO flames from being extinguished by gusts of wind and air drafts which may emanate from multiple directions during the course of a single event, and while allowing the STERNO to be easily managed by the caterers, from either side or either end of the chafer rack and panel assembly.
Another feature of the assembly of the present invention allows protection for the chafers' flames while aligning multiple chafers either end-to-end or side-by-side.
To achieve the foregoing features, as well as other features which will become more apparent from the following description and appended drawings, and in accordance with the purposes of the present invention the improved chafer rack and panel assembly of the present invention is provided. The assembly comprises a wire chafer rack and at least two individual side and/or end panels that are removably hinged at one or more wire bars of the chafer rack frame.
Referring now to the drawings, an improved chafer rack and panel assembly 10 is illustrated in
The alternative embodiment of the invention as displayed in
The panels 20/30 of the invention can be manufactured from any fire retardant material with sufficient strength and integrity to be hingedly attached to and removable from the wire racks. Preferably sheet metal, metal foil, or fire retardant composite materials are used as materials of construction. Some specially designed fabrics could also be employed if desired.
Although the invention has been described by reference to particular embodiments, it is not intended that the novel device should be limited thereby, but that modifications thereof are intended to be included as falling within the broad scope and spirit of the foregoing disclosure, the following claims, and the appended drawings.
