Patent Application
20210345811
The following includes information that may be useful in understanding the present disclosure. It is not an admission that any of the information provided herein is prior art nor material to the presently described or claimed inventions, nor that any publication or document that is specifically or implicitly referenced is prior art.
The present invention relates generally to the field of cooking vessels of existing art and more specifically relates to cooking vessels with improved heat distribution.
Cooking vessels, such as pots and frying pans, are usually manufactured of aluminum or non-ferrous materials. Typically, the cooking vessels have a flat base. With a base as flat as possible, the entire surface of the base makes contact with a stove for effective heating of the cooking vessel. Unfortunately, when a pot or pan is heated from below by open flames or an electric burner, there is a tremendous amount of heat loss around the side of the pot. There is another widespread, dangerous, injury-inducing problem associated with current cooking vessels. With ordinary pots and pans the heat rolls up the side and continues upward. If a person reaches over the cooking vessel upward moving heat can burn their arm. This problem is only exacerbated by the number of pots and pans on the stove.
Additionally, when stirring the contents of a pot or pan or serving the contents it is common to have drips and small spills. Current pots and pans allow the drips to run down their sidewalls and into a burner area of a stove. Thoroughly cleaning this area of the stove can be difficult. A suitable solution is desired.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,564,589 to Hseuh-Chien Fu relates to a pot or pan. The described pot or pan includes a more efficient flat bottom pot or pan is obtained by (a) the introduction of an initial central downward depression in the bottom plate in the order of twice the plate thickness to avoid the undesirable upward bulging of the pot bottom as a result of aging, (b) providing heat transferring fins in a spiral pattern to the bottom and helical pattern to the side wall of the pot or pan for more effective heat transfer from the stove flame to the pot or pan, and to stabilize the pot with its central depression for placement on flat surfaces, and (c) providing a detachable shielding skirt around the pot to reduce the heat loss from radiation and convection.
In view of the foregoing disadvantages inherent in the known cooking vessel art, the present disclosure provides a novel dual wall cooking vessel. The general purpose of the present disclosure, which will be described subsequently in greater detail, is to provide a dual wall cooking vessel with improved heat distribution and retention.
A dual wall cooking vessel is disclosed herein. The dual wall cooking vessel includes a cooking vessel having at least one handle, a top-rim, a base, an inner-wall, and an outer cylindrical columnar wall being substantially cylindrical encircling the inner-wall and extending downwardly and forming a channel between the inner-wall and the outer cylindrical columnar wall. An upper perimeter of the outer cylindrical columnar wall is attached to the top-rim of the cooking vessel and a lower perimeter of the outer cylindrical columnar wall arcing in an outward projection to form a drip-catcher. The channel is closed at the top-rim and the channel is open at the base. The channel is configured to retain and circulate thermal energy during use on a heated surface to provide increased thermal energy retention and distribution during use.
For purposes of summarizing the invention, certain aspects, advantages, and novel features of the invention have been described herein. It is to be understood that not necessarily all such advantages may be achieved in accordance with any one particular embodiment of the invention. Thus, the invention may be embodied or carried out in a manner that achieves or optimizes one advantage or group of advantages as taught herein without necessarily achieving other advantages as may be taught or suggested herein. The features of the invention which are believed to be novel are particularly pointed out and distinctly claimed in the concluding portion of the specification. These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will become better understood with reference to the following drawings and detailed description.
The figures which accompany the written portion of this specification illustrate embodiments and methods of use for the present disclosure, a dual wall cooking vessel, constructed and operative according to the teachings of the present disclosure.
The various embodiments of the present invention will hereinafter be described in conjunction with the appended drawings, wherein like designations denote like elements.
As discussed above, embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a cooking vessel and more particularly to a dual wall cooking vessel as used to improve the use of cooking vessels. The dual wall cooking vessel allows for food preparation to be done faster, fuller, safer, cleaner, and with less energy.
Generally, the dual wall cooking vessel is a cooking vessel with a second, surrounding columnar wall, which allows heat radiating from the base sidewalls of this vessel to be retained and moved throughout that contained area. With this retained heat, contents of the vessel can be heated faster and throughout the entire structure, requiring less energy in the process. In addition, this surrounding columnar wall features an open channel about its lower circumference, into which spills and runoffs can be collected instead of creating any mess on the hosting stovetop. Handles may be included on an exterior plane of the surrounding columnar wall, and a lid may also be provided for application to a top plane of the cooking vessel. The dual wall cooking vessel reduces the amount of heat and steam that escapes from its sidewalls and thereby reduces the likelihood of a user burning their hands, arms and/or face in comparison to ordinary cookware.
In one embodiment, a stock pot is provided. The dual wall cooking vessel is made of stainless steel, preferably measuring ten inches in diameter by seven and a half inches in height (10″×7.5″). Encircling this stock pot, and permanently attached to its top point, is a second, outer (substantially) cylindrical columnar wall. The outer cylindrical columnar wall preferably measures eleven and a half inches in diameter by ten inches in height (11½″×10″), thus providing a half-inch (½″) gap between the second wall and the base cooking vessel. The upper perimeter of the outer cylindrical columnar wall attaches to the hosting stock pot. The lower perimeter of this second wall arcs in an outward projection to form an open-topped channel of an approximate half-inch width by one-inch height (½″×1″). A flat lid is further provided including a center-placed handle.
The dual wall cooking vessel can be made in various sizes and formats that may be packaged individually and/or as complete sets. The surrounding columnar wall of the dual wall cooking vessel may be of various greater diameters than that of its hosting cooking vessel, and creating various distances between the columnar wall and the cooking vessel. The surrounding columnar wall of the dual wall cooking vessel may also have closed attachment to the bottom plane of its hosting cooking vessel, creating a fully closed circumference between the planes of the wall and the cooking vessel. In such variation, the bottom plane may feature perforations. The dual wall cooking vessel can be made in variations in which the surrounding columnar wall is removable from its hosting cooking vessel. In such variations, the surrounding columnar wall may attach to its host by various means, such as but not limited to a trough at its top perimeter that can rest upon the top perimeter of the cooking vessel.
A method of using the dual wall cooking vessel may be as follows: placing the dual wall cooking vessel on a heating surface. After placement of the dual wall cooking vessel on a heating surface, food items may be placed within the dual wall cooking vessel and the cooking surface may then be set to a desired temperature. Heat generated from the heating surface then radiates from the base of the dual wall cooking vessel. This heat is captured by the outer cylindrical columnar wall, and then progresses upward within the space between the outer cylindrical columnar wall and inner-wall of the cooking vessel. With this additional radiation of collected heat, which transfers back to the cooking vessel, full contents of the cooking vessel are heated more fully, evenly and faster than could ordinarily be achieved. This faster cooking results in lower utility costs, and also retains the serving temperature of the food contents, as well. Should the user need to stir the contents of the dual wall cooking vessel during use, he or she can do so without any risk of scalding from escaped heat source. Should stirring or subsequent serving of contents cause any minor spills, the channel at the bottom of the secondary wall will collect the spills, preventing the detailed cleanup that would ordinarily be required.
Referring now more specifically to the drawings by numerals of reference, there is shown in
In a most preferred embodiment, the cooking vessel 110 is a pot. The pot comprises a height of approximately 7.5 inches and a diameter of approximately 10 inches. The dual wall cooking vessel 110 can be made in many varieties of cooking vessels, including but not limited to pots, pans, woks and broilers, and in various sizes in each format, including commercial-use sizes. The dual wall cooking vessel 110 may comprise various materials of applicability, including but not limited to stainless steel, copper, aluminum, ceramic and anodized aluminum. Additionally, the dual wall cooking vessel 110 may be made in varieties that feature a non-stick coating upon an interior of the cooking vessel.
The embodiments of the invention described herein are exemplary and numerous modifications, variations and rearrangements can be readily envisioned to achieve substantially equivalent results, all of which are intended to be embraced within the spirit and scope of the invention. Further, the purpose of the foregoing abstract is to enable the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the public generally, and especially the scientist, engineers and practitioners in the art who are not familiar with patent or legal terms or phraseology, to determine quickly from a cursory inspection the nature and essence of the technical disclosure of the application.
The present application is related to and claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63/101,553 filed May 5, 2020, which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 63101553 | May 2020 | US |
