Patent Application
20190059687
In the food service industry, and particularly in fine dining establishments, cleanliness of the eating utensils including glassware and silverware is of paramount importance. Even after cleaning of the utensils in commercial washing machines or by hand washing, it is common for smudges, water spots, lipstick and fingerprints to be retained on the surface, thus requiring the service staff to manually polish each utensil. To assist with polishing, the staff often steams the utensils. This is accomplished either through use of an electric steaming device, similar to a tea kettle, which directs steam against individual articles of glassware or silverware, or by arranging a number of utensils in a plastic or metal bin which contains hot water to generate steam for the articles in the bin. Using either technique increases the time and labor to obtain properly cleaned utensils.
The present invention was developed in order to provide a more economical, durable and simply designed steaming device for simultaneously polishing a large number of glassware/silverware articles arranged in conventional commercial racks or trays with a minimum of training for hospitality staff already familiar with devices such as chafing dishes.
Accordingly, it is a primary object of the invention to provide a device for steaming utensils such as glassware and silverware including a frame having a plurality of side walls and a ledge or lip forming an interior perimeter, and, if desired, with a flange protruding horizontally from the upper surface of each side wall and toward the exterior of the frame to provide an additional support surface. The frame may be open at its upper and bottom ends with a heating deck including opposing containment walls adjacent to opposing loading walls arranged beneath the frame. A plurality of legs may connect the frame to the heating deck, and a fluid reservoir may be arranged within the frame.
A fluid reservoir may have a plurality of side walls adjacent to the frame side walls extending toward the inner perimeter of the frame past the ledge toward the heating deck and enclosed by a reservoir bottom. The fluid in the reservoir may contain fluid to generate steam which exits the frame's open end to steam a plurality of utensils arranged in trays or racks stacked on the device. The steam moistens and warms the utensils to facilitate polishing of the utensils prior to use. The heating deck preferably contains at least one heating device such as a canister containing a flammable composition, gas, or electric heat source which can be operated when the device is in use to heat the fluid in the reservoir and extinguished when the device is not in use.
According to a further object of the invention, the upper edges of the frame and reservoir side walls of the device include flanges which mate with each other and a bottom edge of the utensil racks stacked on the device so that the stacked racks are stable and define an open topped chamber in which a plurality of utensils are steamed simultaneously.
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated herein and constitute part of this specification, illustrate exemplary embodiments of the invention, and together with the general description given above and the detailed description given below, serve to explain the features of the invention.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from a study of the following specification when viewed in the light of the accompanying drawing, in which:
The various embodiments will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers will be used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or like parts. References made to particular examples and implementations are for illustrative purposes, and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention or the claims.
The word “exemplary” is used herein to mean “serving as an example, instance, or illustration.” Any implementation described herein as “exemplary” is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other implementations.
The drawings are not drawn to scale. Multiple instances of an element may be duplicated where a single instance of the element is illustrated, unless absence of duplication of elements is expressly described or clearly indicated otherwise. Ordinals such as “first,” “second,” and “third” are employed merely to identify similar elements, and different ordinals may be employed across the specification and the claims of the instant disclosure. As used herein, a first element located “on” a second element can be located on the exterior side of a surface of the second element or on the interior side of the second element. As used herein, a first element is located “directly on” a second element if there exist a direct physical contact between a surface of the first element and a surface of the second element. As used herein, an element is “configured” to perform a function if the structural components of the element are inherently capable of performing the function due to the physical and/or electrical characteristics thereof.
Steaming devices, such as those disclosed in EP Patent No. 1775216, GB patent No. 2307974 and JP patent No. 10234352 may enable steaming of various items. For example, EP patent No. 1775216, discloses a steaming device for food trays in which steam is delivered to the trays via air circulating ducts to moisten and warm the trays. While these devices operate satisfactorily, they do not afford simple and efficient polishing of a plurality of glasses or eating utensils.
Referring first to
Arranged beneath the frame 4 is a heating deck 24. The heating deck may have opposing containment walls 28 adjacent to opposing loading walls 26 to assist in retaining one or more heating devices. As shown in
A plurality of legs 18 connect the frame 4 to the heating deck 24. In particular, the plurality of legs 18 connect the plurality of frame side walls 8 to the loading and containment walls of the heating deck 24 by fasteners 20. The fasteners 20 may include welding methods, molding methods, soldering, screws, bolts and nuts, or rivets. The steaming device 2 may be formed of any suitable rigid material such as metal and/or synthetic plastic.
As illustrated in
Preferably, the bottom 32, 40 of the fluid reservoir 30, 38 may be formed of a heat transmissive material such as metal to effectively conduct heat from the heating device to a fluid, preferably water, arranged in the reservoir. The fluid is heated by the heating device to generate steam which exits the fluid reservoir 30, 38 through the open frame opening 16. The fluid reservoir 30, 38 may be any shape. For example the fluid reservoir 30, 38 may be configured as a trapezoidal fluid reservoir 30, 38 where a top opening of the fluid reservoir 30, 38 is larger than the bottom 32, 40 as caused by the sloping of the walls of the fluid reservoir 30,38 away from the bottom 32,40. While illustrated as a square, fluid reservoir 30, 38 may be any shape, such as a square, rectangle, etc., and the shape of the fluid reservoir 30, 38 may be selected to match the shape of the frame 4.
In an embodiment of the invention, a fluid reservoir 30 is a top suspended reservoir having reservoir walls 34 with reservoir flanges 36 that protrude horizontally outward from the upper surface of the reservoir walls 34. The reservoir flanges 36 may, for example, meet together at a corner 37 or may stop short of forming a corner as both are illustrated in
In another embodiment, a fluid reservoir 38 is a side suspended reservoir having reservoir walls 42 adjacent to the inside of the frame walls 8 extending toward the inner perimeter of the frame 4 and suspended by the ledge 6, and having a reservoir bottom 40 as illustrated in
Referring now to
The steaming device 2 is designed to support one or more racks, such as a plurality of stackable racks as shown in
The steaming device 2 may fit on a standard glassware/silverware trolley or cart 56 which has wheels 58 which allow the entire assembly shown in
The preceding description of the disclosed embodiments is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to make or use the claims. Various modifications to these embodiments will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied to other embodiments without departing from the spirit or scope of the claims. Thus, the present disclosure is not intended to be limited to the embodiments shown herein but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the following claims and the principles and novel features disclosed herein.
