EP0339100A1

EP0339100A1 - Oven for cooking food

Info

Publication number: EP0339100A1
Application number: EP88106582A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Luigi Dalla Bella
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1988-04-25
Filing date: 1988-04-25
Publication date: 1989-11-02

Abstract

The oven includes a container (2) for a fixed box-like structure (3), divided into a plurality of radial sectors (6), inside which there is downwardly rotatably associated a rotary conveyor (8) having radial elements (10) acting as seats for a plate (17) of food; the oven also includes a source (11,12) for microwave heating, a source (13,14) for short-wave infrared radiation cooking and a source for medium-wave radiation for a surface browning of the food. The sources are controlled by an electronic circuitry having a centralized logic. The oven further includes means for inserting and extracting the container from the box-like structure.

Description

The present invention relates to an oven, particularly for cooking food.
Numerous types of oven, using the combustion of a gas, the heating of a resistor or the irradiation of microwaves to cook food inserted therein, are currently known.
All these types of oven, whether providing forced or natural internal ventilation, have the disadvantage of not allowing the optimum cooking of food in very short times, said cooking being possibly differentiated.
A microwave oven, in fact, though it allows a rapid unfreezing of frozen food, allows only a uniform cooking of the food, without therefore allowing to vary the degree of cooking and humidity between the inside and the outside for example to brown said food superficially.
The aim of the present invention is therefore to eliminate the disadvantages described above in known types, by providing an oven which allows the even or differentiated cooking of food in very short times.
Within the above described aim, an important object is to provide a structurally simple oven of small bulk which allows to cook in short times a large number of individual portions of food, even of different qualities.
Not least object is to provide an oven structurally simple, compact and usable in combination with distributors of frozen and/or pre-cooked and/or natural food.
The abovementioned aim and objects, as well as others which will become apparent hereinafter, are achieved by a structure of oven, particularly for cooking food, characterized in that it comprises a container for a fixed box-like structure, divided into a plurality of radial sectors, internally whereto there is downwardly rotatably associated a rotary conveyor having radial elements acting as seats for a plate of food, said oven comprising at least one source for microwave heating, at least one source for short-wave infrared-radiation cooking and at least one source for surface browning with medium-wave radiation, said sources being controlled by an electronic circuit comprising a centralized logic, said oven further comprising means for inserting and extracting said containers from said box-like structure.
Further characteristics and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the detailed description of a particular embodiment, illustrated only by way of non-limitative example in the accompanying drawings, wherein

figure 1 is a partially sectional perspective view of the fixed box-like structure with the rotary conveyor, wherein, for the sake of clarity, the container has been omitted;
figure 2 is a bottom perspective view of the fixed box-like structure;
figure 3 is a view of the rotary conveyor;
figure 4 is a view taken along a sectional plane diametral to the fixed box-like structure;
figure 5 is a view taken along the sectional plane V-V of figure 4.

With reference to the above described figures, the oven 1 comprises a container 2 inside which there is placed a box-like structure 3, fixed with respect to the container, essentially cylindrical in shape with an upper closure wall 4 and downwardly open.
Axially to the structure 3 there protrudes a cylindrical shaft 5, from which there extend radial sectors 6 which, in the particular embodiment, are five. Four of these sectors are adjacent and equally spaced by an angle of approximately 60°; the remaining one sector is spaced by an angle of approximately 120°.
Each of said radial sectors 6 connects to the lateral surface 7 of the box-like structure 3 and has, like the shaft 5, a smaller height with respect to that of said lateral surface 7.
Downwardly to the shaft 5 there is arrangeable, at the same longitudinal axis, a rotary conveyor 8, rotatably associated with the structure 3 and actuated by means of an adapted motor.
Said conveyor has a central body 9 having a circular planar configuration from which there extend radial elements 10 equally mutually spaced by an angle of approximately 60° the free ends whereof graze the inner wall of the lateral surface 7 of the box-like structure 3.
With the wall 4 there are associated, internally to the box-like structure 3, two first sources 11 and 12 for microwave heating, arranged above the space interposed between the two radial sectors 7 spaced by an angle of 120°.
In an anticlockwise direction, below the closure wall 4 there are arranged, each at the space interposed between two radial sectors spaced by 60°, two second sources 13 and 14 for short-wave infrared-radiation cooking and two other third medium-wave infrared-radiation sources 15 and 16 for the surface browning of the food contained in underlying plates 17 arranged between two of the contiguous radial elements 10.
Said plates are moved inside the box-like structure 3 by means of radial elements 10 of the rotary conveyor 8.
All said sources 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16 and the rotary conveyor 8 are controlled by an electronic circuit containing a centralized logic which sets, according to a given and preselected program, for example the wavelengths of the sources and the intervention times, which must be shorter than the pitch of the rotary conveyor 8.
The times in which each plate 17 must remain below one of said sources are thus defined, all according to the food to be cooked.
Said containers 17 are introduced within the box-like structure 3 at the source 11 and are moved out of the container 2 at the source 16.
Regarding this last step, a rotating plane 18 supports the plate 17, which by rotating through 90° is moved, through an adapted opening 19 present on the container 2, externally to the latter.
The operation and the use of the oven is therefore immediate: once a plate 17 is inserted in the box-like structure 3, the centralized logic sets, depending on the type of food to be cooked, the times for which the plate is to remain at the various stations by controlling the rotation of the rotary conveyor 8 and the intervention times of the various sources.
It has thus been observed that the invention has achieved the intended aim and objects, an oven having been provided which allows the optimum cooking of any type of food, a considerable reduction of the cooking times and the possibility of differentiating said cooking by cooking the inner part more or less with respect to the outer one.
The invention furthermore allows to considerably increase the production of cooked food, due to the speed in cooking and to the simultaneous number of plates arrangeable in a continuos cycle inside the box-like structure 3.
The use of the oven is furthermore optimum when paired to a container of plates of natural, pre-cooked or frozen food to achieve the removal of a large number of cooked plates in very short times.
This use is furthermore facilitated by the compactness of the structure.
Naturally the materials and the dimensions of the individual components of the oven, may be any according to the specific requirements.
Where technical features mentioned in any claim are followed by reference signs, those reference signs have been included for the sole purpose of increasing the intelligibility of the claims and accordingly, such reference signs do not have any limiting effect on the scope of each element identified by way of example by such reference signs.

Claims

1. Oven, particularly for cooking food, characterized in that it comprises a container (2) for a fixed box-like structure (3), divided into a plurality of radial sectors (6), inside which there is downwardly rotatably associated a rotary conveyor (8) having radial elements (10) acting as seats for a plate (17) of food, said oven comprising at least one first source (11,12) for microwave heating, at least one second source (13,14) for short-wave infrared-radiation cooking and at least one third source (15,16) for medium-wave radiation for a surface browning of said food, said sources being controlled by an electronic circuit comprising a centralized logic, said oven further comprising means for the insertion in, and the extraction from, said box-like structure of said containers.

2. Oven according to claim 1, characterized in that said box-like structure (3) is substantially cylindrical in shape with an upper closure wall (4) and downwardly open, axially thereto protruding a cylindrical shaft (5) from which there extends a plurality of said radial sectors (6) each connecting to the lateral surface (7) of said box-like structure, said box-like structure and said radial sectors having a smaller height with respect to that of said lateral structure.

3. Oven according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that said radial sectors (6) are five, four of said sectors being adjacent and equally spaced by an angle approximately equal to 60°, the remaining sector being spaced by an angle of approximately 120°.

4. Oven according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that said rotary conveyor (8) comprises a central body (9) having a circular configuration and the same central axis as said shaft (5), from said central body there extending six radial elements (10), mutually angularly equally spaced, the free ends whereof graze, during motion, the inner wall of said lateral surface (7) of said box-like structure.

5. Oven according to claims 1 to 4, characterized in that with said upper closure wall (4) there are internally associated, at the region overlying the two radial sectors spaced angularly by approximately 120°, two first sources (11,12) for the microwave heating of the food contained in said underlying plates (17) arranged between two of said adjacent radial elements protruding from said rotary conveyor.

6. Oven according to claims 1 and 5, characterized in that with said upper closure wall there are internally associated, at the regions overlying said four radial sectors spaced angularly by approximately 60°, two second (13,14) and third (15,16) sources respectively for cooking with short-wave infrared radiation and for surface browning with medium-wave infrared radiation.

7. Oven according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that said first, second and third sources (11,12,13,14,15,16) and said rotary conveyor (8) are controlled by an electronic circuit containing a centralized logic adapted to preset the times for which each of said plates (17) must remain, according to the quantity and to the type of food contained, below each of said first, second and third sources.

8. Oven according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that it has a rotating plane (18) for the extraction of said plate (17) at the end of the cooking cycle and its positioning outside said container for removal.