Circulative catering table

Abstract

A circulative table particularly suitable for use in self-service catering business. The circulative catering table includes a base frame structure having inner and outer side walls defining therebetween an endless circular path of travel. A circular fixed fringe table is mounted horizontally around the circumference of the outer side wall of the base frame structure. An endless conveyer is mounted in the circular path of travel of the base structure for transferring circulatively therealong meals or dishes for selection by customers who are standing or sitting on chairs in front of the fixed fringe table. The meals or dishes are transferred individually in open-sided box-like compartments which are fixed in a series on the endless conveyer. The circulative catering table further includes a cover plate and a number of sterilizing lamps mounted overhead the endless conveyer for maintaining the served meals or dishes suitably in a sanitary state free from dusts, putrefaction and the like.

Parent Case Text

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is related to my copending application, Ser. No. 433,043.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a catering equipment, and more particularly to a circulative table particularly useful in self-service catering.

Briefly, the present invention is directed to a circulating catering table which is provided with an endless conveyer inside and along a circular fixed table for transferring dishes or meals thereon to allow customers who are standing or sitting outside the fixed circular table to select a desired dish or dishes among those which are circulated by the conveyer.

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to provide a circulative catering table of the type mentioned above, which can serve dishes or meals with high efficiency and in a neat and clean manner.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a circulative catering table of the type mentioned above, which employs a series of open-sides open-sided compartments on an endless conveyor for circulatively transferring the individual meals or dishes in a neat and clean state.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide a circulative catering table of the type mentioned above, which has provision for maintaining the served dishes or meals in sterilized condition.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a circulative catering table which is simple in construction and easy to maintain in a sanitary state.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In one preferred form of the invention, the circulative catering table comprises; a base frame structure having inner and outer side walls defining therebetween an endless circulating path of travel; a fixed fringe table mounted substantially horizontally around the circumference of said outer wall of said base frame structure; an endless conveyer mounted in said endless circulating path of travel; a series of open-sided compartments fixedly mounted on said endless conveyor for receiving and circulatively transferring meals along said circulating path of travel; a driving means mounted on said basic frame structure and associated with said endless conveyer for imparting translational movement thereto.

The endless circulating path may be formed in a generally rectangular or circular shape, in a plan view, whichever may be desired. Preferably, the circulative catering table of the invention further comprises a cover plate mounted overhead said circulating path and supported on the outer side wall of the base frame structure by means of a suitable number of posts in parallel spaced relation with the meal-carrying open-sided compartments. It is preferred to form the cover plate from a transparent material such as transparent glass sheet and retain the same in a framework using suitable straight and angular structural material.

In another aspects of the invention, the circulative catering table further includes a cooking table located at a suitable position within a boundary defined by the circulating path of travel and a number of sterilizing lamps mounted longitudinally on the underside of the cover plate for maintaining the served meals in the individual compartments in a sanitary state.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description and appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings which show by way of example only preferred embodiments of the invention and in which:

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing the circulative catering table construction according to the invention;

FIG. 2 is a side view, partly in section, of the circulative catering table shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary plan view showing crescent plate members of the circulating endless conveyer and an open-sided box-like compartment fixedly mounted on a crescent plate for carrying a dish or meal;

FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view explanatory of the connection between a chain strand and a crescent plate of the conveyer and an open-sided meal-carrying compartment;

FIGS. 5 and 6 are diagramatic perspective views showing examples of driving means for the endless conveyer.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT:

Referring to the accompanying drawings and first to FIGS. 1 through 4, the circulative catering table of the invention comprises a base frame structure or construction 1 of a rectangular or circular shape in plan view. The base frame structure 1 includes an inner and outer side walls 3 and 4 which define therebetween a circular endless path of travel. In this circular endless path of travel, there is mounted an endless conveyer 2 for transferring dishes or meals in one direction therealong. A relatively narrow peripherical fixed fringe table 5 is mounted substantially horizontally on the outer side wall 4 close to the upper end thereof. The fixed fringe table 5 is projected outwardly from the circumference of the outer side wall 4 to surround the circulating path of travel in which the afore-mentioned endless conveyor is running. A cooking table 6 is provided a suitable position within the boundary defined by the inner side wall 3 of the base frame structure 1. The inner and outer wall 3 and 4 of the base frame structure 1 have a passage 7 of a suitable size to provide an access to the inner side of the table.

As shown particularly in FIGS. 3 and 4, the endless conveyer 2 which runs in and along the circulating passage on top of the frame 1 is constituted by a series of crescent plates 8 each having a swivel arm 9 extending downwardly from the underside thereof. These crescent plates 8 are pivotally supported on a strand of an endless chain which is formed from a plurality of chain units 11 each connected with adjacent ones by means of pin links 12. The pin links 12 are each provided with a vertical bore for receiving and supporting the swivel arm 9 of the crescent plate 8. The crescent plates 8 which are aligned end to end as shown in FIG. 3 can swivel on the chain 10. The side wings of the crescent plates 8 are slidingly supported on horizontal racks 13 which are formed by folding the upper ends of the inner and outer side walls 3 and 4 inwardly angularly, the crescent plates 8 being thus in horizontal alignment with each other to provide a substantially continuous plane surface on the circulating path of travel.

The afore-mentioned endless chain 10 is applied around and meshed with teeth of a horizontally disposed sprocket wheel 15 at each corner of the table. The sprocket wheels 15 are each supported on a vertical shaft 14 and one sprocket wheel 15 is connected to and rotatingly driven from a driving mechanism 16 which is mounted at a suitable position on the base frame structure 1. The driving mechanism 16 is arranged, for example, such that rotation of a driving motor is transmitted through a transmission or a reducer 18 to a worm gear 19, as shown in FIG. 5, which is in meshing engagement with a worm wheel 20 fixedly mounted on the afore-mentioned vertical shaft 14 of the sprocket wheel 15. Alternatively, the vertical shaft 14 may be imparted with rotation by means of a geared motor 21 which is connected thereto by a transmission chain 22.

Overhead the endless circulating conveyer 2 which carries a series of open-sided box-like compartments as will be discussed in greater detail hereinlater, there is provided a roof-shaped cover plate 23 which is formed, preferably, from a transparent material such as a transparent glass sheet retained in a framework including angular corner frames 25. The transparent cover plate 23 is mounted on the inner side wall 3 of the base frame structure 1 by means of a number of posts 24 of an inverted L-shape in parallel spaced relationship to the endless conveyer 2. The cover plate 23 which is coextensive with the endless conveyer 2 has mounted on the underside thereof a number of sterilizing lamps 26 end to end in the longitudinal direction, for sterilizing the meals or dishes which are circulatively transferred on the endless conveyer 2. Preferably, a glass refrigerating box 27 is placed on the cover plate 23 in a position in front of the cooking table 6 for storing and displaying food stuff or material to be cooked or served.

The crescent plates 8 are formed with screw holes 28 for detachably mounting thereon open-sided box-like compartments 29 by means of screws 31. The compartments 29 are opened on the lateral and rear sides to present a substantially U-shaped cross-section as shown in FIG. 4. When mounting the compartment 28, the bottom plate 30 is superposed on the crescent plate 8 and secured thereto by threading a screw 31 into the screw hole 28. The compartments 29 are preferably formed from a hard synthetic resin material. When a meal is placed in the compartment and transferred on the endless conveyer along the circular path of travel, the customers can see it through the open sides of the compartment 29. The top wall 32 of the compartment 29 has an aperture or opening 33 for receiving irradiation from the sterilizing lamps 26.

When the circulative catering table construction of the invention as described hereinabove, a cook stations inside the circulating endless conveyer 2 for cooking food on the cooking table 6 and placing cooked dishes or meals one by one in the consecutively aligned compartments 29 on the moving conveyer 2 so that customers can stand or sit on chairs in front of the fixed circular fringe table 5 and take or choose a desired dish among those which are circulatively transferred by the endless conveyer 2. The circulative catering table of the invention can thus contribute to laborsaving to a considerable degree and makes it possible to serve a variety of dishes with a high efficiency. It will be understood that, coupled with the cover plate 23 and the sterilizing lamps 26 overhead the dish transferring circular endless conveyer 2, the provision of the compartments 29 serves to maintain the dishes or meals in sanitary conditions against dusts and putrefaction.

The foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the invention. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the invention to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly, all suitable modifications and equivalents which may be resorted to are understood to be falling within the scope of the invention as claimed.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A circulative catering table comprising:

a base frame structure having inner and outer side walls defining therebetween an endless circulating path of travel; a fixed fringe table mounted substantially horizontally around the circumference of said outer side wall of said base frame structure; an endless conveyer mounted in said endless circulating path of travel for circulatively transferring meals therealong, said endless conveyer comprising a strand of chain movable in and along said endless circulating path of travel and meshed with and driven from a horizontally disposed sprocket wheel which is supported on a vertical shaft, and a series of crescent plates swivable on said chain and having side wings thereof slidingly rested on horizontal racks at the upper ends of said inner and outer side walls of said base frame structure in horizontal alignment with each other to provide a planar meal-transferring surface on said endless circulating path of travel; a series of U-shaped meal receiving and dispensing compartments successively secured to the upper surface of said plates of said endless conveyer for individually accommodating dishes or meals to be circulated; driving meals mounted on said base frame structure and associated with said endless conveyer for imparting translational movement thereto; a cover plate mounted overhead said circulating path of travel and supported on said inner side wall of said base frame structure by means of a number of posts in parallel spaced relationship to said meal compartments on said endless conveyer; and a number of sterilizing lamps mounted on the underside of said cover plate end to end in the longitudinal direction and wherein said meal compartments further comprise an opening in the upper plate thereof for receiving irradiation from said sterilizing lamps for maintaining in a sanitary state the meals which are under circulation in said compartments.

2. A circulative catering table as defined in claim 1, wherein said covering plate is formed from a transparent glass sheet and is retained in a rigid framework.

3. A circulative catering table as defined in claim 1, wherein said driving means further comprises a driving motor; a reducer having the input shaft thereof connected to the output shaft of said driving motor and an output shaft connected to a worm gear which is meshed with a worm wheel fixedly supported on said vertical shaft of said chain driving sprocket wheel.

4. A circulative catering table as defined in claim 1, wherein said driving means further comprises a geared motor and a transmission chain interconnecting said geared motor and said vertical shaft of said chain driving sprocket wheel.