Npi, Llc.

Taylor Freezer Company

Nieco Corporation

Nils Lang-Ree

Edward D Baker

John S Brown

Winje Green

Goeran Hemborg

Robert B Forney

Kurt Nilsson

Ralph K Johnson

An oven for heating foodstuffs, i.e. cooking pizza, has a heated enclosure substantially L-shape in plan to leave an exposed sector. A rotor is turned intermittently by power to carry pizzas from the exposed sector, through the heated enclosure and back to the exposed sector. In the heated enclosure the pizzas are baked by a stream of heated and reheated air circulated in a closed path.

Pizza oven

A frame supports a cross-bar conveyor for advancement over a hamburger patty feeding plate and between upper and lower heated platens. The upper platen is raised by actuators and falls by gravity against adjustable stops in time with advancement of the conveyor. At the discharge end of the conveyor a guide assists in directing a discharging hamburger patty onto a receiving grate.

Intermittent automatic grill for hamburger patties

On the frame of a broiler having a chain conveyor with cross rods rounding some end sprockets, there are provided brackets affording transversely aligned, loose bearing notches open to the top. A doctor blade has transversely aligned intermediate shoulders operating in the bearing notches and has a depending skirt urged by gravity and serving as a counterweight to move the blade in the notches so as to urge the transverse upper edge of the doctor blade, and contact fingers extending therefrom, toward the chain conveyor cross rods and so to dislodge patties advancing on the chain conveyor.

Chain broiler doctor blade

A bun section toaster, in the usual case, has a frame supporting several parallel chain conveyors, each conveyor being effective to advance a related bun section through the frame in physical and thermal contact with a heating element on the frame to toast the top of the adjacent bun section. At least one of the conveyors, especially for a bun section from the bun center, receives and advances a tray having an aperture over which the bun center section lies. A radiant heating element on the frame is in position to radiate upwardly through the aperture onto the bottom of the center bun section so both sides of the section are toasted simultaneously. In the usual case, the toaster simultaneously accommodates a bun top section, center section and bottom section, although in some instances there is but a single conveyor and but the center section is handled.

Bun section toaster

Tray for hamburger buns or the like

A broiler especially for hamburger patties has an endless conveyor arranged on a frame with the horizontal upper run of the conveyor subjected to the usual supply of heat from above. A stack of initially frozen hamburger patties is arranged above the initial or entry portion of the conveyor upper run, all but the lower patty being confined. Extra heat is supplied from below to the spaced-apart metal rods of the conveyor upper run and to the lower patty lower surface so that the rods burn into the lower portion of the patty. Sufficient interengagement results so that the conveyor readily withdraws the lower patty from the stack.

Broiler with a patty feed

Some commercial broilers have a conveyor extending through the broiler from an entrance opening to an exit opening and have a plurality of burner housings, including end burner housings, arranged above the conveyor and spaced apart with respect to each other and particularly with respect to the entrance opening and the exit opening to leave gaps. To conserve heat, the passageway through the broiler above the conveyor is herein restricted by baffles including an entrance shield of heat-reflecting material formed as a channel frictionally fitting over the entrance burner housing and having a baffle sheet extending from the entrance burner housing through most of the gap toward the entrance opening. Also included is an exit shield of similar material formed as a similar channel fitting over the exit burner housing and having a baffle sheet extending from the exit burner housing through most of the gap toward the exit opening. Further, there is an intermediate shield including a horizontal sheet of similar material resting on adjacent burner housings and having a vertical sheet depending from said horizontal sheet. The entrance shield, the exit shield and the intermediate shield define the upper limits of the passageway through the burner and tend to reflect heat away from the entrance and exit openings and to limit air circulation within and through the passageway.

Energy conserver for broilers

A hamburger bun storage device has a supporting frame on which a bun-toasting and heating element is disposed. The heating element is preferably a planar member superposed above a parallel planar conveyor mounted on the frame to advance in a predetermined direction. The heating element is movable up and down; i.e. toward and away from the associated conveyor. A drawer enclosure is disposed on the heating element on the side thereof opposite the conveyor and is open only in a direction transverse to the predetermined direction and at the side of the frame. A drawer is slidable in the drawer enclosure between an open position and a closed position in which a drawer end plate is in abutment with the frame.

Hamburger bun storage device

A patty broiler has a frame on which an openwork patty conveyor is arranged around pulleys to have an upper run and a lower run. Heaters are arranged on the frame above and below the upper run, and multiple reflectors are arranged on the frame above and below the conveyor. A doctor assists in dislodging patties from the far end of the upper run of the conveyor to fall onto a patty slide on the frame leading the patties by gravity toward the feed end of the frame. A bun conveyor is arranged on the frame beneath the patty conveyor. A bun heater transmits heat to buns on that conveyor and to the patty slide. The warmed bun halves are returned toward the feed end of the machine by a bun slide. An enclosing and vented jacket assists in retaining and diverting the heat and fumes and protects the machinery.

Patty broiler

A staging cabinet and tray combination especially for use with hamburger buns has an open front cabinet including solid metallic top, bottom, back and side walls abutting each other at right angles and having a plurality of horizontal ledges secured to the side walls at selected vertical intervals, the ledges on one side wall being at the same height as the corresponding ledges on the other side wall. Cooperating with the ledges are trays each supportable at a selected height in the cabinet by a pair of the ledges. Each tray includes a rectangular metallic sheet having downturned flanges along opposite side edges of the sheet, the flanges being slidable on the ledges and being bottom notched to reduce heat transfer and allow air flow. The rectangular sheet itself has ribs along the transverse front and rear edges, each rib having an inner wall upstanding from the sheet and then having an outer wall extending downwardly from the inner wall far enough to afford a gripping portion. The sheet also has upstanding from its upper surface a plurality of grouped bosses for supporting buns, each of the bosses preferably having a central perforation. The entire arrangement is designed to permit free circulation of temperature equalizing air and to minimize heat transfer from one portion to the other of the metallic assembly.

Staging cabinet and tray combination

A frozen patty feeder for a group of individual patties and especially for use with a broiler having a horizontal conveyor run advancing in a predetermined direction includes a first upstanding wall extending transversely of the direction of conveyor advance with the lower margin of the first wall spaced above the conveyor run an amount only slightly more than the thickness of an individual frozen patty. The feeder also includes a second wall extending transversely of the direction of conveyor advance and disposed between a level about even with that of the conveyor and a somewhat higher level, the second wall being inclined in the direction of conveyor advance when considered from the top of the wall downwardly, the first and second walls being spaced apart far enough in the direction of advance to admit of patties of a predetermined diameter when the patties are superimposed upon each other in a staggered, shingled or offset fashion.

Frozen patty feeder

A cooking and assembly unit is primarily for use in the quantity production of sandwiches, such as hamburger sandwiches including a patty, a bun crown and a bun heel. The unit includes a storage compartment for a number of individual trays each carrying one or more bun heels or bun crowns. The storage compartment is related to a bun grill including a conveyor for trays carrying heels and another conveyor for trays carrying crowns. Both conveyors advance in a predetermined direction and deliver the heel trays and the crown trays to a downstream, exit end of the bun grill. From there the loaded trays are received on an entrance table at the upstream end of a product conditioning tunnel mounted on a straddle frame. The conditioning tunnel is heated and is supplied with steam to hold its contents in a selected atmosphere. A freezer compartment having an access opening to patties stored therein is disposed beneath the straddle frame and adjacent the entrance to the conditioning tunnel. Above the entrance to the product conditioning tunnel is a patty broiler having both its inlet and its exit on the upstream side of the patty broiler. Patties from the freezer compartment go through the broiler and are discharged to be assembled between a heel and a crown taken from the table at the entrance end of the product conditioning tunnel into which the so-assembled sandwiches are introduced. At the exit end of the product conditioning tunnel, a product makeup table is preferably disposed.

Sandwich cooking and assembling unit

A shaft mounting on a frame includes a strap with an opening in it through which slidably projects a plunger also guided in an aperture in a clip joined to the strap. The plunger is pressed in one direction by a spring. A shaft lying across the strap is seated in a partially open, arcuate groove in a rectangular block. The groove has a surface curved about the axis of the shaft and is located at different distances from the various flat sides of the block. The block, in engagement with the shaft, is rolled between different positions against the strap and a position against the plunger and a bracket on the strap below the block.

Shaft mounting

A broiler for hamburger patties and the like has a partially enclosed frame with a feeding opening therein. An endless conveyor on the frame has a generally horizontal upper run accessible through the opening and passing a predetermined distance below a first gas burner on the frame. A radiant energy shield is disposed between the gas burner and the opening. A second gas burner is on the frame below the upper run substantially the same predetermined distance, the lower run of the conveyor running in a path arched upwardly over the second gas burner. Another radiant energy shield is disposed between the second gas burner and the opening. There are also trays on the frame to receive patties from the first conveyor and also to receive buns from a second, separately heated bun conveyor on the frame.

Thermally shielded gas broiler

An automatic patty feeder advances a frozen meat patty across a support table having a longitudinal slot therein from a position at the bottom of a stack of patties all but the lowest one of which is longitudinally confined. Below the table is an upper, short, horizontal track overlying a lower, long, horizontal rail. A carrier reciprocates longitudinally and moves a pusher link having a bearing adapted to ride on the track and on the rail and having a pusher adapted to move through the slot and to abut the lowest patty. The bearing can fall from one end of the track onto the rail and can be lifted from the other end of the rail up to the level of the track by a solenoid.

Growing community of inventors

Los Altos, CA, United States of America

Nils Lang-Ree