Other

Archer Aire Industries, Inc.

Lincoln Manufacturing Company, Inc.

Archer Air Industries, Inc.

Virgil L Archer

Donald P Smith

M Keith Cox

Mitchell C Henke

Robert W Foreman

Jarald E High

William W Plumb

Gordon D Bell

Air slot cooking grill

A recirculating high velocity hot air sterilization device includes a housing having a chamber therein. A corrugated, perforated jet curtain plate is disposed within the chamber and partially defines an air supply plenum positioned outwardly of the chamber, the plenum having an electric heating element operatively positioned therein. Spaced apart from the jet curtain plate within the chamber is a nonperforated deflector plate which extends parallel to the jet curtain plate and may be of a flat or corrugated configuration. A blower is connected to the housing and creates therein a recirculating flow of heated air which sequentially flows into the air supply plenum across the heating element, outwardly in a forward direction through the perforations in the jet curtain plate and into the housing chamber, back into the blower, and then into the air supply plenum. Metal surgical or dental instruments to be sterilized are positioned in one or more wire mesh trays which are removably supported within the housing chamber between the spaced apart from the deflector plate and the jet curtain plate. The flow of heated air through the perforations in the jet curtain plate creates within the chamber a spaced apart series of forwardly travelling, high velocity, heated air impingement jets which operates to rapidly and thoroughly sterilize the instruments.

Recirculating high velocity hot air sterilization process

A recirculating high velocity hot air sterilization device includes a housing having a chamber therein. A corrugated, perforated jet curtain plate is disposed within the chamber and partially defines an air supply plenum positioned outwardly of the chamber, the plenum having an electric heating element operatively positioned therein. Spaced apart from the jet curtain plate within the chamber is a nonperforated deflector plate which extends parallel to the jet curtain plate and may be of a flat or corrugated configuration. A blower is connected to the housing and creates therein a recirculating flow of heated air which sequentially flows into the air supply plenum across the heating element, outwardly in a forward direction through the perforations in the jet curtain plate and into the housing chamber, back into the blower, and then into the air supply plenum. Metal surgical or dental instruments to be sterilized are positioned in one or more wire mesh trays which are removably supported within the housing chamber between and spaced apart from the deflector plate and the jet curtain plate. The flow of heated air through the perforations in the jet curtain plate creates within the chamber a spaced apart series of forwardly travelling, high velocity, heated air impingement jets directed toward the deflector plate. Some of the forwardly travelling jets impinge upon surface portions of the instruments, while the remainder of the jets bypass the instruments and strike the deflector plate. The forwardly travelling jets striking the deflector plate are laterally offset and rearwardly deflected so that they impinge upon generally opposite surface portions of the supported instruments. The deflected, rearwardly travelling jets which impinge upon the instruments create with the forwardly traveling jets a high degree of heated air turbulence in the vicinity of the instruments. The combination of simultaneous heated air impingement on opposite sides of the instruments, and the resulting turbulence of the heated air adjacent such instruments, very rapidly and completely sterilizes and depyrogenates the instruments.

Recirculating high velocity hot air sterilizing device

An air impingement tunnel oven is provided for very rapidly and evenly cooking food items carried horizontally through the tunnel on a suitable conveying mechanism. The oven is provided with upper and lower plenum ducts which are positioned in a vertically spaced relationship within the tunnel so that food items traversing the tunnel pass between them. Vertically facing wall portions of the plenum ducts have cross-sections which are defined by alternate series of generally V-shaped ridges which respectively project toward and away from the interior of their plenum ducts and extend generally perpendicular to the direction of food item travel within the tunnel. A series of rectangular air slots are formed in apex portions of the ridges which project away from their plenum duct interiors. Separate fans are utilized to supply heated tunnel air into the plenums in a direction generally parallel to the ridges therein, the ridges functioning to facilitate even air distribution to the air slots. Plenum air is discharged vertically through the slots and impinges upon upper and lower surfaces of the food items in an overlapping pattern to assure rapid and even cooking of the food items. The upper plenum ducts are vertically adjustable to compensate for height variations in the food items. Additionally, the ridges on the lower plenum duct are sloped and define drain troughs for receiving and draining away liquid falling from the food items. The impingement air supply system may also be used to supply cooling air to the food items.

Air impingement tunnel oven apparatus

A recirculating, high velocity hot impingement air sterilizer has an inner housing that defines a chamber adapted to receive dental instruments or the like to be sterilized by hot impingement air jets flowed through the chamber by a compact fan, duct and heating coil assembly exteriorly secured to the inner housing. A specially designed insulating jacket structure envelopes and removably receives the inner housing, the jacket structure having a flexible, hollow outer skin portion filled with and captively retaining a suitable insulating material. The jacketed inner housing is received within an outer housing and defines therein a cooling space which extends around a major portion of the insulating jacket structure. Cooling air is flowed through such cooling space by a small fan secured to the inner surface of a removable back panel portion of the outer housing. By simply removing the back panel portion, and then removing a back portion of the insulating jacket, access to the main fan and heating coil structure is quickly and easily provided to repair or replace the same without removing the inner housing. The flexible outer skin portion of the insulating jacket prevents the insulating material from damage or dislodgement into either housing during the repair or replacement of the main fan and heating coil structure.

Recirculating high velocity hot air sterilizing device having improved

Apparatus for preparing extrudable food products prior to cooking includes depositing portions of food product onto a horizontal surface, coating the food portions with flour, vacuuming away excess flour, and incrementally flattening the food portions to a desired thickness. An apparatus for performing this process includes a first flour depositor, a food depositor, a second flour depositor, and a food flattener, all mounted above a conveyor belt. The conveyor belt is mounted atop a supporting chassis which, in addition to providing a mounting base for the components named above, houses the electrical and hydraulic control means for the apparatus. The food depositor comprises conventional extruding means suitable for use with raw dough or ground meat, and a duality of hydraulically activated, high-speed cutter blades. The uniquely designed cutter blades have flattened, essentially planar cutting edge portions which create an aerodynamic shock wave along the line of impact between the blades. The horizontally opposed cutter blades operate to shear off portions of extruded food product and propel the severed portions down onto the conveyor belt, with little or no excess food particles adhering to the high-speed blades. The shock wave serves to force the sheared food portions away from the cutter blades, further reducing the adherence of excess food particles on the blades.

Food depositing and flattening apparatus

An induced draft stove has a housing in which a food-supporting grate is disposed above a solid fuel-supporting grate. Burning solid fuel within the stove creates an induced flow of ambient combustion air to the fuel which is sequentially drawn into a pair of manually dampered inlet plenum boxes carried by the housing, through an air supply manifold, and into the open ends of a laterally spaced series of horizontally extending air delivery tubes which are removably positioned within the housing beneath the fuel grate. Combustion air entering the tubes is drawn downwardly through bottom outlet openings therein, flowed upwardly along lower exterior surface portions of the tubes, through the spaces between adjacent tube pairs, and then upwardly to the burning fuel. Upper side portions of the tubes shield the bottom outlet openings therein to prevent ash and other fuel bits falling from the fuel grate from clogging these outlet openings. Because the tube outlet openings face downwardly, air discharged therefrom is laterally spread along lower surface portions of the tubes before flowing upwardly to the fuel. This baffle effect of the tubes evenly distributes induced combustion air to the fuel, thereby substantially eliminating 'hot' and 'cold' spots therein and creating a uniformly distributed cooking temperature pattern within the stove. The upward flow of combustion air along the exterior surfaces of the tubes also functions to cool the tubes to substantially prolong their operating lives despite their close proximity to the burning fuel.

Solid fuel burning induced draft stove

Impingement heating or cooling apparatus that employs an axial flow fan, a plenum, collector and a columnating assembly for directing jets of a temperature controlled gas against the surface of a food product. Means for contacting a first layer of food products with impinging jets of a temperature controlled gas and for simultaneously contacting a second layer of food products with an alternating, convective flow of a temperature controlled gas is also provided.

Impingement thermal treatment apparatus with collector plate

An impingement device (10) for preparing food product comprises an enclosure (12) having a conveyor (18) received therethrough for conveying food product through the enclosure (12). Positioned within the enclosure (12) and about the conveyor (18) portion therein are ducts (36) for impinging gas against the food product, a plenum (48) connected to the ducts (36) for supplying gas to the ducts (36), and an impeller assembly (44) for recirculating the gas within the enclosure (12). A heating source (40) or cooling source (340) is provided within a chamber (14) on the opposite side of the plenum (48) from the ducts and controls (26) are provided for regulating the temperature of the heat or cooling source. The plenum (48) is spaced inwardly from the walls of the enclosure (12) to provide return flow around the plenum.

Fan-plenum configuration

An oven for preparing food comprising an enclosure having a conveyor received therethrough for conveying food to be prepared through the enclosure. Positioned within the enclosure and about the conveyor portion therein are duct devices for impinging heated air against the food product, a plenum adapted to the duct devices for supplying heated air to the duct devices, and an impeller assembly for recirculating the air within the enclosure for reheating and subsequent passage to the plenum and duct devices. A heating source is provided within a heating chamber on the opposite side of the plenum from the duct devices, and control components are provided for regulating the temperature of the heat source. The impeller assembly and the plenum are unique in that air drawn from the heating chamber by the impeller assembly is axially and radially urged into the plenum for substantially uniform distribution to the duct devices communicating with the plenum. The impeller assembly and the plenum also uniquely provide for the air flow to be reversed in a very short distance. Furthermore, the structure of the impeller assembly and plenum provide at various points tapering walls, which permit air to flow thereover in a non-turbulent manner, thereby eliminating dead spots or stagnant air pockets. Further novelty of the present invention exists in the conveyor assembly wherein an adjusting mechanism is provided at one end of the conveyor frame for adjusting the slack or tension of a continuously moving wire-link belt.

Growing community of inventors

Dallas, TX, United States of America

Virgil L Archer