Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
201 8921
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COUNTERTOP WARMING APPARATUS
Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improved appara-
tus for storing a plurality of serving portions of bulk food,
such as popcorn, at a predetermined temperature until the por-
tions are served to a customer.
Backaround Art
Prior to the present invention there were available
various apparatus for attempting to keep food, such as popcorn,
warm. Such apparatus generally consist of a bin enclosed in a
housing which was provided with heat, a glass front panel so
that the customers could view the food, and a door for access-
ing the food in the bin. After popping, the popcorn remained
in the bin until a customer requested an order, whereupon the
counter attendant would open the bind door, fill a container
with popcorn and serve the popcorn to the customer.
Many disadvantages of such prior art apparatus have
been tolerated for years. For example, it was very time con-
suming for the attendant to open the bind and fill a container
of popcorn for a customer. When a large number of customers
are waiting to be served, this time delay would result in a
loss of sales.
Popcorn warming apparatus are generally used at en-
tertainment arenas, such as movie theaters and sports stadiums.
At such entertainment arenas there are intermissions or other
pauses between events during which a large crowd forms at the
food counter. If the attendant wished to prefill the popcorn
containers he encountered several problems. If the attendant
left the filled containers on the counter top the popcorn be-
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came cold. If the attendant placed the filled containers in
the bin on top of the bulk popcorn it was very unsightly for
the prospective customers, the containers were susceptible to
spillage as they were not on a flat surface, the outside of the
container usually is printed upon and thus should not contact
the food directly, there was a limited amount of space in the
bin for such filled containers, and it prevented a second
attendant from filling more containers until the filled
containers were all served.
Another disadvantage of opening and closing the bin
door for each container of popcorn was that a great amount of
heat was allowed to escape from the bin, thereby cooling off
the popcorn and resulting in cold popcorn as well as in higher
energy costs to try to maintain the desired temperature.
Further, as the attendant was hurriedly filling each
container, the amounts served to each customer varied greatly.
This problem leads to customer dissatisfaction and difficulty
in keeping inventory at a proper level.
Yet another disadvantage of the prior art apparatus
was that the warm popcorn was served in cold containers, thus
causing the popcorn to rapidly cool to a less palatable state
than if it would be kept at or near its popping temperature.
Accordingly, the present invention provides a simple
solution to these problems in a heretofore unknown manner, so
as to improve the efficiency of serving popcorn as well as to
improve palatability of the popped corn itself.
Summarv of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improved appara-
tus for storing food, such as popcorn, and keeping the foodwarm prior to being served to a customer. The popcorn warming
apparatus of the present invention is a free standing unit
which includes a storage compartment, means for providing
heated air to the storage compartment, and means for storing,
displaying and accessing individualized serving portions of
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food. The storage compartment includes an upper portion hav-
ing a plurality of adjustable trays or shelves onto which the
filled containers are placed, means for viewing and accessing
these containers and a lower portion which houses the heating
means. The viewing means for the storage compartment can be a
transparent member made of plastic or glass. Alternatively,
the front and rear panel as well as the side panels of the
storage compartment may all be made of transparent plastic or
glass to allow viewing of the food portions therein from all
sides. In addition, at least one of the panels is slideably,
hingeably or moveably mounted to the storage compartment to
provide access to the food portions.
The flat trays or shelves are preferably either less
wide or less deep than the interior of the storage compartment
so as to allow hot air to circulate. Alternately, the shelves
may be provided with apertures to let the hot air pass there-
through. The heating means of the present invention may either
be located in the upper portion of the compartment or, in the
lower portion, or in any combination of the aforementioned, and
may include an air circulating means, such as a blower. The
heating means generally includes one or two conduits for re-
turning heated air from the upper portion to the lower portion.
Preferably, the circulating means is located within the con-
duit.
The unit is rendered free standing in that it is com-
pletely self-contained and requires no additional input from a
periphery apparatus to achieve the heating, displaying and sto-
ring functions described herein. In addition, the bottom sur-
face of the lower portion is substantially flat and may have
support means, such as legs, so that the unit may rest on any
substantially flat surface, such as the floor or a countertop.
The apparatus of the present invention greatly facil-
itates the fast, efficient serving of warm food, such as pop-
corn, by a food counter attendant, particularly during busy
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periods. Also, a food counter attendant can effectively serve
popcorn which is warmer than the popcorn served from the prior
art apparatus in that the popcorn container is also warm and
less heat escapes from the popcorn bin during the serving of
the popcorn. Thus, the need for a food counter attendant to
store filled popcorn containers on top of the bulk popcorn in
the popcorn bin is eliminated, and the energy consumption used
for heating popcorn is reduced in that the popcorn bin need not
be opened as frequently and the total time which the popcorn
bin is open is reduced.
Yet another advantage of the present invention is to
allow a food counter attendant to fill large numbers of popcorn
containers during periods when there are no customers, thereby
allowing the attendant to be less hurried and more methodical
resulting in evenly filled popcorn containers. Thus, the pre-
sent invention provides an improvement upon the popcorn warm-
ing apparatus disclosed in the inventor's U.S. Patent No.
4,850,120. These improvements include the ability to move the
unit from station to station as need requires, and a cost,
space and energy efficient free-standing unit for storing, dis-
playing and warming individualized portions of food as an inde-
pendent unit which cah be used to supplement existing machines.
Brief Descri~tion of the Drawinas
Further benefits and advantages of the invention will
become apparent from a consideration of the following descrip-
tion given with reference to the accompanying drawing figures
which specify and show preferred embodiments of the invention
and wherein:
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a popcorn warming ap-
paratus according to the invention;
FIG 2 is a cross-sectional view of the apparatus of
FIG. 1 taken along lines 2--2;
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FIG. 3 is a front view of an alternate embodiment of
the apparatus of the invention; and
FIG. 4 is a cross sectional view of the apparatus of
FIG. 3 taken along lines 4--4.
Detailed Descri~tion of the Preferred Embodiments
In the description that follows, reference is made
to attached drawing figures. For information on alternate
embodiments, the inventor~s prior U.S. Patent No. 4,850,120
may be reviewed.
Referring now to FIGS. 1 and 2, there is illustrated
a popcorn warming apparatus 10 according to the invention.
This apparatus houses two separate sections in a single free-
standing unit: a storage compartment 40 for holding individ-
ualized serving portions of food; and a base compartment 20
for housing the electrical components.
Apparatus 10 is rendered free standing by base com-
partment 20 which supports the unit and enables apparatus 10
to remain upright when placed on a substantially flat surface.
Apparatus 10 is placed on any substantially flat surface con-
venient to an existing food producing machine for ease of ac-
cess by the counter person or operator.
A food such as popped corn in serving portion con-
tainers is maintained at a predetermined temperature in storage
compartment 40. The popping means may be located in an inde-
pendent adjacent apparatus, whereby the corn can be popped andheld before being introduced into warming apparatus 10. In
addition, empty popcorn containers, i.e., bags or cups, may be
warmed in storage compartment 40.
Storage compartment 40 is warmed by introducing
heated air through a perforated tray or shelf 28 by heater 26,
the end of which includes a diffuser or other air distributing
means 30. The air is warmed by an inline heater 26 located
downstream of diffuser 30. Heater 26 includes a plurality of
wires or heating coils through which electrical current pas-
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ses, thus causing the wires to heat and warm the air in a man-
ner well known to those skilled in the art. Air is forced
through heater 26 and diffuser 30 by blower 24. Blower 24 and
heater 26 are conveniently located in base compartment 20,
which also includes inlet vent 22 for cooling of the electrical
components.
For convenience in tailoring the operation of the
unit to the demands of food service, heater 26 may be of the
type that can provide different levels of the heat, such levels
being selectable by a control means located on the exterior of
apparatus 10. Thus, when initially turning on the unit, a high-
er heat level can be used to quickly warm storage compartment
40. After the desired temperature is reached, the heating lev-
el can be automatically or manually reduced to a lower value.
This heating control can also be utilized with a
thermostat for intermittently operating heater 26 and blower
24. This enables energy conservation in that heater 26 and
blower 24 do not have to be continuously operated, and the
heating control can be designed to automatically achieve the
higher heating level when the blower is operating so as to
further reduce the time of operation of blower 24. The ther-
mostat also enables heat to be quickly returned to the storage
compartment when the access doors have been opened, such as
after food portions have been placed therein or removed there-
from by the operator.
An upper portion of base compartment 20 forms a lowerportion of storage compartment 40. As shown in FIG. 2, a com-
mon wall 28 is provided between these sections. In order to
allow heated air to be introduced into storage compartment 40
from heater 26, a plurality of vents in the form of holes are
provided in wall 28. Preferably, this wall may be a perforated
metal plate or screen. Warm air thus enters storage compart-
ment 40 for warming the individual food containers.
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Although the FIGS. 1 and 2 each show containers filled
with popcorn, it is possible to use part or all of storage com-
partment 40 to hold empty popcorn containers or bags, thus also
heating them to the desired temperature. By this procedure, an
operator can then fill the warmed empty containers with the
warmed popcorn and thereafter place the filled containers back
into the storage compartment 40. Thus, a number of containers
can be filled in this manner and maintained heated and ready
for dispensing to a customer.
The filled containers are preferably maintained on
shelves 42 which are adjustably mounted to storage compartment
40 to accommodate a wide range of container sizes. Heated air
is allowed to circulate through storage compartment 40 by pro-
viding space between the end of shelves 42 and the walls. Alt-
ernately, shelves of a perforated material, such as wire shel-
ving, or shelves having apertures or vents which allow air cir-
culation therethrough can also be used.
As the heated air circulates through apparatus 10, it
generally tends to rise. Thus, heated air collects at the up-
per portion of storage compartment 40. For optimum efficiencyin utilizing the heated air, return line 46 is installed. Hea-
ted air from storage compartment 40 passing through perforated
wall 44 at the top of compartment 40 enters return line 46 to
be recirculated to blower 24 and through heater 26 back into
compartment 40. In addition, the ambient air supplied by inlet
vent 22 is permitted to flow into blower 24 thereby mixing the
heated air to provide fresh air to storage compartment 40.
FIGS. 3 and 4 illustrate another embodiment of the
invention. For the popcorn warming apparatus 100 of this em-
bodiment, component parts which are the same as the apparatusof FIGS. 1 and 2 carry the same numerical designation, but have
100 added thereto.
In FIGS. 3 and 4, a pair of return conduit 105, 115
are placed on opposed inner sidewalls of the upper compartment.
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These conduit extend from an upper portion of the storage com-
partment 140 to the base compartment 120, where the conduits
converge into a common duct 125 which leads to blower 124. Re-
circulated air exiting blower 124 passes by heating element 126
before entering storage compartment 140 through diffuser 130.
The conduits 105, 115 include an apertured or screen portion
135, 145 at their upper ends to facilitate entry of air for re-
circulation by the blower 124.
A chamber downstream of the blower includes the heat-
ing element 126 and is designed with the appropriate baffles155, so that heated air passing therethrough, in comhination
with diffuser 130, properly circulates within storage compart-
ment 140 for warming all areas therein.
Access to storage compartment 140 is provided by doors
165, preferably of the side-sliding type for quick access with
m;niml]m heat loss when retrieving the filled containers of
popped corn. Other door designs, such as hinge or spring type,
are possible to reduce or minim;ze heat loss when opening and
closing. If desired, doors 165 of storage compartment 140 can
be made of glass, metal, wood or other suitable materials.
Storage compartment access doors 165 are preferably made of
transparent acrylic so the operator can easily view how many
serving portions are on hand for distribution to customers. In
another embodiment the side panels of the apparatus, as well as
the rear panel, can all be made of a transparent material so
that the food portions may be viewed from all angles.
In an alternate em~bodiment of the invention, the hea-
ting unit may be an electric heater mounted on an inner wall of
the storage compartment. There is no need for an inline heat-
er, and the blower can force air directly into the storage com-
partment. Again, a return conduit is used to return heated air
from the top of the storage compartment to the blower, thus
reducing the demand on the time of use of the electric heater.
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The appropriate electronic wiring and controls are
not shown since they are well known to one skilled in the art.
The apparatus may be adapted for connection to an AC outlet, or
it may be hard wired for more permanent installations.
While it is apparent that the invention herein dis-
closed is well calculated to fulfil the objects above stated,
it will be appreciated that numerous modifications and embodi-
ments may be devised by those skilled in the art, and it is
intended that the appended claims cover all such modifications
and embodiments as fall within the true spirit and scope of the
present invention.
