TRAY FOR COOKING FOOD AND PROCESS FOR MANUFACTURING A TRAY

Abstract

The present invention relates to a tray (10) for cooking food in an oven or a microwave oven. The tray (10) comprises a flat, non-flexible base plate (12) and at least one side wall (14) surrounding the base plate (12), whereby the base plate (12) and the at least one side wall (14) are integrally formed. The base plate (12) and the at least one side wall (14) have a lattice structure comprising a plurality of webs (16) and a plurality of openings (18) introduced by means of a laser and/or by punching out. The tray (10) further comprises guiding means (22) attached to the base plate (12) and/or the at least one side wall (14). At least 45% of a surface formed by the base plate (12) and the at least one side wall (14) is formed by the plurality of openings (18). Further the present invention relates to a process for manufacturing such a tray (10) whereby a plate is provided, the plurality of openings (18) are introduced into the plate by means of a laser and/or by punching out, an edge of the plate is deformed to form the at least one side wall (14) and the base plate (12) and the guiding means (22) are attached to the base plate (12) and/or the at least one side wall (14).

Claims

1. A tray for cooking food in an oven or a microwave oven, comprising a flat, non-flexible base plate, at least one side wall surrounding the base plate, whereby the base plate and the at least one side wall are integrally formed, the base plate and the at least one side wall having a lattice structure comprising a plurality of webs and a plurality of openings introduced by means of a laser and/or by punching out, guiding means attached to the base plate and/or the at least one side wall, a surface formed by the base plate and the at least one side wall, whereby at least 45% of the surface is formed by the plurality of openings.

2. The tray according to claim 1, wherein the openings are placed in regular intervals and two webs cross each other at a right angle.

3. The tray according to claim 1, wherein the guiding means include a peripheral frame surrounding the at least one side wall.

4. The tray according to claim 1, wherein the guiding means include at least one support member that is attached at both ends to the frame and at its a middle piece thereof is located to a bottom side of the base plate.

5. The tray according to any one of the preceding claim 1, wherein the base plate and the at least one side wall are made of aluminium aluminum.

6. The tray according to claim 1, wherein the base plate and the at least one side wall is are made of stainless steel.

7. The tray according to claim 1, wherein the base plate and the at least one side wall is are made of high temperature plastics showing at least partially a self-heating behaviour.

8. The tray according to claim 1, wherein the base plate and the at least one side wall are provided with a coating.

9. The tray according to claim 8, wherein the coating is an enamel based coating and/or a PTFE-based coating and/or Sol-gel based coating and/or ceramic based coating.

10. Process for manufacturing the tray according to claim 1, comprising the following steps: providing a plate, introducing the plurality of openings into the plate by means of a laser and/or by punching out, deforming an edge of the plate to form the at least one side wall and the base plate, attaching the guiding means to the base plate and/or the at least one side wall.

11. Process for manufacturing a tray according to claim 11, wherein applying a coating to the base plate and/or the at least one side wall in a subsequent step.

Description

[0038] The present invention will be described in further detail with reference to the drawing, in which

[0039] FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic top view of a tray according to the present invention,

[0040] FIG. 2 illustrates a schematic perspective view of a tray according to the present invention,

[0041] FIG. 3 illustrates a schematic view of a process for manufacturing a tray according to the present invention.

[0042] FIG. 1 illustrates a tray 10 for cooking food in an oven or a microwave oven in a schematic top view, FIG. 2 illustrates the tray 10 in a schematic perspective view.

[0043] The tray 10 comprises a flat, non-flexible base plate 12 and at least one side wall 14 surrounding the base plate 12. The base plate 12 and the at least one side wall 14 are integrally formed. During the manufacturing process a plate is deformed to form the tray 10 with its base plate 12 and at least one side wall 14. According to FIG. 1 the tray 10 comprises a rectangular base plate 12 with four side walls 14 adjoining the base plate 12 on its four sides.

[0044] The base plate 12 and the side wall 14 have a lattice structure comprising a plurality of webs 16 and a plurality of openings 18 that were introduced in the plate by means of a laser (not shown). Alternatively the openings could have been introduced by punching out. At least 45% of the surface 20 formed by the base plate 12 and the four side walls 14, thus at least 45% of the surface of the entire plate, is formed or rather covered by the openings 18. The openings 18 are placed in regular intervals I and two webs 16 cross each other at a right angle, thus two webs overlapping crosswise.

[0045] Furthermore, guiding means 22 are attached to the base plate 12 and the at least one side wall 14. More specifically, in this embodiment the guiding means 22 include a peripheral frame 24 that surrounds side walls 14 completely. Further the guiding means 22 include two support members 26 that is attached with its both ends 28a, 28b to the frame 24 and at its middle piece 30 (shown in dashed lines) is located at a bottom side 32 of the base plate 12.

[0046] In principle the tray 10 respectively the base plate 12 and the side walls 14 are for example made of aluminium or stainless steel with or without a coating. In this case, the base plate 12 and the at least one side wall 14 is made of high temperature plastics showing at least partially a self-heating behaviour. Additionally the base plate 12 and the four side walls 14 are provided with a coating that encloses the tray 10 completely. The coating, which is an PTFE-based coating that is allowed for food contact and easy to clean, is applied to the tray in a subsequent manufacturing step.

[0047] FIG. 3 shows a process for manufacturing the tray 10 illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2. A plate 34 is provided and several openings 18 are introduced into the plate 34 using a laser 36. The corners 40 of the plate 34 may be not provided with openings 18 as subsequently the corners 40 of the plate 34 may be cutted diagonally a bit far along the cutting lines L that are illustrated in dashed lines. This simplifies deforming the four lateral edges 38 of the plate 34 in a subsequent step along the deforming respectively bending axes D, again illustrated by dashed lines and in direction of the illustrated arrows. Afterwards, guiding means 22 are attached to the base plate 12 and the at least one side wall 14 and a coating may be applied to the base plate 12 and the four side walls 14 in a further manufacturing step for obtaining a tray 10 as it is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.

[0048] Although an illustrative embodiment of the present invention has been described herein with reference to the accompanying drawing, it is to be understood that the present invention is not limited to that precise embodiment, and that various other changes and modifications may be affected therein by one skilled in the art without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention. All such changes and modifications are intended to be included within the scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

LIST OF REFERENCE NUMERALS

[0049] 10 tray [0050] 12 base plate [0051] 14 side wall [0052] 16 web [0053] 18 opening [0054] 20 surface [0055] 22 guiding means [0056] 24 frame [0057] 26 support member [0058] 28a, 28b end of support member [0059] 30 middle piece of support member [0060] 32 bottom side of the base plate [0061] 34 plate [0062] 36 laser [0063] 38 edges of the plate 34 [0064] 40 corners of the plate 34 [0065] I interval [0066] L cutting lines [0067] D deforming/bending axis