JP2000051097A - Warming chamber - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a warming chamber capable of reducing the discharge of heated air when a food vessel is taken out of it as much as possible and preventing an increase of energy consumption and the deterioration of taste of a food material. SOLUTION: An opening 1f and a front door 2f which are used for taking out a food vessel and insertion are provided in at least a front part of a storage chamber 1 whose inside is heated by heated air, and a guide rail 9 loading many food vessels B from the opening 1f toward the rear and a traveling member 10 reciprocating in parallel with the guide rail 9 in the interlocking relationship with the front door 2f are provided. A stopper 14 is fixed at a front end of the traveling member 10, and a plurality of hooks 15 capable of protruding and receding are attached to an upper part of the guide rail 9 at a fixed interval in the longitudinal direction of the traveling member 10. A mounting structure of these hooks 15 is a check mechanism which allows forward travel of the food vessel B on the guide rail 9, but locks its rearward travel, and a support member 18 which recedes the hook 15 from a top face of the guide rail 9 when the traveling member 10 is set to a front side is provided.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a storage cabinet for food containers, and more particularly to a storage cabinet for providing food containers such as lunch boxes in a freshly prepared state at all times.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when a container containing a large amount of food, such as a lunch box, is sold at a store or the like, the inside of the container is provided with heated air as a device which can be provided to a customer while keeping the freshness of the product. (Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 6-33334) has been proposed.

However, in the conventional storage, the lunch box of the storage room is opened and taken out by opening the entire opening, so that when the food containers are stacked in the width direction, the door needs to be opened widely. Therefore, a large amount of heated air flows out to the outside at the time of opening, and conversely, outside cold air enters, so that there is a disadvantage that energy consumption is increased. Further, the internal temperature repeatedly changes every time the food container in the storage is taken out, so that the food in the food container remaining in the storage room has a drawback that the taste is rapidly reduced.

In order to solve the problem associated with wide opening of the door as described above, when the food container is stacked in the front-rear direction by narrowing the opening width, the food container at the innermost portion is When taking out, there is a problem that it is very difficult to take out with bare hands, because a hand must be inserted deeply into the heated air.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a temperature control device capable of minimizing the release of heated air when taking out a food container such as a lunch box, thereby preventing an increase in energy consumption and a decrease in food taste. To provide a warehouse. It is another object of the present invention to provide a warm storage that can safely take out a food container without inserting a hand deep into heated air.

[0006]

According to the present invention, the above-mentioned object of the present invention is to provide a storage cabinet having an opening for both taking out and inserting a food container at least at a front portion of a storage room whose inside is heated by heated air. A front door for opening and closing the opening is provided, and a guide rail on which a number of food containers are slidably loaded in a row in a rearward direction from the opening, and reciprocated in parallel with the guide rail in conjunction with the front door. A movable member is provided, and a stopper that protrudes above the guide rail is fixed to the front end of the movable member, and a plurality of hooks that can be protruded and retracted above the guide rail at regular intervals in the longitudinal direction of the movable member are attached. The mounting structure of these hooks allows a forward movement of the container on the guide rail, but the backward movement is a non-return mechanism that locks, and when the moving member is set to the front side, the hook is moved on the guide rail. In which it characterized in that a support member for more deaths state.

With the above structure, when storing the food container in the storage chamber, if the front door is opened and the moving member is moved to the front side, the hook is sunk from the upper surface of the guide rail. Can be inserted and loaded on the guide rail. When the food container in the storage room is taken out, the front door is also opened and the moving member is moved forward, and the forward movement causes the hook to be locked at the rear end of the row of food containers on the guide rail, so that the food is removed. The entire row of containers is moved forward, and the front row is made to face the opening.

Since the front row portion of the food container faces the opening as described above, it is easy to take out the food container. The opening area of the opening portion is sufficient if only one container can be taken out. Leakage and intrusion of cold air from outside can be minimized, energy consumption can be reduced as much as possible, and temperature change at the time of taking out the container can be suppressed, so that the taste of food left in the storage room is prevented from deteriorating. be able to. Further, since the container can be taken out without inserting the hand deeply into the heated air, safe take-out becomes possible.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 shows a food container according to an embodiment of the present invention, particularly a storage box for a lunch box.
Fig. 2 shows a process of taking out a lunch box from the same storage room in the order of steps. FIGS. 5 and 6 show the internal mechanism of the refrigerator.

In FIG. 1, a storage room 1 has a heat insulating wall 3 around it.
A front opening 2f is provided at the front of the front door 2 so as to open and close the opening 1f.
The inside is closed by f. Also, an opening 1 for inserting a lunch box having a rear door 2r which can be opened and closed at the rear part.
r is provided. However, the rear opening 1r is not always necessary and is provided as an option. The front door 2f and the rear door 2r are configured to alternately rotate between a vertical position and a horizontal lying position with the hinge at the lower end as a fulcrum.

A heating section 4 is provided at the bottom of the storage chamber 1. The heating unit 4 draws air in the storage room from the suction port 7 a on the bottom surface by operating the fan 6,
And heated again, and then returned to the storage chamber from the outlet 7b again. A control panel 8 for controlling the temperature of the heated air is provided on the upper outside of the storage room 1. Control panel 8
When a desired temperature is set in the control panel 8, a temperature detected by a thermistor (not shown) in the storage chamber 1 is input,
The rotation speed of the fan 6 and the temperature of the heater 5 are controlled so that the temperature of the heated air in the storage room becomes equal to the set temperature.

A pair of left and right guide rails 9, 9 are bridged inside the storage chamber 1 so as to straddle between the front opening 1f and the rear opening 1r. This guide rail 9,
A food container (hereinafter, referred to as a lunch box B) inserted from the front opening 1f (or, if necessary, from the rear opening 1r) is stacked on the upper surface of 9 in multiple rows and multiple stages. A pair of left and right frame members 10 are provided slightly below the guide rails 9 and 9.
A moving member 10 composed of a and 10a is provided so as to reciprocate back and forth (see FIGS. 5 and 6).

The moving member 10 is connected to the front door 2f via a link 17, and reciprocates in conjunction with the opening and closing operation of the front door 2f. That is, when the front door 2f is opened so as to fall forward, the moving member 10 moves forward in conjunction with the opening operation. When the front door 2f is closed and returned to the vertical state, the movable member 10 is pushed back and returns to the original position.

FIGS. 5 and 6 show the structure of the guide rail 9 and the moving member 10 in detail. The guide rail 9 and the moving member 10 are provided inside a storage frame 11 having a U-shaped cross section. The storage frame 11 having a U-shaped cross section includes the left and right side plates 11.
Guide rails 9, 9 are fixed inside a, 11a, and lunch boxes B stacked in multiple rows and multiple stages on the guide rails 9 are guided by the side plates 11a, 11a so as to slide in a row.

The moving member 10 is provided with wheels 13 at a lower portion, the wheels 13 are supported so as to be mounted on the bottom surface 11b of the storage frame 11, and are reciprocated by the rolling of the wheels 13. The moving member 10 has a stopper 14 fixed to its front end. Further, a plurality of hooks 15 are attached to a main body portion extending rearward from the stopper 14.
Are mounted at regular intervals along the longitudinal direction, and the mounting intervals correspond to the arrangement pitch of the lunch boxes B on the guide rail 9.

The stopper 14 prevents the lunch box B on the guide rail 9 from moving forward. Further, the front end of the plurality of hooks 15 is the guide rail 9.
Is mounted as a non-return mechanism that allows the lunch box B on the guide rail 9 to move forward, but to prevent backward movement.

That is, the hook 15 is formed of a rectangular plate, and is rotatably supported by a shaft 16 fixed to be orthogonal to the frame members 10a, 10a of the moving member 10. The weight on the rear side is set to be heavier than the weight on the front side, so that the front end is stationary with the end protruding above the guide rail 9. Because of this mounting structure, when the lunch box B is moved forward on the guide rail 9,
The front end of the hook 15 is pushed down by the lunch box B to allow movement, but when the hook 15 is moved rearward, the front end of the hook 15 hits the rear surface of the lunch box B to prevent movement. It has become.

A plurality of support members 18 are provided upright at regular intervals on the bottom surface 11b of the storage frame 11 so as to correspond to the four front hooks 15 excluding the rearmost portion. When the moving member 10 is at a predetermined position in the storage chamber 1 in which the front door 2f is closed, the support members 18 are located on the front side of the shaft 16 with respect to the hook 15 as shown in FIG.
When the moving member 10 is set to a position where the moving member 10 has been moved forward, the shaft 1 is
The position is on the rear side of 6.

Therefore, the lunch box B is placed on the guide rail 9.
When the moving member 10 is at a predetermined position in the storage chamber 1 in an empty load state where no hook is placed, the hook 15 remains in a state in which the front end is inclined and protrudes above the guide rail 9, When the hook 15 is set at the position shifted to the side, the hook 15 is supported so that the rear end thereof is pushed up by the support member 18, so that the hook 15 becomes substantially horizontal, and the guide rail 9 is moved.
From the upper surface of the Therefore, the front opening 1
When the lunch box B is inserted from the position f, the lunch box slides on the guide rail 9 without being hindered by the front end of the hook 15, and penetrates until it comes into contact with the front end of the last inclined hook 15. Can be.

Next, the operation of the refrigerator according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.
This will be described with reference to FIG. First, the internal temperature of the storage room 1 is set by a level switch (not shown) of the control panel 8.
Next, when the switch (not shown) of the fan 6 and the heater 5 is turned on to start the continuous operation, the air in the storage room 1 circulates between the heating unit 4 and is heated and set by the heater 5 of the heating unit 4. As soon as the temperature is reached, the temperature is kept close to the set temperature.

Next, the front door 2f is opened, the moving member 10 is moved to the front side via the link 17, and a prescribed number of lunch boxes B are inserted into the guide rail 9 from the front opening 1f. At this time, since the moving member 10 is set at the front position, four hooks 15 on the front side on the moving member 10 are provided.
Are horizontal by being supported by the support member 18. Therefore, the protrusion of the hooks 15 on the guide rails 9 is eliminated, and the lunch box B can be stored in five rows and four steps without being disturbed by the hooks 15 until the lunch box B is engaged with the front end of the last hook 15. it can. When the front door 2f is closed upon completion of storage of the specified number of lunch boxes B, the state shown in FIG. 1 is obtained.

When taking out the lunch box B from the storage chamber 1 in which the lunch box B is stored as shown in FIG. 1, the front door 2f is first opened so as to fall forward. By opening the front door 2f,
The moving member 10 advances forward through the link 17, and the stopper 14 at the front end slightly protrudes outside the opening 1f (see FIG. 2). In such a forward movement of the moving member 10, the lunch box group of five rows and four steps on the guide rail 9 includes a front end of a hook 15 provided at the rear end of the moving member 10 with a rear surface of the lowermost lunch box at the rearmost end. Portion, the lunch box group is pushed forward on the guide rail 9, and the frontmost lunch box is opened together with the stopper 14 in the opening 1f.
From the outside. That is, the lunch box in the front row can be taken out simply because it is sufficient to take it up.

In addition, as described above, the frontmost lunch box is viewed outside the opening 1f, which makes it easy to pick up. Therefore, the opening area of the opening 1f is the minimum size that the lunch box can pass through. That's fine, and it doesn't need to be unnecessarily large. Therefore, the outflow of the heated air in the storage chamber 1 to the outside and the inflow of the cold outside air can be minimized.

When the front lunch box is taken out in FIG. 2, it becomes as shown in FIG. If you close the front door 2f from here,
As shown in FIG. 4, the moving member 10 is pushed back through the link 17. When the moving member 10 is pushed back in this way, the stopper 14 at the front end comes into contact with the forefront of the four-row four-stage lunch box remaining on the guide rail 9, so that the lunch box is also pushed back to the stop position of the stopper 14. It is.

The lunch box B displaced to the front row on the guide rail 9 in this way stops at the same position as the front row lunch box before taking out, and the fourth row before taking out the last row lunch box. Move to the lunch box and stop. In addition, the position on the guide rail 9 where the last lunch box was located before being taken out is empty without the lunch box. Since the empty state is present, the hook 15 corresponding to this position has a front end protruding above the guide rail 9.

As described above, each time the front door 2f is opened, the frontmost lunch box B of the lunch box group stacked on the guide rail 9 is viewed outside the front opening 1f. It becomes easy to take out, so that it can be taken out easily. When the front door 2f is closed after removing the front lunch box B, the left lunch box on the guide rail 9 is always stopped at the position of the stopper 14 while the front lunch box is always stopped at the position of the stopper 14. The lunch box in the row moves to the position one row before and stops.

When the front door 2f is opened, the front row 4
In the case where, for example, only the upper two stages are taken out and the front door 2f is closed again without taking out the whole lunch box, the stopper 14 pushes the lunch box left in the front row to the rear door 2r side so that 5 The lunch box group in the row returns to the position before opening the front door 2f and stops. 7 and 8 show another embodiment of the present invention.

The storage of this embodiment has one heating section 4
, The guide rail 9 and the moving member 1
A plurality of units incorporating 0 are arranged, and these units are arranged side by side in vertical columns and / or in horizontal rows. By providing a plurality of units in this manner, various types of lunch boxes, such as lunch boxes of different types, or lunch boxes in which rice and prepared dishes are put in different containers, can be stored separately.

In the illustrated embodiment, one front door 2f is provided for each unit, and only one rear door 2r is provided in common for all units. It may be provided every time.
Alternatively, the rear door 2r may be omitted so as not to be provided.

In addition, the storage room of this embodiment has a storage room 1
The wheel 20 is provided at the lower part of the vehicle to make it movable. Since it is a mobile type, it is possible to move and sell a lunch box, for example, on the premises of a station or in a car. Because of the mobile type, it is difficult to heat the internal air during the movement. Therefore, it is preferable that the heating operation is performed by connecting to a power source when the apparatus is at rest and heating is performed, and the heating operation is performed while keeping the apparatus warm.

Further, a hot water supply unit for tea or the like may be provided in the movable hot storage. In addition, storage room 1
A sample or imitation of a lunch box may be installed on the outside upper part and / or the side part of the car and / or the display printed matter may be displayed.

In each of the embodiments described above with reference to the drawings, the moving member 10 is connected to the front door 2f by the link 17, so that the opening / closing operation of the front door 2f and the reciprocating movement of the moving member 10 back and forth are linked. However, the present invention is not necessarily limited to a mechanism for connecting with a link, and a mechanism in which the front door 2f and the moving member 10 are directly fixed to each other, for example, like a drawer of a desk, may be used. In the case of a refrigerator having a plurality of units, as shown in the examples of FIGS. 7 and 8, the front door 2f is not provided for each moving member 10 and each moving member 10 is connected via a link 17. One front door 2f may be connected to two front doors 2f, and a large number of lunch boxes may be taken out at once by opening the front door 2f once.

Further, in the illustrated embodiment, the lunch box is stacked and supported on the guide rail 9, and the side plate 11a of the storage frame 11 guides the side of the lunch box. The L-shaped horizontal surface may support the lunch box, and the L-shaped vertical surface may guide the side of the lunch box and support the lunch box in a row.

In the illustrated embodiment, the support member 18 is not disposed on the last hook 15 of the plurality of hooks 15, but the support member 18 is provided on all the hooks 15. It may be provided.

Although the warming storage of the above-described embodiment has been mainly described as one for a lunch box, the present invention is not limited to a lunch box, but is similar to a lunch box for other containers such as trays. The present invention can be effectively applied to a product in which food is stored and heated.

[0036]

As described above, according to the refrigerator of the present invention, the food containers are stacked in rows on the guide rails provided in the storage room, and when the food containers are taken out, they are moved in conjunction with the opening operation of the front door. The member is moved forward, and the forward movement locks the hook on the moving member at the rear of the row of food containers to advance the entire row of food containers so that the front row of containers faces the opening of the front. As a result, the food container can be easily picked up.

In addition, since the container can be easily taken out as described above, the opening area is sufficient if only one container can be taken out, so that leakage of heated air and intrusion of external cool air are minimized, and energy consumption is reduced. The amount can be as small as possible. Further, since the temperature change every time the container is taken out is also suppressed, it is possible to prevent the taste of the food from decreasing. Further, when taking out the food container, it is not necessary to insert a hand deep into the heated air, so that safe takeout is enabled.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of a storage cabinet according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view showing a state in which a front door of the storage cabinet of FIG. 1 is opened.

FIG. 3 is a longitudinal sectional view showing a state where a lunch box at a front end is removed from the state of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a longitudinal sectional view showing a state when the front door is closed from the state shown in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a schematic plan view showing a combination unit of a guide rail and a moving member in the storage in FIG. 1;

6 is a view as viewed in the direction of arrows AA in FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a longitudinal sectional view showing a storage cabinet according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a front view of the storage in FIG. 7;

[Explanation of symbols]

1 storage room 1f (front)
Opening 1r (rear) opening 2f Front door 2r Rear door 4 Heating unit 5 Heater 6 Fan 7a Suction port 7b Air outlet 8 Control panel 9 Guide rail 10 Moving member 11 Storage frame 11a Side plate 11b Bottom surface 14 Stopper 15 Hook 16 Shaft 17 Link 18 Support member 20 Wheel B Food container

Claims (5)

[Claims] An opening for both taking out and inserting a food container and a front door for opening and closing the opening are provided at least at a front portion of a storage room in which the inside is heated by heated air, and a large number of rear doors are provided from the opening to the rear. A guide rail for slidably loading the food containers in a row, and a moving member that reciprocates in parallel with the guide rail in conjunction with the front door, at a front end of the moving member above the guide rail. In addition to fixing the stopper that protrudes, a plurality of hooks that can move up and down above the guide rail are attached at regular intervals in the longitudinal direction of the moving member, and the attachment structure of these hooks allows the container on the guide rail to move forward. However, a warming storage provided with a non-return mechanism for locking backward movement, and a supporting member for setting the hook below the upper surface of the guide rail when the moving member is set to the front side. 2. A front end portion of the hook is pivotally supported on a shaft supported in a direction orthogonal to the moving member so that a rear side of the shaft is larger than a front side. Balance so as to protrude above the guide rail,
The storage cabinet according to claim 1, further comprising a support member that holds the hook in a substantially horizontal state when the moving member is set on the front side. 3. The storage cabinet according to claim 1, wherein an opening for inserting a food container and a rear door for opening and closing the opening are provided at a rear portion of the storage chamber. 4. The storage cabinet according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of units each including the guide rail and the moving member are provided, and the plurality of units are arranged in a row and / or a column. 5. The storage cabinet according to claim 1, wherein a wheel is provided at a lower portion of the storage chamber to constitute a mobile wagon vehicle.