JPH0367488A - Thermal tray for served meals, high-frequency heating device, and heating method for served meals - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable the pertinent heating of a warm food and the maintenance of cooking temperature for a cold food by forming a metal film partially on respective opposite inner surfaces of a lower tray and an upper cover, and forming a microwave interruption space with the metal film. CONSTITUTION:A lower tray 2 is formed to suit respective shapes of a plurality of dishes, and an upper cover 1 separates each dish in a way corresponding thereto. A metal film 3 is formed on the inner sides of the upper cover 1 and lower tray 2 for providing an area to interrupt the transmission of a microwave and keep a cooked material, in particular a cold food free from heating influence. Each catering dish 4 containing a food is placed at the predetermined positions of the lower tray 2 respectively assigned to warm and cold foods, and the upper cover 1 is closed. Then, a catered insulation tray 16 is placed in a heating chamber 8 and irradiated with a microwave oscillated with a microwave oscillator 9. In this case, the portion of the insulation tray 16 carrying a cold food is placed immediately under a reflector 11.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of Industrial Application The present invention relates to a heating tray for served meals, a high-frequency heating device, and a heating method for served meals using these for providing served meals at an appropriate temperature in hospitals and the like. It is something.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Recently, as medical standards have become more sophisticated, efforts have been made to improve hospital catering services. In a timely manner, not only in hospitals,
It goes without saying that it is best to provide school lunches at appropriate temperatures, but
Meals provided to patients in general hospitals are prepared in the kitchen and served after a certain amount has been prepared, which causes problems such as leaving food for a long time, causing mixed food to cool and cold food to warm up. There is. This tendency is stronger in hospitals with a large number of inpatients. For this reason, recently, serving trays designed to prevent natural heat radiation have been devised to meet the need for proper temperature meals as part of patient services.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention However, the function of the tray as described above is merely to extend the heat retention or cold retention time, and does not satisfy the taste of freshly made food. Furthermore, when a mixed meal and a cold meal are served on the same tray, there is an inconvenience that the food cannot be heated together with a heating device such as a microwave oven. Some hospitals and other institutions that are trying to improve their services separate mixed meals and frozen meals and serve them separately, but this increases the work process and becomes tedious when serving meals. The problem is that it cannot be obtained.

In order to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, the present invention is capable of heating mixed food to an appropriate temperature and maintaining the cooking temperature of cold food using microwave heating even when mixed food and cold food are served side by side on the same tray. The purpose of the present invention is to provide a heat insulating tray for served meals that can retain the taste, a high-frequency heating device, and a heating method for served meals using these.

Means for Solving the Problems In order to solve this object, the present invention provides a tray that is formed into a shape that can accommodate a plurality of tableware and is paired with a lower tray and an upper cover made of a microwave-transparent heat insulating material. A metal film is formed on a portion of the opposing inner surfaces of the lower tray and the upper cover, and when the upper cover is attached to the lower tray, the metal film forms a microwave-blocked space. Use a thermal tray for serving school lunches.

In addition, there is an infrared temperature sensor that detects the temperature of the object to be heated in the heating chamber, a reflector that blocks high frequency waves close to the upper cover of the thermal tray for serving meals, and an inlet and an outlet for the thermal tray for serving meals in the heating chamber. The served meal is heated by a high-frequency heating device including a water load pipe for a high-frequency trap provided on at least one side.

With a thermal tray for serving meals and a high-frequency heating device that exceeds the function,
Even if mixed food and cold food are placed on the same tray and heated, only the mixed food will be heated and the cold food will not be heated. Furthermore, since mixed meals and frozen meals can be placed on the same tray, the workability of serving meals can be improved.

EXAMPLE An example of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a main part of the internal structure of a first embodiment of a thermal tray for serving meals according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a sectional view of essential parts of a second embodiment of a thermal tray for serving meals of the present invention. FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a high-frequency heating device for heating and cooking a school lunch insulation tray containing food to be cooked.

In FIG. 1, 1 is an upper cover and 2 is a lower tray, each of which is made of a polypropylene resin material, which is a material with low dielectric loss against microwaves, and is a heat insulating material that is transparent to microwaves. As can be seen from the figure, the lower tray 2 is molded to match the shape of each of a plurality of tableware, and the upper cover 1 separates each tableware accordingly. A metal film 3 is formed inside each of the upper cover 1 and the lower tray 2. This provides a region that blocks the transmission of microwaves, thereby creating a structure that is not affected by the heating of food, especially cold food.

4 is a serving tableware containing cooked food, 5 is a hot food served on the lower tray 2, and 6 is a cold food.

The thermal tray for serving meals shown in Fig. 2 has the upper cover and lower tray 2 shown in Fig. 1 covered with polypropylene resin 7 on each surface, and the internal cavity is filled with a heat insulating material that transmits microwaves. , for example, is filled with alumina or silica fibrous material. The area where the cold food is placed is surrounded by a metal membrane 3, similar to the embodiment shown in FIG.

In Fig. 3, 8 is a heating chamber for cooking the school lunch warming tray, 9 is a microwave oscillator, 10 is a stirrer fan for diffusing microwaves, 11 is a reflector, and 12 is a partition plate that transmits microwaves. . 13 is a radio wave shielding plate for preventing radio waves from leaking to the outside; 14 is a belt conveyor for conveying the heated tray; and 15 is a conveyor driving device.

16 is a thermal tray for serving school lunches containing hot and cold food;
Reference numeral 17 indicates an infrared temperature sensor that detects the temperature of the food to be heated, which is placed on the side wall surface of the heating chamber, and 18 indicates a radio wave absorber for a microwave trap.

The operation of the high-frequency catering appropriate temperature feeding system of this embodiment configured as described above will be described below.

First, each serving tableware 4 containing cooked food is placed in a predetermined position on the lower tray 2, which is divided into hot and cold food.
Cover with the upper cover 1 and prepare as many as necessary. Once this preparation is completed, next, the heat-insulating tray 16 arranged as shown in FIG. 3 is inserted into the heating chamber entrance.
It is fed into the heating chamber 8 by the operation of the conveyor drive device 15. Microwaves oscillated by a microwave oscillator 9 are irradiated into the heating chamber 8, and the microwaves are dispersed by the stirrer fan 10 and spread almost uniformly onto the heat-insulating tray 16.
is irradiated. In this case, the side with the cold food in the heat-insulating tray 16 is arranged to be directly below the reflector plate 11. By doing so, the electric field strength is at its minimum directly below the reflection plate 11, and it is possible to avoid as much as possible the result of heating due to a gap created between the upper cover 1 and the lower tray 2. After that, microwave heating is performed until the infrared temperature sensor 17 provided on the side wall of the heating chamber 8 detects the appropriate temperature of the object to be heated, and at the same time as heating is completed, the conveyor drive device 15 is activated to move the conveyor 14. Then, the heat retaining tray 16 is sent out from the heating chamber 8. At the same time, the next heat-insulating tray is sent into the heating chamber 8. This process may be repeated one after another, and the heated food may be served in a timely manner.

In order to ensure safety and proper heating, during microwave oscillation, a radio wave absorber 18 for a microwave trap, which absorbs a small amount of radio waves passing through the gap between the radio wave shielding plates 13, prevents the microwaves from going outside the device. Prevent leaks.

With the above-described apparatus and method, food heated to an appropriate temperature can be served in a short time.

In addition, the heating tray of the present invention is not limited to the method described above, and heating may be performed in a household microwave oven by using the heat-retaining tray of the present invention. The same effect as above can be obtained even if it is made possible to perform the following.

Effects of the Invention As described above, according to the present invention, hot and cold foods can be easily heated even when they are served on the same tray, and a wide variety of menus can be served. In addition, the use of heat insulating material in the cavity of the tray provides high heat and cold retention effects.

Furthermore, by providing high-frequency heating devices at appropriate locations depending on the number of meals to be served, it becomes possible to heat the food in a timely manner, making it possible to provide the freshly prepared food to the patient in a timely manner without missing the taste.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a main part of the internal structure of a first embodiment of a thermal tray for serving meals according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a sectional view of essential parts of a second embodiment of a thermal tray for serving meals of the present invention. FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a high-frequency heating device for heating and cooking a school lunch insulation tray containing food to be cooked. 1... Upper cover 2... Lower tray, 3... Metal membrane, 4... Serving tableware, 5... Hot food, 6...
Cold food, 7... Polypropylene resin, 8... Heating chamber, 9... Microwave oscillator, 10... Starrer fan, 11... Reflector, 12... Partition plate, 13...
・Radio wave shielding plate, 14...belt conveyor, 15...
Conveyor drive device, 16...thermal tray for serving meals,
17... Infrared temperature sensor, 1 8... Radio wave absorber.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A lower tray and an upper cover formed into a shape that can accommodate a plurality of tableware and made of a microwave-transparent heat insulating material form a pair, and each of the lower tray and the upper cover has its own shape. A metal film is formed on a part of the opposing inner surfaces, and the metal film forms a microwave-blocked space when the upper cover is attached to the lower tray. Thermal tray. 2. The thermal tray for serving meals according to claim 1, wherein the surfaces of the lower tray and the upper cover are each covered with polypropylene resin, and the inside of each is filled with a heat insulating material made of alumina or silica fiber. 3. The tact conveyance type high frequency heating device includes an infrared temperature sensor that detects the temperature of the object to be heated in the heating chamber, a reflector that blocks high frequency waves in proximity to the upper cover of the thermal tray for serving meals, and a heating chamber for warming trays for serving meals. A high-frequency heating device comprising a water load pipe for a high-frequency trap provided at at least one of a tray intake port and a tray take-out port. 4. The thermal tray for serving meals is sent into the heating chamber of the tact conveyance type high frequency heating device, and after the conveyor is operated, the reflector provided in the heating chamber is positioned so as to partially cover the tray, and then the infrared temperature sensor 1. A method for heating a served meal, comprising heating by microwave irradiation until a predetermined temperature is detected, and then operating a conveyor to take out the heated tray for the served meal.