Abstract: Food is prepared by placing selected food items in pre-determined locations on food trays, placing the trays on shelves of a rack in a food and beverage cabinet with the food and beverage cabinet being inserted in a first environmental control unit which circulates chilled air over the trays and then removing the food and beverage cabinet and placing it at a second environmental control unit which additionally heats selected food items.

Abstract: Apparatus for masking a selected area of the neck and/or sidewall of a container and for applying a coating to an adjacent area thereof. The apparatus comprises a container transport conveyor for transporting containers through a coating booth and a side masking conveyor for transporting side masks through the coating booth in parallel with the containers. As the containers move through the booth, the neck of the container is shielded by a neck mask carried by the container transport conveyor and a side portion of each container is shielded by a side mask carried on the side mask conveyor.

Abstract: Means for orienting containers of the type having a concave face, such as glass liquor flasks, while they are being conveyed, so that their concave faces are all toward a selected direction. As they are being conveyed the containers are biased against a specially contoured surface on a fixed shoe along which they slide. A container whose concave face is already facing the shoe slides along the contoured shoe surface without being turned or reoriented; but a misoriented container, whose concave face is reversed to the shoe, is turned by the special shape of the shoe surface to a crosswise position on the conveyor. The containers turned crosswise (but only those containers) are then further rotated to the desired orientation, the reverse of their original orientation, by conveying them past a brake which engages endwise surfaces of the crosswise containers and which slows or arrests that portion of such containers as the movement of the conveyor turns them toward the desired orientation.

Abstract: A tamperproof closure is described for sealing containers such as soda, liquor or other bottles. The closure is a unitary molded closure cap which includes a tamper indicating band. The indicating band is applied with the closure cap and is locked onto a bead on the container so that it is torn free from the upper sealing portion of the cap as soon as an attempt is made to turn the closure cap off of the container.

Abstract: A cordierite crystal-containing glaze for fine ceramics such as cordierite ceramics. The glaze has an oxide composition comprising,______________________________________ SiO.sub.2 66-75 wt. % Al.sub.2 O.sub.3 13-22 MgO 3-8 B.sub.2 O.sub.3 2.5-7 Na.sub.2 O + K.sub.2 O .4-2.0 ______________________________________The above components should comprise at least 95%, and preferably 96-99%, of the total. The glaze can also include 0-2% ZnO and 0.varies.2% ZrO.sub.2. Apart from colorants, the balance, if any, may comprise small amounts of other compatible compounds such as CaO, SrO, BaO, Cs.sub.2 O and F.sub.2, up to a total of 3%; but the ratio of SiO.sub.2 +Al.sub.2 O.sub.3 +MgO to the sum of such other compatible compounds should be at least about 28:1. Fe.sub.2 O.sub.3 and TiO.sub.2, which are generally present as impurities in standard batch raw materials, are not harmful in amounts less than a total of 1.5%; in greater amounts, they begin to alter the color of the glaze. Li.sub.

Abstract: A sealing machine is disclosed of the type which applies closure caps to containers at extremely high speeds by moving filled containers successively through a cap feeding station, a cap applying station, and a cap sealing station. The machine is characterized by improvements in its several sections which permit it to operate effectively at increased speeds, and at the same time provide for an improved adjustability for differing package sizes. The adjustability provides for independently operable adjustments for the sealing chamber height and for the width and height of the side belts which move the containers through the sealing chamber. Additionally, an improved cap feed is described with a cap feeding star wheel and improved container guiding side belts are also disclosed.

Abstract: A ceramic body having the oxide composition,SiO.sub.2 : 33-46 wt. %Al.sub.2 O.sub.3 : 37-57 wt. %MgO: 5.5-15 wt. %ZnO: 0.4-1.7 wt. %Na.sub.2 O+K.sub.2 O: 1.0-3.0 wt. %ZrO.sub.2 : 0-5 wt. %The sum of these oxides (including ZrO.sub.2, if present) should preferably be at least 97% of the total. The remainder of the composition may comprise those ingredients such as CaO, Fe.sub.2 O.sub.3 and/or TiO.sub.2, which are normally present in conventional ceramic batch raw materials. Essentially no Li.sub.2 O should be present. The fired body, in which cordierite is the perdominant crystal phase, has a modulus of rupture greater than 10,000 psi and often higher than 14,000 psi, and is suitable for freezer-to-oven utensils and for dinnerware. It is glazable with a wide range of glazes including non-Li.sub.2 O containing glazes. The composition from which the ceramic is made has a firing tolerance which is unusually wide for a cordierite ceramic.

Abstract: A glass article is decorated with a thermoplastic ink which contains no frit. A finely divided heat fusible polymeric coating material is applied to the article over the ink. The article is heated to a temperature at which the particles of coating material fuse to form a smooth continuous film over the ink while the latter is in melted, semi-liquid condition. The melted ink diffuses into (but not through) the polymer film over it, thereby forming a melt-melt bond. The polymeric film imparts a serviceability to the ink which it would not otherwise display.

Abstract: An apparatus for preparing cooked or heated meals includes a food and beverage cabinet having heater shelves which include spaced heater elements heated by film heater means with silicone rubber comprising the sole means for securing the film heater means to its heater element and with silicone rubber further completely surrounding each heater element and being disposed between its heater element and film heater means to insulate the heater element from and raise it above the top layer of the shelf.

Abstract: The invention relates to a food serving tray for use with apparatus for preparing wholesome meals for patients in hospitals, rest home residents, airline passengers, prisoners and the like. The tray has a plurality of dish size openings extending through the tray. Each dish size opening includes a raised circumferential bead for supporting a dish having a circumferential notch around the lower portion of the dish. The tray has a raised edge along the tray perimeter and tray guiding notches are formed in one side of the raised edge around the tray perimeter for guiding the tray along suitable tracks of a heater shelf rack. The tray can include a series of dish or food supporting indents in the tray surface. Half-size trays are also included in the invention with tray guiding notches in opposing sides of the raised edge around the tray.