Patents Examined by Timothy F. Simone
  • Patent number: 7063009
    Abstract: A safety device of a juice extractor is disclosed. The juice extractor comprises an extractor body, a motor, a cup seat having a holding rib at one side of the cup seat and the holding rib containing a triggering member, and the bottom end of the cup seat being screwed to the top holding seat and the bottom end of the cup seat screwed to the cup body, characterized in that the protruded edge of the top holding seat is a slot to connect the cup body to the cup seat, and is then connected to the top holding seat, then the triggering member mounted at the cup seat can slide at the bottom section of the slot so as to depress the connection shaft, thereby by the safety of the juice extractor is improved.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 17, 2004
    Date of Patent: June 20, 2006
    Inventor: Kuan-Chih Lin
  • Patent number: 7063006
    Abstract: A fire pit grill apparatus includes a housing that has a top wall, a bottom wall and a perimeter wall extending between the top and bottom walls. A motor is mounted in the housing. A drive shaft is mechanically coupled to the motor and is rotated when the motor is turned on. The drive shaft extends through and is rotatably coupled to a panel. Each of a plurality of legs has an upper end pivotally coupled to the panel. A sleeve is positioned on the drive shaft which is selectively couplable along a length of the drive shaft. A plurality of hooks is attached to the sleeve. A grill includes a perimeter edge having a plurality of tethers attached thereto. Each of the tethers is removably attached to one of the hooks to suspend the grill from the drive shaft. The grill is rotated when the motor is turned on.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 15, 2004
    Date of Patent: June 20, 2006
    Inventors: Darlene V. Spehle, Joseph W. Spehle
  • Patent number: 7059241
    Abstract: A cutter blade of a fruit and vegetable juice extractor is disclosed. The cutter blade has a blade center region being provided with a plurality of center teeth blades, and the center teeth blades are formed from a blade and the body of the blade and the height of the blades are greater than a separate teeth blade, thereby the crushing of the center region of the food stuff by the blade cutter is improved.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 9, 2004
    Date of Patent: June 13, 2006
    Inventor: Kuan-Chih Lin
  • Patent number: 7059240
    Abstract: Disclosed herein is a double heating-type pot. The pot includes air inlet holes at an upper portion thereof to introduce heated air into the pot. Further, a guide unit is provided on an outer surface of the pot to efficiently guide heated air to the air inlet holes. Thus, the present invention allows heat conducted through the bottom of the pot and convection heat transferred through the air inlet holes to eliminate a temperature difference between upper and lower portions in the pot, therefore reducing cooking time and evenly heating food.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 20, 2004
    Date of Patent: June 13, 2006
    Inventor: Myung-Suk Kim
  • Patent number: 7059239
    Abstract: The brewing device comprises a brewing chamber constituted by an upper and a lower brewing chamber portion. The lower brewing chamber portion includes a chamber for receiving the coffee powder portion, and the upper brewing chamber portion includes a closure element for closing the chamber in the lower brewing chamber portion. The upper brewing chamber portion comprises an inner element provided with the closure element, and an outer element coaxially disposed and axially movable with regard to the inner element. The lower brewing chamber portion is adapted to be fixed to the outer element of the upper brewing chamber portion. The outer element of the upper portion comprises a pivotal operating lever connected to the inner element of the upper brewing chamber portion by an actuating member disposed eccentrically to the axis of rotation of the lever to cause an axial relative movement between the inner element and the outer element of the upper brewing chamber portion upon pivoting the operating lever.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 27, 2005
    Date of Patent: June 13, 2006
    Assignee: Red Roses S.A.
    Inventor: Werner Balkau
  • Patent number: 7051649
    Abstract: A collapsible barbecue grill assembly has a top rack (20), a leg assembly attached under the top rack (20) and a foldable charcoal container (30) mounted on the top rack (20). The leg assembly is combined by means of wedging without using any tools. The top rack (20) is composed of two side frames (22a), (22b) and two panels (24a), (24b) pivotally connecting between the two side frames (22a), (22b). One joint of the panel and the side frames (22) is detachable to allow the top rack to be pivotally folded and the charcoal container (30) is foldable into a flat configuration. Therefore, the volume of the folded barbecue grill assembly is particularly low. Moreover, the barbecue grill assembly uses no trivial accessory and can be conveniently assembled without any tool.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 15, 2003
    Date of Patent: May 30, 2006
    Inventor: Chi-Fu Lin
  • Patent number: 7051646
    Abstract: In the area of beverage distributors, document FR 1 564 088 is known that discloses an automatic dispenser device suitable for preparing beverages of various kind. The beverages may be hot or cold ones obtained from liquid or concentrated products, solid and powderly products contained in hermetically closed capsules of troncoconical shape, in turn contained, stacked one on the top of the other, in certain tubular containes. The dispenser is provided with a number of groups of containers each of which contains a certain number of capsules of a certain product so that the dispenser may be activated by a user for delivering a desired beverage. The dispenser is such that the content of any capsule falls into a mixing chamber where it mixes with hot or cold liquid poured therein and is certainly not adapted to brew an aspresso coffee.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 10, 2002
    Date of Patent: May 30, 2006
    Assignee: Illycaffe' S.p.A.
    Inventors: Bruno Della Pietra, Gianfranco Racchi, Pierpaolo Racchi, Furio Suggi Liverani
  • Patent number: 7051647
    Abstract: A filter coffee maker having a filter holder, a case providing a filter holder housing for receiving the filter holder, and a pedestal provided to receive a carafe. The filter holder housing has at least one concave structure having an upper entrance, a lateral wall having a lower end, an upper bearing zone extending from the lower end of the lateral wall, and a retaining threshold disposed between the upper bearing zone and the lateral wall. The filter holder has at least one upper retaining means provided to cooperate with the upper bearing zone.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 4, 2004
    Date of Patent: May 30, 2006
    Assignee: SEB S.A.
    Inventor: Augustin Dominguez
  • Patent number: 7047871
    Abstract: Apparatus 10 for a toaster appliance having at least one circular-like carriage 14 forming a support element for food articles 12 such as tortillas, pita, naan and other flatbreads during a warming/toasting session. The support walls 16, 20 are comprised of wire mesh 18 with one side having a partial lower peripheral rim or lip 38 positioned flange extending thereinbetween acting as a carriage for the food article. Diametrically opposed is the other support wall that is spaced over the depending flange 38 extending from the other wall. Adjacent coplanar posts or pins 36 extend from the mesh-walls 16, 20 traveling in and through guide tracks 40 located at each end of the interior housing 24 with tensioning members 34 fastened to the post distal ends keeping the support walls compressed. One of the tracks 40 is of greater width thereby providing for variable thickness of the food article, which is held by the tensioned mesh walls 16, 20.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 25, 2004
    Date of Patent: May 23, 2006
    Inventor: Brett M Christoffel
  • Patent number: 7044050
    Abstract: A barbecue system includes a housing including a plurality of monolithically formed side walls sized and shaped for defining a cooking cavity therebetween. The housing further includes a plurality of rigid support legs attached to a bottom one of the side walls. The support legs are outwardly canted at an oblique angle from the housing. The barbecue system further includes a mechanism for withdrawing heat and smoke from the cavity in such a manner that ambient air and ambient temperature within the enclosed environment can remain substantially smoke-free and heat-free during cooking operations and a mechanism for supplying heat into the cavity. A mechanism for disseminating an artificially-flavored air stream is also included. The disseminating mechanism is positioned vertically above the heat supplying mechanism and a cooking platform is registered above the disseminating mechanism.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 2005
    Date of Patent: May 16, 2006
    Inventor: Willie Cook
  • Patent number: 7044051
    Abstract: A press for extracting juice and pulp from plant products, which has a motor component, a tank, and a cylindrical strainer, symmetrical about an axis, arranged in the tank and having a perforated radial wall, an opening for introduction of the plant products into strainer, and dilaceration teeth, the strainer being rotated around the axis by the motor component. The press has a blade extending inside the strainer near the perforated radial wall of the strainer, and the strainer being is rotated relative to the blade.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 8, 2004
    Date of Patent: May 16, 2006
    Assignee: Hameur S.A.
    Inventor: Claude Le Rouzic
  • Patent number: 7040220
    Abstract: A juice extractor appliance for extracting juice from food articles, includes: a housing having an inlet feed tube for feeding food articles into the appliance, and an outlet for outletting juice extract from the food articles; a pusher rod for manually pushing the food articles through the inlet feed tube; and a cutter disc rotatable about a central disc axis and including a plurality of cutting edges projecting from one side of the disc facing the inlet feed tube for cutting the food articles into a pulp saturated with juice when the food article is pushed against the cutter disc by the pusher rod.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 26, 2004
    Date of Patent: May 9, 2006
    Assignee: AAC Trade Ltd.
    Inventors: Eli Cohen, Ann Grant
  • Patent number: 7036425
    Abstract: A control mechanism includes a driving device and a driven device coupling a bracket that is movably arranged in the deep fryer to the driving device. The driving device drives the basket upward/downward relative to the deep fryer. The driven device has a seat, a guiding slot, a limit having a guiding shaft extending upward to correspond to and be received in the guiding slot and an enclosure enclosing the seat and fixed to a portion of the driving device. A recoil spring is arranged at a rear side of the limit and the pushbutton. The bracket includes a first U-shaped arm and a second U-shaped arm pivotally received in a first pivot cutout and a second pivot cutout in the enclosure respectively.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 7, 2004
    Date of Patent: May 2, 2006
    Assignee: Lyu Jan Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Li-Chen Wu Chang
  • Patent number: 7028608
    Abstract: A high production nutcracking apparatus wherein any whole nuts which are mis-fed or fail to be cracked, are automatically returned to the feed hopper without being exposed to possible contamination. To separate the shell fragments from the uncracked whole nuts, there is provided an inclined openwork grate, which is sized and configured to permit the shell fragments to pass directly therethrough while the whole nuts slide down and drop off a lower end of the grate. The grate is formed of a plurality of parallel rods which are supported so that they vibrate during operation of the cracking apparatus, to facilitate the sliding movement of the whole nuts.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 6, 2005
    Date of Patent: April 18, 2006
    Assignee: Machine Design Incorporated
    Inventors: James B. Quantz, Pascal W. Pitts, John L. Feaster
  • Patent number: 7028606
    Abstract: An electric juicer having a housing, or case, a juice receptacle arranged on the case, a pouring accessory disposed on the receptacle and a juicer cone. The case contains a motor for rotating the cone through the intermediary of a transmission, the pouring accessory has a bottom permitting gravity flow of the collected juice toward a lateral flow outlet, and the bottom has an opening providing for the passage of the transmission. In accordance with the invention, the pouring accessory has a transmission axis, or shaft, belonging to the transmission, the shaft being mounted for free rotation in the opening. This arrangement permits the juicer to be used with or without the pouring accessory.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 3, 2004
    Date of Patent: April 18, 2006
    Assignee: SEB S.A.
    Inventor: Antonio Basora
  • Patent number: 7028607
    Abstract: A device for masticating frozen foodstuffs such device having a housing; a motor installed inside the housing; and an inlet portion for introducing foodstuffs therein connected to a masticating chamber. A plunging device is attached such that a piston is inserted into the inlet hopper to move the frozen foodstuffs into the masticating chamber. A masticating element is contained within the masticating chamber and is connected to the motor. This masticating element is formed with a threaded masticating portion with a plurality of cutting grooves having ninety degree angles of attack for masticating the frozen foodstuffs into the desired creamy texture. The masticating element also has a transferring portion with a plurality of moving shoots to move the masticated product out of the machine. The frozen fruits, vegetables, or other foodstuffs are easily loaded, masticated, and cleanly removed from the apparatus.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 24, 2004
    Date of Patent: April 18, 2006
    Assignee: Cool Frootz, LLC
    Inventor: Arnold P. Zweben
  • Patent number: 7024988
    Abstract: It comprises an injection station (10); a maceration station (20), including a massaging rotating drum (22) and several drawn quiescent tanks (24); and a packaging station (30). Such stations are linked by an accumulation and loading unit (40) to the drum (22) located between the said injection station (10) and the maceration station (20); a reloading unit (50) located between the station (20) and the unit (40); and a transferring unit (60) to a feeding hopper (62) of the said packaging station (30) including an automatic cleaning unit (70) for the tanks (24). A control center coordinates the operations steps of the stations and units for keeping a non-stop operation, providing a time for cleaning each station, unit or part thereof during such cycle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 18, 2001
    Date of Patent: April 11, 2006
    Assignee: Metalquimia, S.A.
    Inventor: Narcis Lagares Corominas
  • Patent number: 7021205
    Abstract: A production line for bread blanks comprising a dough dispenser unit with a first rolling unit for preparing a dough sheet; a first conveyor receiving the dough sheet; at least one spreading/rolling unit operable in conjunction with the first conveyor, each unit having a spreader roll facing the underside surface of the conveyor and a backing roll in direct contact with the top surface of the dough sheet; a second rolling unit at the exit end of the first conveyor for trimming the dough sheet; a second conveyor receiving the trimmed dough sheet and; forming/releasing means operable in conjunction with the second conveyor for forming/releasing bread blanks from the trimmed dough sheet.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 19, 2003
    Date of Patent: April 4, 2006
    Assignee: Hydrovoima Oy
    Inventor: Pekka Leppaniemi
  • Patent number: 7017474
    Abstract: An extraction device for producing coffee for a coffee machine is equipped with a brewing cylinder (2) for receiving coffee powder. The brewing cylinder is reciprocably adjustable between pre-determined positions along its axial direction in co-operation with a drive mechanism (4). Two pistons (31, 32) that are coaxially adjustable relative to one another, are located in the brewing cylinder (2). The brewing cylinder (2) incorporates a cylinder section (20), and an additional part (22) is also envisaged. The additional part (22) is moveably located at an end of the brewing cylinder (2) that can be closed by the first piston (31) and equipped with a filler opening (24) for the insertion of the coffee powder. In this way the length of the extraction device can be shortened.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 17, 2004
    Date of Patent: March 28, 2006
    Assignee: Steiner AG, Weggis
    Inventor: Philippe Comte
  • Patent number: 7017475
    Abstract: A soy milk coagulating device includes: a coagulation vessel with an internal volume of 1,000 cc or less; two electrode plates facing each other to form a pair in the vessel; and a power feed controlling mechanism for controlling electricity fed to the electrode plates, and in the soy milk coagulating device, the power feed controlling mechanism is composed of: a tofu control system which is provided to heat soy milk to a set temperature at an average heating rate of equal to or less than 8° C. per minute, or at an average heating rate of more than 8° C. per minute and equal to or less than 15° C. per minute, and to keep the soy milk at the temperature for at least 5 minutes; a yuba control system; and switching unit which is provided to switch between the two control systems.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 31, 2003
    Date of Patent: March 28, 2006
    Assignees: School Juridical Person of Fukuoka Kogyo Daigaku, Yuugengaisya Tanaka Chinmi
    Inventors: Kou Moriyama, Kouji Nemoto, Masateru Tanaka