US 11,849,867 B2
Energy saving food display cabinet
Alan Nuttall, Copston Magna (GB); and Michael James Steele, Sapcote (GB)
Assigned to The Alan Nuttall Partnership Limited, Leicestershire (GB)
Appl. No. 15/022,138
Filed by The Alan Nuttall Partnership Limited, Hinckley (GB)
PCT Filed Aug. 28, 2014, PCT No. PCT/GB2014/052600
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Mar. 15, 2016,
PCT Pub. No. WO2015/044637, PCT Pub. Date Apr. 2, 2015.
Claims priority of application No. 1316911 (GB), filed on Sep. 24, 2013.
Prior Publication US 2016/0235218 A1, Aug. 18, 2016
Int. Cl. A47F 3/00 (2006.01); A47F 3/04 (2006.01); G05B 15/00 (2006.01); A47F 10/02 (2006.01); G05B 15/02 (2006.01)
CPC A47F 3/0478 (2013.01) [A47F 3/001 (2013.01); A47F 10/02 (2013.01); G05B 15/02 (2013.01)] 31 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An open fronted food display cabinet having a plurality of open fronted food display zones, wherein each open fronted food display zone is designed and configured to display food items to consumers to purchase the food items, further wherein a temperature of each open fronted food display zone is independently controllable by a corresponding temperature regulating device operably coupled to the food display zone, the open fronted food display cabinet having a controller to control the temperature regulating devices to control the temperature of each of the open fronted food display zones, wherein the open fronted food display zones do not cook the food displayed in the open fronted food display zones, the controller configured to:
receive indicia of a plurality of types of food items to be displayed in the open fronted food display zones;
receive information regarding the corresponding ones of the food display zones in which each type of food item is to be placed;
receive or identify placement times at which each type of food item will be placed in the cabinet for display in the open fronted food display zones;
receive or identify an item temperature profile associated with each type of food item;
determine a food display zone temperature profile for each of the plurality of food display zones according to the types of food items to be placed in each of the food display zones and the identified times and item temperature profiles, wherein at least one of the food display zone temperature profiles includes a first placement time for a first food item and a second placement time for a second food item in the same day; and
independently control the temperature of each of the plurality of open fronted food display zones, using the temperature regulating devices, according to the determined food display zone temperature profiles so that the temperature of each of the plurality of open fronted food display zones is automatically controlled at the identified temperature for a given food item at the time of day the food item is displayed in the corresponding open fronted food display zone.