Two-piece food-serving apparatus with separable and optionally re-attachable hinge

Abstract

The present invention is a separable two-piece food-serving apparatus with a quick-fit releasable and re-attachable hinge, comprised of an upper carton lid which is rotatably positionable over a lower carton food-serving tray to form a food-enclosing container. The tray has a bottom wall sized, shaped and having sufficient rigidity to be self-supporting when accommodating the weight, shape and typical bottom area of one or more food-items. The bottom wall has one or more adjoining tray side wall extending upward therefrom in a manner which provides a cantilevering support. Preferably the tray is made of a flexible material which accommodates a plurality of bending or flexing cycles and thereby facilitates the eating of food. The tray has hinge-portion tab(s) which, when brought into engagement with the hinge-portion aperture(s) of the lid provide a quick-fit releasable and re-attachable complete hinge. Exterior surfaces of the separable apparatus optionally display discernible content.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0001] The present invention pertains to the field of food-serving apparatus and more particularly relates to two-piece food-serving apparatus comprising a food-serving tray or plate which, when fitted with a quick-fit releasable lid, forms a food-enclosing carton. The invention also pertains to methods for facilitating the rapid assembly, disassembly and option re-assembly of two-piece hinged food-serving cartons. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] Numerous efforts have been made to improve food-serving apparatus that enclose one or more food items, such as the paperboard or plastic apparatus commonly referred to as a “clamshell” which consists of an upper casing and a lower casing each having a wall sharing a common hinge. When using such apparatus, the user receives one or more items of a served food in the clamshell and, when seated at an eating location such as a table, then opens the apparatus by rotating the upper casing away from the lower casing via t...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0019] The present invention is a two-piece food serving apparatus having a lid or upper casing and a tray, plate or lower casing each preferably formed of a single contiguous paper-based, plastic-based, or metal-based material, and in a manner wherein the tray has sufficient rigidity and shape to provide alignment of, and support of, one or more items of food. For the purpose of more easily referring to the two pieces of the invention, the lid or upper casing will hereinafter be referred to as a lid, and the tray, plate or lower casing will hereinafter be referred to as a tray. In one of the embodiments of the invention, the apparatus tray and side wall(s) has a flexibility which allows a user to flex the tray and at least one adjoining upward extending side wall away from a portion of the supported food item(s), thereby exposing an end of the food, so that it is clear of the tray, to facilitate it being eaten. This flexing of the tray allows the served food to be eaten in a manner not requiring the folding, or altering of the normal appearance, of one or more served food item(s).

[0021] The apparatus tray has a bottom wall and at least one side wall integrally formed adjacent thereto which extends upward, relative to a food-supporting surface of the bottom wall, and in a manner which provides a cantilevering support and increased rigidity of the bottom wall. For example, trays that are mold or shaped under pressure during manufacturing can have a round, oval, ovoid or triangular shape and have a single contiguous wall extending upward from the outer edge of the bottom wall (not shown in the figures). The side wall(s) is sized, having sufficient rigidity, to facilitate the retention, or alignment, of one or more items of food on the food-supporting member. The side walls may be made having a height that is sufficient for forming a self-contained containment device such as an open-topped box or carton. The bottom wall of the apparatus is bendable or is flexible and preferably made of a material which tolerates a plurality of repeated bending or flexing cycles.

[0022] In one embodiment of the two-piece invention both pieces of the apparatus are generally triangular in shape and a forward extending end of the lid is first slid to engage into a hinged orientation with a forward extending end of the tray, then the rear end of the lid rotates into a food-encasing position and the lid is secured to the tray by one or more fastening means. The geometry of the two inter-fitting triangular pieces provides a simple self-alignment or registration of the two components. During the assembly steps, a lower edge of the lid front wall is preferably slid upon a flat upper surface of a table or counter in a longitudinal direction toward the forward extending end of a tray resting on the same surface, or a tray held in position by one or more digits of a user's hand. As the lid is moved longitudinally toward the tray, a lower edge of the rear end of the tray is rotated by the user to a position which clears the height of the rear portion of the tray. As the two pieces come together, the outer surfaces of the side walls of the tray interfit and self-align as they make contact with the inner surfaces of the side walls of the lid. Each side wall of the tray has a forward-extending tab formed, die-cut or otherwise manufactured adjacent to an end thereof at a height when the tray is resting on the table surface, to be in alignment with the height of two corresponding apertures located adjacent to outer edges of the lid front wall, which, upon the completion of the longitudinal sliding of the lid instantly provides a tab-hinged lidded tray. Thus, a self-registrating 2-axis alignment of the lid to the tray is provided automatically as the lid is moved closer to the tray wherein, the outer walls of the tray interacting with the inner walls of the lid to provide a horizontal axis alignment, and the lower edge of the front of the lid sliding on the surface of a table, or other flat surface, which the tray is also resting on, provide a vertical axis alignment.

Problems solved by technology

While the clamshell has gained substantial acceptance in the food-service industry, it nonetheless has some significant functional and economic disadvantages.

While these venues are designed to serve take-out and / or drive-thru foods, many of the venues are also designed to serve seated customers in which case, providing an entire box or food-encompassing carton is not only unnecessary, it is wasteful and creates an unnecessary business expense which can double food-serving apparatus material and costs for venue seated customers.

Often, food-serving venues do not want to stock a separate clamshell for take-out customers and a separate plate to serve the same food item(s) to their sit-down customers, so to serve both types of customers, the venue owners purchase the more costly clamshells.

However, if the food served in the clamshell is then only partially completed and the customer wishes to transport the food, the lid of the clamshell is then no longer hinged to the apparatus and the customer is unable to form a food-enclosing carton or box out of the two separated pieces.

Clamshells can also be quite bulky and are typically made in a way that requires a customer to lift a served food entirely from the apparatus and to then eat the food in a two-handed manner.

The lower casing or tray is often deep which restricts the removal and placement of the food in the casing.

With certain foods, such as pizza, this adds messiness to the pizza-eating experience which can actually create an adverse effect on sales.

For example, researchers have found that many customers considering the ordering of a QSR meal on impulse, or spontaneously, will opt for another QSR meal because of the messiness often associated with the eating of pizza with two hands i.e., picking up the pizza again and again with one's hands.

Another problem with the prior art clamshells and two-piece food-serving containers, boxes or cartons, is that when a served food is of a type that traditionally requires a customer to sit down and eat the food with two hands, the customer is then, in effect, anchored to a table where the food is served, or within a relatively short distance to the area where the plate, tray or clamshell is located, and consequently there is no, or limited, portability associated with such apparatus and with the eating experiences they provide.

Another problem with the prior art is the recent introduction and use of such apparatus in public venues having limited, poor or no lighting.

However, theaters, for considerable periods of time, have insufficient lighting to see a food-serving apparatus in which one or more items of food are served.

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