US 9976750

US 9,976,750 B1 — "Multi-zone food holding bin"

Title: Multi-zone food holding bin

Assignee / Inventors: Original assignee Prince Castle LLC (later listed as Marmon Foodservice Technologies Inc. as current assignee). Inventors: Kyle Thomas Kestner; Christopher B. Lyons, Jr.; Charles B. Hartfelder; Zachary N. McCoy.

Key dates: Priority/filing date 2016-04-20 (application US15/134,380); publication/grant 2018-05-22; anticipated expiration 2036-04-20; legal status listed as Active.

Purpose: Fast-food restaurants often pre-cook food and hold it warm until sale. Known holding bins keep food warm with heating elements, but holding time is limited — "generally less than 15 or 20 minutes before the food item must be discarded" — causing waste and added cost. The disclosed bin addresses this by holding different foods at different temperatures in one compartment.

Plain-language scope (from the excerpt): A multi-zone food holding bin (10) includes two or more separate food holding compartments (50). Each compartment has two or more separate food holding zones (e.g., 57a, 57b), and each zone may include two food holding bays (51a–51d). Each bay can receive a single food holding tray (27) and/or lid (21). Each zone is configured to maintain a different holding temperature, so foods with different heating requirements can be held in the same compartment. Foods in one zone are held at a first temperature by independently controllable upper and lower heating elements; a second zone holds other foods at a second temperature. Bays are illustrated as separated only by dashed lines, which "are for illustration only."

Figures described: perspective, front and rear elevational views; alternate embodiments with partially cut-away top/bottom perspective views and a shelf close-up.

Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/US9976750/en

What the excerpt does not establish: Full claim language, the complete written description, exact temperature values or control methods, the number/identity of claims, and the specifics of the alternate embodiments (FIGS. 4A–6). It also does not establish validity, infringement, litigation outcomes, or prior-art scope; no external research was performed.