Abstract:
There is provided a tray comprising a body having a base; and a mounting mechanism adapted to enable a food or beverage holding accessory to be removably mounted over the base of the tray through a clutching mechanism located at said accessory. The clutching mechanism can be a mechanical or magnetic clutching mechanism. The present invention also relates to a food or beverage accessory for use with a tray, and a tray kit comprising a tray and a selection of accessories each one having a clutching mechanism such that the accessories can interchangeably be mounted in and demounted off the tray based in the use desired; wherein each one of the food or beverage holding accessory has a structure adapted for a specific type of food or beverage.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    The present invention relates generally to trays, in particular serving trays comprising a base and a mounting mechanism adapted to enable one or more accessories to be mounted over the base. 
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    It is well known that serving trays are used to transport food and beverages, especially during events, in restaurants or in individually hosted parties, where drinks and food are served to guests. 
         [0003]    Guests and attendees in these events usually are present in different areas. Transporting trays during such events to offer food and beverages to said attendees becomes complicated, especially where glasses and cups are presents in said trays. This type of tableware is susceptible to move and slide along the tray and even can be spilled thus provoking unwanted accidents to the user of the tray and also to the guest. On the other hand, using basic trays critically depends on the ability of the user to properly balance the content of the tray, in particular when the user has to simultaneously remove some food or beverage from the tray and serve them to the guest, thus affecting the weight distribution of the tray. 
         [0004]    Also, traditional trays are not customized to hold specific types of food or beverage. 
         [0005]    To address these problems, several approaches have been disclosed before, but none was found satisfactory. 
         [0006]    Therefore there is a need to provide an improved tray able to overcome all the above mentioned concerns. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0007]    Therefore it is an object of the present invention to provide a serving tray able to improve stability and safety of food and beverage during transportation thus avoiding any unwanted spillage of the tableware, in particular cups and glasses. 
         [0008]    As a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a tray comprising:
       a body having a base; and   a mounting mechanism adapted to enable a food or beverage holding accessory to be removably mounted over the base of the tray through a clutching mechanism located at said accessory.       
 
         [0011]    In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the mounting mechanism comprising one or more rails adapted to engage the clutching system mechanism of the accessory, the engagement enabling the accessory to be securely held in place on the tray. 
         [0012]    Preferably, the clutching mechanism is a mechanical or magnetic clutching mechanism. 
         [0013]    In a still preferred embodiment of the present invention, the mechanical clutching mechanism comprises one or more grooves adapted to securely receive and engage the rails for holding the accessory securely in place on the tray. 
         [0014]    In another preferred embodiment of the present invention, the magnetic clutching mechanism comprises one or more pieces of magnet adapted to magnetize the rails and to hold the rails securely in place on the tray through the magnetic effect, the rails being made of a ferromagnetic material adapted to be magnetized by the magnet. 
         [0015]    In a still another preferred embodiment of the invention, the coupled accessory has a circular shape and comprising a circular groove located at a predetermined position in such way that the circular accessory is adapted to be mounted onto the rail through said circular groove, and wherein said accessory is movable around its central axis. 
         [0016]    In a still preferred embodiment of the present invention, two or more accessories are simultaneously mounted on the trails. 
         [0017]    In another embodiment, the present invention also provides a food or beverage accessory for use with a tray, the tray comprising a body having a base, the accessory comprising:
       a clutching mechanism adapted to enable the food or beverage holding accessory to be removably mounted over the base of the tray through a mounting mechanism located at said tray.
 
Wherein said tray and accessory are as defined above
       
 
         [0019]    In a still other embodiment, the present invention provides a tray kit comprising:
       a tray comprising a body having a base and a mounting mechanism as defined above;   a selection of food or beverage holding accessories each one having a clutching mechanism adapted to be removably mounted over the base of the tray through the tray mounting mechanism such that the accessories can interchangeably be mounted and demounted in and off the tray based in the use desired; wherein said clutching mechanism is as defined above:   wherein each one of the food or beverage holding accessory has a structure adapted for a specific type of food or beverage.       
 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0023]      FIG. 1  illustrates a perspective view of a tray according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
           [0024]      FIG. 2  illustrates a plan view of a tray according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
           [0025]      FIG. 3  illustrates a perspective view of an accessory according to one embodiment of the present invention. 
           [0026]      FIGS. 4 a  and 4 b    illustrate a plan view of some examples of accessories according to one embodiment of the present invention. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
       [0027]    The tray of the present invention incorporates various features and combinations for improving the security and safety during the transportation of food and drinks. 
         [0028]      FIG. 1  illustrates a perspective view of a tray according to one embodiment of the present invention. The tray comprises a body having a base  110  and two side panels  120 , each of said panels  120  being integrated with the base  110  thus forming the frame structure or the body of the tray ( 110 + 120 ). In one embodiment of the invention, the base  110  is square or rectangular having two pairs of opposite sides, a first pair of opposite sides having a first side and a second side and a second pair of opposite sides having a third side and a fourth side. One of the side panels  120  is located at a first side of the base  110  and the other side panel  120  is located at a second side of the base  110  opposite the first side. The base  110  has a top side and a bottom side, and both side panels  120  extend outwardly from the top side of the base  110 . The side panels  120  are preferably in the form of side walls forming a part of the edges of the tray. 
         [0029]    In an exemplary embodiment of the present invention as shown in  FIGS. 1 and 2 , the base  110  has a rectangular shape. However other geometries such as square, triangular or circular shapes are also possible. 
         [0030]    The tray of the present invention has an adequate size to be held by a user without any difficulties. In a preferred embodiment, the width of the tray is within the range of 20-40 cm, preferably 30 cm and more preferably 27 cm. The length of the tray may range from 20 cm to 70 cm; preferably, from 25 cm to 60 cm. Examples of preferred sizes of the tray of the present invention are 27 cm×27 cm; 35 cm×27 cm and 55 cm×27 cm (Length×Width). In the case of a circular shape of the tray, the sizes of the tray of the present invention may range from 20-40 cm in diameter, preferably, 30 cm and more preferably, 27 cm in diameter. 
         [0031]    In one embodiment of the present invention, the base  110  and side panels  120  are made of a strong material able to hold a certain weight of articles, in particular glasses, cups and teapots. Preferred materials that can be used are selected from plastic, such as melamine or acrylic, or wood. Preferably, the base  110  and both side panels  120  are made of wood. 
         [0032]    The tray further comprises two rails  130  extending along the second pair of opposite sides of the base  110  such that one of the rails  130  extends along the third side of the base  110  and another rail  130  extends along the fourth side of the base  110  opposite the third side. The rails  130  are supported by the side walls  120  at their extremities which preferably have openings adapted to receive and securely hold the rails  130 . In one embodiment, the rails are securely held in place inside the openings of the side panels  120  using screws  131 . 
         [0033]    The rails  130  of the present invention are made of any adequate material. Examples of materials that can be used for this purpose are selected from plastic, wood and metal, preferably, metallic material, more preferably, stainless steel. 
         [0034]    As illustrates in  FIG. 1  an accessory  140  is configured to be mounted on the rails  130 . The accessory  140  comprises a clutching mechanism (not shown) located at the bottom side of the accessory  140  at a predetermined position, such that the clutching mechanism is adapted to be clutched to the rails  130  and therefore the accessory  140  is securely held in place using the rails  130 . 
         [0035]    In an embodiment of the invention, the clutching mechanism is a magnetic clutching mechanism adapted to securely hold the accessory  140  on the rails  130  through a magnetic effect. 
         [0036]    In an embodiment of the invention, the clutching mechanism of the accessory  140  comprises magnets and the rails  130  comprise ferromagnetic material such as iron or nickel, preferably iron, adapted to be magnetized by the magnet. The magnets are positioned within the accessory  140  in a manner for enabling the accessory  140  to be securely coupled to the rails through a magnetic effect. 
         [0037]    According to another embodiment of the invention, the magnets and the ferromagnetic material can be located interchangeably between the rails  130  and the accessory  140  in such a manner to allow the accessory to be securely held in place using the rails  130 . For example, the rails  130  can contain the magnets and the clutching mechanism of the accessory  140  can contain the ferromagnetic material. 
         [0038]    As illustrated in  FIG. 2 , the tray of the present invention more than one accessory  140   a  and  140   b  with different structures can be simultaneously mounted on the trails  130 . In this way the user can easily select different types of accessories depending on the type of food and/or beverage to be simultaneously mounted on the tray. 
         [0039]    According to another embodiment of the invention, the clutching mechanism is a mechanical clutching mechanism adapted to enable a mechanical clutching between the rails  130  and the accessory  140 . The mechanical clutching mechanism can be a clicking or gripping mechanism for example. In an embodiment of the invention, as illustrated in  FIGS. 1 and 3 , the accessory  140  comprises grooves  141  located at the bottom side of the accessory  140  at a predetermined position adapted to securely receive and hold the rails in place such that the accessory  140  is securely mounted on the tray by the effect of the mechanical clutching enabled by the engagement of the grooves  141  and the rails  130 . The size of the grooves  141  is adjusted in such a manner that when the accessory  140  is mounted onto the rails  130 , the accessory shall remain seized to give stability to the accessory, but at the same time the accessory  140  should be easy to be removed from the rails  130  so that a user can easily mount and demount the accessory  140  from the tray without any difficulties. 
         [0040]    In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the accessory  140  is movable along the rails. In this way the user is able to easily move the accessories  140  from one side to the other of the tray if needed. 
         [0041]    In an embodiment of the present invention, the magnetic mechanism comprises one or more pieces of a magnet located at the bottom side of the accessory  140 , and at a predetermined position in such way that the accessory  140  is mounted onto the rails  130  through said one or more pieces of a magnet, and wherein the rails  130  are made of a metallic material. 
         [0042]    The accessory  140  is adapted to hold said one or more pieces of a magnet, and wherein said magnet is located at a predetermined position. In an embodiment of the present invention, the bottom side of the accessory  140  comprises two openings containing the magnets. The shape of both openings and the magnet is preferably circular due to the nature of the magnet. 
         [0043]    In another embodiment of the present invention, the bottom side of the accessory  140  comprises a coating layer comprising a magnetic material adapted to magnetize the rails in order to securely hold the accessory on the rails  130 . 
         [0044]    In another embodiment of the present invention, the tray of the present invention comprises a plurality of accessories  140   a  and  140   b  that can interchangeably be mounted on and demounted off the tray depending on the desired specific use (see  FIG. 2 ). This is very advantageous since it is possible to have different type of food and beverage each located in a specific accessory in the same tray. 
         [0045]    Different structures of the accessory can be used in the tray of the present invention.  FIGS. 2-4  show examples of said structures where different types of food and beverage can be presented depending on the structure of the accessories. For examples, nuts can be presented in the accessory  140   a  (see  FIG. 2 ), while sweets in the accessory  140  (See  FIGS. 1 and 3 ) or  140   b  (see  FIG. 2 ). Portions of cheese and/or toasted breads can be presented, for example, using the accessory  140   c  (see  FIG. 4 a   ) having an adequate shape  141   c  for this purpose. Glasses or cup can be held, for example, using the accessory  140   d  comprising one or more area having a circular shape  141 D adequate to hold said glasses or cups as illustrated in  FIG. 4   b.    
         [0046]    In one embodiment of the present invention, when the frame structure or the body of the tray has a circular shape, the coupled accessory has preferably a circular shape and comprises a circular groove located at the bottom side of said accessory and along the periphery thereof; in such way that when the accessory is mounted onto the rail through said circular groove, said accessory is movable around its central axis. In this way the user can easily reach the refreshments by only moving the accessory around it central axis. 
         [0047]    While only certain preferred embodiments of the present invention has been described, it is understood that many variations are possible without departing from the principles of this invention as defined by the claims below. 
         [0048]    In particular, although the description has specified certain features and materials that may be used in the present invention, those skilled in the art will appreciate that many modifications and substitutions may be made. Accordingly it intended that all such modifications, alterations, substitutions and additions be considered to fall within the spirit and scope of the invention.