Abstract:
The wire chafing stand of the present invention includes a rim of wire steel in a substantially rectangular configuration, lateral sides and a longitudinal axis extending from the lateral sides, at least two wire legs and a wire connecting assembly. In the preferred embodiment, the wire stand has only two wire legs lying in planes transverse to the longitudinal axis with each wire leg having two upright sections affixed to the longitudinal side of the rim.

Description:
FIELD OF INVENTION 
     This invention relates to an improved wire chafing stand which can be readily stacked in a nested relationship with other wire chafing stands of the same design for compact storage and transportation. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     A wire chafing stand is a device used to support aluminum pans and auxiliary fuel heaters for maintaining and heating pre-cooked food at a remote location from the kitchen where the food was originally prepared and cooked. The cost of transportation from the point of manufacture to the distributor and/or to the retailer is a critical economic factor in the pricing of the wire chafing stand. 
     The chafing stand is designed as an open structure preferably of wire rod steel having predetermined physical dimensions as needed to hold, support and heat a chafing dish when placed thereon. Although the chafing stand has little weight its physical dimensions occupy substantial volume. Accordingly, to minimize the cost of shipping and transportation the chafing stand must be designed to permit a multiple number of stands to be nested together in a compact arrangement in which the nested stands are readily separated from one another for independent usage. Each stand must also function to support a plurality of chafing fuel heaters for heating a chafing dish on the chafing stand. To minimize the cost of manufacture, the wire chafing stand should be designed for minimal human handling and provisions for the chafing fuel heaters should be integral to the design of the stand. 
     A commercially available chafing stand is described by applicant in U.S. Pat. No. 5,921,513 the disclosure of which is herein incorporated by reference. This chafing stand includes a separate upper and lower wire rim interconnected by means of symmetrically positioned wire legs at each corner of the stand which in combination with the upper and lower rim construction provides the structural support for the stand. The lower rim is designed to include a plurality of holders for chafing fuel heaters. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The wire chafing stand of the present invention is preferably constructed using only one wire rim and has at least two supporting legs extending therefrom. This significantly reduces the cost of manufacture relative to the stand described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,921,513. When the design is limited to two legs, each should extend from the rim on opposite lateral sides of the stand in a configuration which keeps the stand level with the ground and provides ample structural support for the stand. The rim may have any desired geometry although a rectangular geometry is preferred. The lateral sides of the rim may have handles for manually lifting the chafer from the chafing stand. These handles may be integrally formed as part of the lateral sides of the rim or separately welded thereto. A wire holder connector assembly is used to bridge the legs for supporting chafing fuel heaters. An alternate embodiment of the present invention employs two wire rims similar in construction to the stand described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,921,513 but with an improved lower rim design for supporting multiple holders of chafing fuel heaters. 
     The preferred wire chafing stand embodiment of the present invention comprises a single rim of generally rectangular configuration having two lateral sides and two wire legs. Each wire leg is in a configuration forming two upstanding sections and a bottom section. The bottom section may be further divided into a plurality of segments including, e.g., two flat segments and a raised segment. The bottom section keeps the stand level with the ground. The stand also includes a wire holder connector assembly which is preferably connected to the raised section of each wire leg to support a plurality of chafing fuel heaters. The wire legs are preferably welded to the rim near the lateral sides of the stand and preferably include an offset adjacent the interconnection of the wire leg to the rim to facilitate the nesting of multiple stands in tandem so as to minimize space for shipping and transporting multiple chafing stands. The offset in each leg laterally displaces the leg relative to the point of attachment with the rim so that the wire legs in one chafing stand can nest a substantial distance within another chafing stand with the rim of each stand in close proximity without causing significant wedging to occur. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     Other advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings of which: 
     FIG. 1 is an isometric view of a preferred embodiment of the chafing stand of the present invention; 
     FIG. 2 is an end view taken along the lines  2 — 2  of FIG. 1; 
     FIG. 3 is a front view taken along the lines  3 — 3  of FIG. 1; 
     FIG.4 is an isometric view of another embodiment of the chafing stand of FIG. 1; 
     FIG. 5 is an end view taken along the lines  5 — 5  of FIG. 4; 
     FIG. 6 is a front view taken along the lines  6 — 6  of FIG. 4; 
     FIG. 7 is an isometric view of yet another embodiment of the chafing stand of FIG. 1; 
     FIG. 8 is a plan view of the lower rim shown in FIG. 7; 
     FIG. 9 is a plan view of another embodiment of the lower rim shown in FIG. 7; 
     FIG. 10 is an isometric view of yet another embodiment of the chafing stand of FIG. 1; 
     FIG. 11 is a view of the combination handle and wire leg of FIG. 10; 
     FIG. 12 is a partial view of the wire leg arrangement of the wire chafing stand in FIG. 1 showing another embodiment of a wire holder connector assembly in accordance with the present invention; 
     FIG. 13 is a cross sectional end view of the stand of FIG. 1 taken along the lines  13 — 13  of FIG. 12; and 
     FIG. 14 is a cross sectional front view of the stand of FIG. 1 taken along the lines  14 — 14 . of FIG.  12 . 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     Referring now in detail to FIGS. 1-3 representing a preferred embodiment of the chafing stand  10  of the present invention. The stand  10  includes only a single rim  12  of generally rectangular geometry, a handle  14  integrally formed on each opposite lateral side of the rim  12  and two wire legs  15  extending from the rim  12 . The rim  12  is preferably formed of a single continuous wire with the handles  14  formed in one operation. The construction of the chafing stand  10  with only a single rim and two wire legs on opposite sides thereof permits the legs to be moved relatively deeper when stacking a plurality of stands  10  together thereby allowing a greater number of stands to be stacked within a given space for storage and transportation relative to the number of stands having the construction shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,921,513. This creates a shorter stack of stands in a given vertical height. 
     The two wire legs  15  are welded to the rim  12  on the opposite longitudinal sides  13  of the stand  10  at points  16   a,    16   b,    16   c  and  16   d  and may be placed relatively close to each lateral side  17 . Each wire leg  15  has two upstanding side sections  18  interconnected by a bottom section  19 . The upstanding side sections  18  may be tapered to lie at an inclined angle relative to the bottom section  19  as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 or may be perpendicular thereto as shown in the embodiment of FIGS. 9 and 11. The bottom section  19  may be formed of three segments  20 ,  21  and  22  as shown more clearly in FIG. 2 with the outer segments  20  and  22  being level and in alignment relative to one another for placement level with the ground and with the intermediate segment  21  raised to an elevated level. A wire holder connector assembly  24  bridges each raised segment  21  and is of a configuration to support a plurality of chafing fuel heaters  25 , as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3. The wire holder connector assembly  24  includes two parallel wire rod connectors  26 , each having a configuration with two depressed sections  27  in which the chafing fuel heaters  25  are mounted and two straight wires  28  in parallel alignment with the connectors  26  with one wire  28  located on each opposite side of a wire connector  26  to hold the chafing fuel heaters  25  secure within the depressed sections  27 . 
     To facilitate nesting between a multiple number of wire stands  10  each wire leg  15  has an offset  30  located in the upstanding section  18  just below the welded interconnections  16   a - 16   d.  The offsets  30  may be formed by a bending or crimping operation or by stamping each leg  15  in a press to indent the wire leg  15  to cause a lateral displacement at each interconnection of the wire leg  15  and the rim  12 . The offsets  30  enable the wire legs  15  in one wire chafing stand  10  to readily nest within another wire chafing stand  10  so that the rim  12  of each stand will lie in relative close proximity without wedging. As such, each of the nested wire stand  10  may be easily separated from one another. The leg sections  18  preferably taper inwardly as the wire legs  15  extend downwardly from the rim  12  to the bottom section  19  although they may be parallel, as shown in FIGS. 9 and 11. 
     Another embodiment of the invention is shown in FIGS. 4-6, which relies only on the taper of the side sections  18  of each wire leg  15  to facilitate nesting of multiple stands  10 . The wire legs in this embodiment do not include offsets  30 . Accordingly, the ability to nest a multiple number of chafing stands  10  for this embodiment is primarily dependent upon the degree of taper of the side sections  18  for the rims  12  to nest close together. Although the stands  10  in this embodiment will not nest as well as in the embodiment of FIGS. 1-3 this embodiment is much less expensive to manufacture. In all of the embodiments, the handles  14  may be separately welded to the rim  12  to further simplify manufacturing and a wire holder connector assembly  32  may be used having two wire connectors  33  with each having only one depressed portion  34  to hold chafing fuel heaters  25 . Moreover, only two straight wires  36  are needed on opposite sides of the connectors  33  to provide support for the chafing fuel heaters  25  when placed in the depressed portion  34 . The two straight wires  36  are placed in parallel alignment with the connectors  33  with one wire  36  located on each opposite side of a wire connector  33  to hold the chafing fuel heaters  25  secure within the depressed sections  34 . 
     Another embodiment of the present invention employs the wire holder connector assembly  24  of FIG. 1 with a chafing stand  40 , as shown in FIG. 7, and is otherwise similar in construction to the arrangement taught in U.S. Pat. No. 5,921,513. The wire chafing stand  40  includes both an upper rim  42 , a lower rim  43  and a plurality of wire legs  44  which extend below the lower rim  43  to support the stand  40  on ground level. The wire holder connector assembly  24  is identical to its counterpart in the embodiment of FIG. 1 for supporting a plurality of chafing fuel heaters  25 . Alternatively, the wire holder connector assembly  32 , as shown in FIG. 4, may be used with the chafing stand  40  connected to the lower rim  43  as shown in FIG.  8 . 
     Yet another embodiment of the invention is shown in FIGS. 9-11 in which a chafing stand  50  is shown having an upper rim  52  and a lower rim  53  interconnected to one another using only two wire legs  54 . Each of the wire legs  54  is formed from a single continuous wire rod in a configuration forming a lower flat bottom section  55  extending below the lower rim  53  to support the stand  50  at ground level and two upright substantially vertical sections  56  and  57  which are interconnected by a wire rod member  58  in a U shaped configuration to function as a handle for the chafing stand  50 . One of the wire legs  54  is separately shown in an enlarged view in FIG.  11 . The stand  50  includes a wire holder connector assembly  24  as shown in FIG. 10 connected to the lower rim  53  of the stand  50 . The wire holder connector assembly  24  is identical to its counterpart wire holder connector assembly as shown in the embodiment of FIG. 1 for supporting a plurality of chafing fuel heaters  25 . Alternatively, a wire holder connector assembly  32 , as shown in the embodiment of FIG. 8, may be used with the chafing stand  50 . 
     FIGS. 12-14 is another alternate embodiment of a wire holder connector assembly  60  for supporting a plurality of chafing fuel heaters  25  employing only one wire rod connector  61  to bridge the raised segments  21  of two wire legs  15 , as in the embodiment of FIG. 1, and a plurality of ring like members  62  welded to the connector  61  and bent to form a cup like shape which will support chafing fuel heaters  25 , as shown in FIGS. 13 and 14. This embodiment of the wire holder connector assembly  60  may be substituted for the wire holder connector assembly in any of the other chafer stand embodiments of the present invention.