Abstract:
A barbecue has a body with a combustion area and a cooking surface. A cover is attached hingedly to the body, and a foot pedal is situated beneath the combustion area and is attached mechanically to the cover to enable the cover to be lifted or lowered pivotally upon manipulation of the foot pedal. The barbecue further includes legs extending downwardly from the body and the foot pedal is attached to a pedal lever that is attached pivotally to one of the legs.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    The present invention relates to barbecues. More particularly, although not exclusively, the invention relates to a gas-fired, or charcoal bed barbecue having a foot-operated cover-lifting/lowering device.  
           [0002]    When entertaining guests at a barbecue, the barbecue chef often has his or her hands full. For example, the chef might have barbecue tongs in one hand and a tray of meat in the other. This leaves no hand free for raising and lowering the cover of a covered barbecue and therefore, something must be put down, or an assistant commandeered to raise or lower the cover.  
           [0003]    In any case, even if-both hands are not occupied, the barbecue chef might have better things to do with his or her hands while tending a barbecue, than using them to raise and lower the cover.  
         OBJECT OF THE INVENTION  
         [0004]    It is an object of the present invention to overcome or substantially ameliorate the above disadvantage and/or more generally to provide a barbecue with a foot-operated cover raising/lowering device.  
         DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION  
         [0005]    There is disclosed herein a barbecue comprising:  
           [0006]    a body having a combustion area and a cooking surface,  
           [0007]    a cover hingedly attached to the body, and  
           [0008]    a foot pedal situated lower than the combustion area and attached mechanically to the cover to enable the cover to be lifted or lowered pivotally upon manipulation of the foot pedal.  
           [0009]    Preferably the barbecue further comprises legs extending downwardly from the body and the foot pedal is attached to a pedal lever that is attached pivotally to one of the legs.  
           [0010]    Preferably the cover includes a lever arm and a cable extends from the lever arm to the pedal lever.  
           [0011]    Preferably a spring is positioned between the cover and the body.  
           [0012]    Preferably the spring assists in bringing the cover to rest in an open position.  
           [0013]    Preferably the spring retains the cover in an open position irrespective of the position of the foot pedal.  
           [0014]    Preferably a return spring extends from one of the legs to the pedal lever. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0015]    Preferred forms of the present invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:  
         [0016]    [0016]FIG. 1 is a schematic side elevational view of a barbecue having its cover in a closed position,  
         [0017]    [0017]FIG. 2 is a schematic side elevational view of the barbecue of FIG. 1 with the cover in an open position,  
         [0018]    [0018]FIG. 3 is a schematic partial side elevational view of the hinged connection of the cover to the barbecue body showing a spring,  
         [0019]    [0019]FIG. 4 is a schematic partial side elevational view of the barbecue showing a return spring extending between one of its legs and a pedal lever,  
         [0020]    [0020]FIG. 5 is a schematic side elevational view of a barbecue having an alternative foot pedal mechanism, the view showing the barbecue cover closed,  
         [0021]    [0021]FIG. 6 is a schematic front elevational view of the barbecue of FIG. 5,  
         [0022]    [0022]FIG. 7 is a schematic side elevational view of the barbecue of FIG. 5, the view showing the barbecue cover open,  
         [0023]    [0023]FIG. 8 is a schematic front elevational view of the barbecue of FIG. 7,  
         [0024]    [0024]FIG. 9 is a schematic side elevational view of a barbecue having yet a further alternative foot pedal mechanism, the view showing the barbecue cover closed,  
         [0025]    [0025]FIG. 9 a  is a schematic detailed elevational view of the hinged attachment of the cover to the barbecue of FIG. 9,  
         [0026]    [0026]FIG. 10 is a schematic front elevational view of the barbecue of FIG. 9,  
         [0027]    [0027]FIG. 11 is a schematic side elevational view of the barbecue of FIG. 9, the view showing the barbecue cover open,  
         [0028]    [0028]FIG. 11 a  is a schematic detailed elevational view of the hinged attachment of the cover to the barbecue of FIG. 11, and  
         [0029]    [0029]FIG. 12 is a schematic front elevational view of the barbecue of FIG. 11. 
     
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT  
       [0030]    In FIGS.  1  to  4  of the accompanying drawings there is depicted schematically a barbecue  10 . Barbecue  10  is typically fabricated from pressed steel that might be galvanised and/or painted or powder coated. The barbecue  10  includes a body  11  having attached hingedly thereto at  17  a cover  12 .  
         [0031]    Within the body  11  there might be one or more gas burners or a charcoal bed for example. A cooking plate and/or grate (not shown) is located above the combustion area of the body.  
         [0032]    Extending downwardly from the body  11  are legs  13 . There might typically be three legs when the barbecue is substantially circular when viewed from above. There might be two legs at the back of the barbecue and one at the front. Alternatively, there might be four legs. As yet a further alternative, the barbecue might be mounted upon a wheeled frame, or fixed in a brickwork structure for example.  
         [0033]    Attached pivotally to the back leg or legs  15  is a pedal lever  14  having a foot pedal  19  at its distal (forward) extremity. A pulling cable  16  extends from a mid-portion of the pedal lever  14  to a lever arm  18  that extends from the cover  12 . Depression of the foot pedal  19  pulls the cable  16  downwardly so as to raise the cover  12  pivotally. To provide a buffer against over-travelling of the cover  12 , there might be provided a compression spring stop  20  positioned between the lever arm  18  and the body  14  as shown in FIG. 3. In operation, the barbecue chef might stomp on the pedal and the cover might open rapidly. The compression spring stop would assist in settlement of the cover in the open position. The barbecue chef could moderate opening of the cover by keeping his or her foot on the pedal. The cover might stay open by virtue of being over centre. That is, the centre of gravity of the cover might be behind the pivot point. It can be seen that if the user over-travels the pedal, the compression spring stop  20  would be more compressed. Rapid release of the pedal would allow the compression spring stop  20  to bounce the cover back over centre and thus the centre of gravity would be in front of the pivot point enabling it to return to the closed position again. This movement can be moderated by the use of the foot pedal. Decompression spring can act as a means of returning the cover to be closed position when a quick compression occurs by way of stomping on the foot pedal.  
         [0034]    In order to return the foot pedal  19  to its rest position, a return spring  21  can extend from one of the front legs  13  to the pedal lever  14 .  
         [0035]    As an alternative, a rigid operating rod or a Bowden cable could be used instead of a pulling cable. In the case where item  16  is a rigid rod or link, spring  20  might be a tension spring to assist raising of the cover  12 . That is, spring  20  would be a tension spring fixed permanently between the lever arm  18  and the body  14  as shown in FIG. 3. When such a tension spring is used, it will assist raising of the cover when opening and then the cover tends to stay open by virtue of the spring and the over-centre location of the cover when raised. In this case, the link  16  must be rigid so that raising the foot pedal can lower the cover.  
         [0036]    An alternative pedal lever arrangement is shown in FIGS.  5  to  8 . In this embodiment, the front leg  13  has extending from it a bracket  22 . This bracket might be welded, bolted, riveted or otherwise attached to the leg  13 . The pedal lever  14  can be operated so as not to only move vertically, but also laterally so as to be caught under a downwardly extending catch  23  of the bracket  22 .  
         [0037]    In FIGS. 5 and 6, the pedal lever  14  is shown in position alongside the bracket  22  for vertical movement to act on cable  16  as described earlier. However, when lowered to the level depicted in FIGS. 7 and 8 to thereby raise the corer  12 , the pedal lever  14  can be shifted laterally to position underneath the bracket  22  and retained thereagainst by the catch  23 . The cover  12  will have pivoted beyond its balance point to therefore maintain tension in the cable  16 . This tension will cause an upward force on the pedal lever  14 . When it is desired to lower the cover  12 , the foot pedal  19  can be depressed and shifted latterly to thereby release the pedal lever  14  from the catch  23 .  
         [0038]    A further embodiment is depicted in FIGS.  9  to  12 . Instead of having a cable, there is a rod  24 , typically made of metal, extending between the pedal lever  14  and the lever arm  18 . In this embodiment, there is no need for a bracket on the front leg is described with reference to FIGS.  5  to  8 . Instead, there is a tension spring  25  extending between the mode  11  and the cover  12 . The point at which the spring  25  is attached to the cover  12  is alongside the hinge  17  in an over-centre manner. That is, in the closed position of the cover  12  as shown in FIG. 9, the attachment point  26  of spring  25  is forward of the hinge point  17 . Tension in the spring  25  maintains a closing force on the cover  12 . When the cover  12  is opened by the application of downward force on the foot pedal  19 , attachment point  26  moves over the hinge point  17  to the position depicted in FIG. 11 to thereby place and maintain-open force on the cover. The application of an upward force to the foot pedal  19  will close the cover  12 .  
         [0039]    In all embodiments, the barbecue chef can raise the cover  12  by depression of the foot pedal  19  with his or her foot without having to touch the cover  12 .  
         [0040]    It should be appreciated that modifications and alterations obvious to those skilled in the art are not to be considered as beyond the scope of the present invention. For example, instead of a cable  16 , there might he a system of linkages between the foot pedal  19  and the cover  12 .