Abstract:
A device for foot operation of the cover of a cooking instrument, such as a barbecue grill, includes a lever located so as to be operated by a foot, a lift support attached to the cover of the cooking instrument and a linkage connecting the foot operated lever and the lift support. A spring connected to the lift support assists in operating the lid with only a small amount of foot pressure. The foot operated lever can be moved so as to lock the cover in the open position. This enables the cover of the cooking instrument to be safely and conveniently operated in a “no hands” manner.

Description:
REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application claims the priority of U.S. Provisional patent application Ser. No. 60/337,457 filed Nov. 8, 2001. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     This invention relates to grills, barbecues and cooking instruments and specifically to a foot operated device to open and close a hinged cover (lid) safely and conveniently, while heating and cooking. 
     2. Discussion of the Prior Art 
     Three out of four American households own barbecues. Americans light their barbecues 2.9 billion times a year. Originally outdoor charcoal and wood barbecues came with no covers. Thereafter with covers, and then with hinged covers. Followed by gas grills with hinged covers and then covers with see through fronts. Temperature gauges and other devices were then installed on them. The advantages of leaving the cover closed while heating and cooking is enhanced by the present invention. 
     Keeping the cover closed during cooking will retain a remarkable amount of the heat and moisture (at least fifty to seventy five percent) along with other gases, promoting even and thorough cooking. When keeping the cover closed there is less chance of charring (blackening) the foods because the moisture is enclosed. The applicant&#39;s present embodiments are directed toward the significant easing of the operation of the cover (closing and opening) of cooking instruments, grills and the like, in a manner that focuses on substantially improving the overall operation of the cover while cooking. 
     As is seen in the prior art below there are a number of designs to keep the cover partially open and that enhance the use of the cover: 
     U.S. Pat. No. 4,895,130 by Staschke, M. issued 1990, uses an attachable metal toothed device with a handle. It is manually adjusted by hand for positioning the cover height to which would be attached about the front of cooking instrument to hold the cover open. 
     U.S. Pat. No. 5,458,053 by Hsiao; Yung-Fang issued 1995 uses a relatively complex mechanical hand cranking system for positioning the cover, is probably cost effective for only commercially sized cooking instruments. 
     U.S. Pat. No. 5,918,588 by Garcia V. issued 1999 uses a electromechanical device for the automatic closing and opening of the cover with electric power, this is likely useful for an “assembly line” of food that always has a constant size or mass. 
     U.S. Pat. No. 5,829,426 by Cloutier, A. issued 1998 uses a handle operated lid positioner for different openings. 
     Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 6,112,336 by Markle, issued 2000 shows a cable operated device for lifting a toilet seat. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention is directed to a device for foot operation of the cover of a cooking instrument, such as a barbecue grill, and includes a lever located so as to be operated by a foot, a lift support attached to the cover of the cooking instrument and a linkage connecting the foot operated lever and the lift support. A spring connected to the lift support assists in operating the lid with only a small amount of foot pressure. The foot operated lever can be moved so as to lock the cover in the open, partially opened, or closed positions. This enables the cover of the cooking instrument to be safely and conveniently operated in a “no hands” manner. 
     “No Hands” operation makes the cooking instrument safer and more convenient to operate, as the operator does not have to put down cooking utensils or food when opening the cover. Ease of cover operation means that the grill can be operated more frequently with the cover closed, which translates to speedier and healthier cooking using less fuel. Furthermore, ease of operation will enable the handicapped or elderly to cook in a safer and more convenient manner. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     For a better understanding of the invention, reference is made to the following drawings which are to be taken in conjunction with the detailed description to follow in which: 
     FIG. 1 Shows a left rear perspective view of main elements of the present invention with the cover of the cooking instrument in the closed position. 
     FIG. 2 Shows a left side view of main elements with the cover of the cooking instrument in the closed position. 
     FIG. 3 Shows an exploded view of control lever  14  and control bracket  18 , showing the extended horizontal movement of control lever  14 . 
     FIG. 4 Shows a left front view of control lever  14  moving vertically and horizontally with control bracket  18 . 
     FIG. 5 Shows a top exploded view of control lever  14 , driven lever  28 , control bracket  18  and driven bracket  26 , and a partial view of link arm  32 . 
     FIG. 6 Shows a side elevation of the main elements with the movement of the cover in the open position shown in phantom. 
     FIG. 7 Shows an alternate front view of an additional embodiment cooking instrument of utilizing a Rod Arm System. 
     FIG. 7A Shows a rear view of an additional embodiment of the cooking instrument with an lever, pulley and wire cover lifting system. 
     FIG. 7B Shows a left rear view of a double pulley system. 
     FIG. 8 Shows a front view of an additional embodiment of a cooking instrument with hinges for cover lid to the left side of the operator 
     FIG. 8A Shows a view with of a multi-position control bracket with a multi-position control lever. 
     FIG. 8B Shows a view of the multi-position control bracket with a multi-position control lever. 
     FIG. 8C Shows a front view of the multi-position control bracket and control lever. 
     FIG. 9 Shows a view of an embodiment using three lift springs. 
     FIG. 9A Shows a view of the embodiment using three lift springs in a partially opened position 
     FIG. 9B Shows a view of the embodiment using three lift springs in a fully opened position 
     FIG. 10 Shows a side view of an additional embodiment of a cooking instrument with a motorized cover lift. 
     FIG. 10A Shows a front view of an alternate assembled retractable safety support bracket. 
     FIG. 10B Shows a view of the two main elements of the retractable safety lift supported position 
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     A cooking instrument  10 , such as a grill, having a base  11  is shown in FIGS. 1-6 and has a foot operated cover lifting device including a control bracket  18  which is a right angle piece of metal which has six holes, two holes  20 A are for mounting to base  11  of grill  10  shown in (FIG. 4) by conventional hardware (not shown). Another hole  18 P (FIG. 3) mounts a stainless steel pivot bolt  16  which is connected with a pivotal Control Lever  14  which is a rectangular length of metal with two holes and a bend  14 A at one end. Control lever  14  mounts to bracket  18  in an oversized hole  14 P with a plurality of stainless steel disc or Lever Guide Springs  16 D (FIGS. 3,  5 ) with three washers  16 W and two stainless nuts  16 N. Also mounted on control bracket  18  (FIGS. 1,  4 ) are three extrusions punched to form position holding fingers: a limit finger  18 S, an open finger  18 O and a closed finger  18 C. The other remaining hole  14 L of lever  14  (FIG. 5) is used to pivotally connect to a Control Link Arm  22 T which is a rectangular length of metal with one hole at each end. Assembly of link arm  22 T to control lever  14  is by means of bolt a  22 B one washer, two nuts, an oversized hole  22 L, lever guide springs  22 D are spaced between arm  22 T and lever  14  with two nuts, as shown in FIG.  5 . 
     As shown in FIG. 1, a Driven Bracket  26  is a right angle metal bracket with three holes in it, two holes  20 B are for mounting to base  11  of grill  10  by conventional hardware (not shown), the remaining hole  26 P (FIG. 5) is for a pivot bolt  24 . A driven lever  28 , which is a length of rectangular metal with three holes, one of which is a pivot hole  28 P, is pivotally attached to bracket  26  with two flat washers and two nuts, another hole  28 L is for attaching driven lever  28  to arm  22 T with oversized hole  22 F and by means of a stainless bolt  22 E, one washer, two lever guide springs  28 D and two nuts, shown in FIG.  5 . The last hole  28 F of driven lever  28  is for pivotally attaching a Final Link Arm  32  which is also a length of rectangular metal, with two holes. One hole in arm  32  at  32 L (FIG. 5) is for the connection to arm  22 T which is assembled with a stainless bolt  32 A and conventional hardware shown in FIG.  5 . The other hole  32 F of arm  32  (FIG. 2) is for a stainless bolt and conventional hardware and is to attach to conventional eye-bolt hardware  40 F. 
     A Lift Support  40  is a metal bar which is rectangular and will have five holes in it, two of which  20 D shown in FIG. 2 are for mounting to the top of a grill cover  44 A by means of conventional hardware (not shown) and extends out to the back of grill  10 . The other three holes of lift support  40  are: a hole for attaching an adjustable eye-bolt  40 S to lift  40  (FIG.  2 ), then this attaches to a Transfer Drop Arm  36  which is a rectangular length of metal with two holes, the second hole is for drop arm  36  connecting by eye-bolt  40 S to other side of lift spring  34 . The third hole of support  40  is for fastening a adjustable eye-bolt  40 F which is used for connection to link arm  32  at  32 F with conventional hardware. The last hole is for a stainless steel threaded rod  38  and is attached to support  40  with stainless wing nuts  38  A rectangular metal bar forms a Stationary Support  30  (FIG. 2) and has three holes and one bend in it. Two holes  20 C are for attaching to the bottom (brazier)  44 B of cooking apparatus  10  by conventional hardware (not shown). Support  30  extends out behind bottom  44 B. The other hole of support  30  is for attachment to lift spring  34  by means of conventional eye-bolt hardware  30 S (FIG.  2 ). 
     Lift Spring  34  is a stainless steel spring wire wound tightly for tensional utility and is often called a tension or extension spring (FIGS. 1,  2 ). A pair of Pivot Springs  86  and  92  are attached between cover  44 A and bottom  44 B through elongated hinge bolts (not shown) with conventional hardware (not shown). Springs  86 , 92  are disposed at the hinge area for the cover  44 A and bottom  44 B. Pivot Springs  86  and  92  are stainless steel spring wire wound circularly for torsional use. Lever Guide Springs  16 D,  22 D,  28 D are stainless steel spring cupped washers often called disc springs used in light compression as shown in FIGS. 3 and 5. A Closer Shock Spring  48  is a high temperature spring steel wire wound circularly with spacing often called a compression spring, spring  48  can be attached to Cover  44 A with conventional hardware (not shown). 
     The operation of opening and closing the grill cover is shown in FIG. 2 (closed) and FIG. 6 (open). When facing the front of cooking instrument  10  control lever  14  is disposed outward in the rested position with bend  14 A a few inches from the floor. Bend  14 A will be far out enough so when standing at that position the chef will he clear of the rising smoke and heat when the cover is raised. When Cover  44 A is closed, lever  14  can pivot vertically and horizontally, as shown in FIG.  4 . When one touches down on lever  14  with a foot, from its closed position, at finger  18 C in (FIG. 1) several events happen. At first, lever  14  pivots off mounted control bracket  18  at bolt  16  enabling the opposite end of lever  14  to pull up on control link  22 T. Then the other end of link  22 T, which is connected to driven lever  28 , causes lever  28  to pivot around pivot bolt  24  mounted on driven bracket  26 . The other end of lever  28  then pulls downwardly on link arm  32  which is joined to pull down lift support  40  mounted to lid  44 A which opens cover  44 A with the assistance of lift spring  34  which makes the operation quite easy. 
     The second function for lever  14  is to lock, by the individual&#39;s foot pressure, lever  14  to control bracket  18 . The disc springs  16 D,  22 D,  28 D, when slightly pre-loaded on assembly allow lever  14  and control link  22 T to move horizontally and return to an aligned position. By way of moving the foot down to where lever  14  is under finger  18 O shown at FIGS. 1 and 4 cover  44 A will then stay open. Finger  18 O has an angle that guides lever  14  to the left when it is on its way down to the limit stop finger  18 S. When lever  14  has passed finger  18 O toward finger  18 S it will follow over to the right by the disc springs force, and the under  18 O. When releasing foot pressure on lever  14  it will hold under finger  18 O and stop lid  44 A from closing thereby easily leaving the cover open and locked. Additional fingers may be provided to lock the cover at various partially opened positions. The fingers may also be higed to the braket to allow the user to use or not use certain fingers. 
     Several other parts of the present embodiment function in opening cover  44 A, the torsion springs or pivot springs  86  and  92  will apply force. When the cover is approaching open at approximately 86 degrees, the pivot spring  86  is applied to keep a slightly positive force to close the lid whenever lever  14  is released with the foot. The other pivot spring  92  is applied later at approximately 92 degrees opening (when cover  44 A is beginning to fall back), then it starts to counter the weight of lid  44 A from falling back. These springs are sized to provide enough torsion to lightly assist in moving lid  44 A back to the closed position. Also when lever  14  is applied, lift spring  34  gradually begins to lose its effectiveness at about  75  to  87  degrees upon opening the cover. Lift spring  34  is in tension and makes the weight of lid  44 A minimal when moved by lever  14   
     The size of spring  34  will be different on other types of grills because the size and weight of the covers will not be the same, along with other factors such as pivot position, effective length of support  40 , and the amount of food on the cover warming up. Transfer drop arm  36  is used as a floating link hinge so spring  34  will fall freely and drop out of the way. Otherwise it may be bound up in its retracted solid form, and jam the cover lifting operation, between support  40  (at eye-bolt  40 S) and stationary support  30  (at eye-bolt  30 S). When cover  44 A is open it will be resting (with lever  14  under finger  18 O) and at a stop position created by the location and adjustment of threaded rod  38 . Rod  38  will contact the back wall of bottom  44 B. Rod  38  is adjusted on lift support  40  by loosening wing nuts  38 W and turning the rod to stop lid  44 A to set the open position of cover  44 A. 
     When lid  44 A is being closed several elements of the present embodiments are utilized. Upon moving down and to the left with foot pressure on lever  14  from under finger  18 O and then releasing it, lid  44 A will start closing, threaded Rod Stop  38  releases from the back wall of bottom  44 B. Pivot spring  92  in (FIG. 1) begins to no longer be applied, next pivot spring  86  also begins to not apply, gravity then starts to bring cover  44 A to a close. Thereafter lift spring  34  starts application of force to minimize the weight and speed at which lid  44 A closes. Lever  14  then returns to its place at finger  18 C. About the same time bottom  44 B becomes in close contact with the compression spring  48  on lid  44 A which will stop any hammer effects when lid  44 A is closed against brazier  44 B. Lift spring  34  has now extended to full length, reducing the weight of cover  44 A to almost nothing the next time it is opened. 
     Shown in FIG. 7 is an alternate embodiment of the present invention using a rod arm system comprising two rotating rods for operating the cover. The control rod is round stock having a plurality of angled bends and pivoting off a control bracket mounted on the grill frame. A final link bar consisting a metal bar with two eyes in it is connected to the grill cover. A similar control bracket as in the above described embodiment is used. The main element (control rod) is a multi-purpose clement replacing the driven bracket, control and driven lever, and hardware. The advantages are less material and this system will make mounting to pedestal grills and the like easier. 
     Shown in FIG. 7A is a single lever system comprising the control bracket  18  and control lever  14  as in the embodiment of FIGS. 1-6 and then including a rotatable pulley, with a groove about its circumference and mounted for rotation to a bracket, similar to driven bracket  26  (excluding driven lever  28 ) in the preferred embodiment, and having a control wire. One end of the control wire will have means for fastening to control lever  14  with conventional hardware (not shown). The other end of control wire having length wraps around the pulley and is fastened to lift support  40  with conventional hardware (not shown).The operation of control lever  14  will urge control wire to pull down on lift support  40  and lift the grill cover. As shown in (FIG. 7B) the single diameter pulley can be replaced with a two diameter pulley/two wire system which provides mechanical advantage to the system. This alternate double pulley will substantially decrease the travel needed for by lever  14  to lift the cover  44 A. 
     FIGS. 8 show another embodiment of bracket  16  made from a rectangular length of metal pressed slightly to raise a plurality of sectioned surfaces and having one right angle bend as shown in FIG. 8B this metal control bracket can replace and improve the preferred embodiment control bracket  18  (fingers)  18 S, 18 O, 18 C, by only dimpling the metal for the position controlling (holding points with movement of lever  14 ) of the cover. This bracket has a multi-position control throughout the cover opening process, allowing the chef to control the heat and moisture in cooking, and elongated mounting slots so that it can be retracted when not in use. This can also eliminate the lever guide springs  16 D,  22 D,  28 D used in the preferred embodiment. 
     FIG. 9 show another embodiment of the present invention using three springs to replace lift spring  34 . FIG. 9A shows an upper tension spring  50 A with one pivot hook loop SOB attached to the lift support with conventional threaded eyebolt hardware and wing nuts. A lower tension spring  52 A of a length and different tension than spring  50 A is terminated to a stationary support  52 B. The other ends of tension springs  50 A and  50 B are hooked together as shown at  54 A,  54 B. A third control spring  56 A of lesser length and tension to is hooked at  56 B to the hinged cover of the cooking instrument, the other end  54 C is joined to the main springs  50 A  52 A at  54 C by interconnecting loops. A spring plunger  58  is mounted to the brazier to form a cover stop. 
     The two main springs  50 A,  52 A will decrease and increase in tension in conjunction with the mechanical movement of the cover and also by the changing distance and rate of tension of control spring  56 A, see FIGS. 9B and 9C. As the cover becomes fully closed and the weight of it is maximized, the distance between the connections of the inline two main springs  50 A,  52 A to control springs  56 A mounting is shortened. This lessens the deflection of main springs  50 A,  52 A allowing them to work at minimizing the cover weight. As the cover begins to open, and becomes lighter the distance between the main springs  50 A,  52 A and third control spring  56 A is increased and thereby decreases the tension by control spring  56 A deflecting (weakening) main springs  50 A,  52 A. As the cover completes its opening, the weight is considerably less requiring a lessened amount of tension. This is accomplished by the shorter mechanical distance of the springs, the retraction of main springs  50 A,  52 A, and the final smaller tension from control spring  56 A. As the cover is fully opened spring loaded plunger  58  takes up the excess weight of the cover and provides an urge to the cover as it is mechanically compressed. The advantages of the arrangement of FIG. 9 are: to provide a large spring “pull” in a small space by the folding of the main inline springs by the spring tension of the third spring, to urge the main springs to fold together and out of the conventional path upon the movement of the cover, and to eliminate the drop link arm  36  in FIG. 2, of the preferred embodiment. 
     FIG. 10 shows an alternate embodiment of a cover opening and closing device for a cooking instrument having a reversible high torque electric motor  60 , a forward and reversing switch  66 , a mechanical wire  62  connected to the cover of the cooking instrument, a pulley  61 , two limit control proximity sensors (not shown), and a power supply ( 63 ). Motor  63  will have limit stop switches (proximity switches) for opening and closing the cover with the ability to stop in any position within the covers full range of opening and closing. FIGS. 10A and 10B show a drawing jib  68  which is a piece of a right angle length of metal with three holes in it, a Ledger Support  70  which is a one piece right angle length of metal with two holes and one elongated slotted hole in it with a threaded bolt, four washers, one compression spring, and two nuts connecting the two parts which are used to replace support  40  in the preferred embodiment. 
     Other additional embodiments may be employed, without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, including the use of cables or chains (such as beaded chains) to replace certain of the levers in the linkage system, such as but not limited to lever  32 . The brackets  18 ,  26  used to mount the linkage can be constructed of any suitable materials, can be mounted at any appropriate location on the cooking instrument, can be combined into a single bracket and can be made integral with the cooking instrument. Similarly multiple levers can be be combined into a single lever. A counterweight system can be used instead of a lift spring to counterbalance the weight of the cover and where the cover is sufficiently light, a counterweight or spring can be eliminated entirely. 
     The present invention has been described with respect to exemplary embodiments. However, as those skilled in the art will recognize, modifications and variations in the specific details which have been described and illustrated may be resorted to without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.