Patent ID: 8757140

Claim:
A barrier system for enhancing the safe operation of a commercial cooking appliance, the commercial cooking appliance having one or more burners disposed beneath an open cooking surface, the one or more burners used to heat the open cooking surface to an appropriate temperature for cooking thereon, the commercial cooking appliance including an exhaust well running the length of a back side of the cooking surface through which waste heat and waste gas produced by the burners is vented from beneath the cooking surface, the exhaust well including a backsplash that forms a front wall of the exhaust well, the backsplash extending in an upwardly direction along the back end of the cooking surface to a first height above the cooking surface, the barrier system comprising: a barrier member configured to be coupled to the backsplash of the commercial cooking appliance so that it extends upwardly to a second height above the cooking surface that is substantially greater than the first height of the backsplash above the cooking surface, the barrier member having a length that extends substantially along the entire length of the exhaust well and back side of the cooking surface; and an attachment assembly comprising at least one retaining clip, the attachment assembly affixed to the back of the barrier member and capable of coupling the barrier member to the backsplash to create a continuous extension of the backsplash whereby the barrier member is supported against rotation-to maintain the barrier member in its upward orientation; and an accessory staging feature extending along a length of a topmost portion of the barrier member, the accessory staging feature having a cross-section shaped like an inverted squared “J”.