Cooking vessel made of metal material, with thermally insulated handles.

TEXT OF THE DESCRIPTION

The present invention relates to cooking vessels made of metal material, and in particular it relates to cooking vessels equipped with thermally insulated handles .

In metal cookware, the handles are generally also made of metal material, attached in various ways to the walls of the cookware, and often provided with suitable means to provide some thermal insulation so that the user can grip said handles without suffering too much from their warmth.

Among the various ways of attaching handles to the walls of a vessel, welding is often preferred, especially if steel vessels and handles are involved. In this case, of course, the area of the handle facing the wall and intended for welding must be free of any coating, so as to allow the welding machine the proper contact with its surface. Consequently, the handle area facing the bottom of the vessel will expose the user holding the vessel to contact with heated metal parts, with the risk of burns and, above all, loss of grip of the vessel that is being held.

Thus, the aim of the present invention is to provide a vessel equipped with handles that are thermally insulated while being conveniently weldable to the walls of the vessel, preferably made of the same material as the vessel itself, and coated with a thermally insulating plastic material in such a way that the effectiveness of welding the individual handle to the vessel is not compromised. Thus, an object of the present invention is a metal material vessel provided with handles, in which each handle is made of the same metal material as the vessel, and both handles are welded to the outer side wall of the vessel near its mouth; each handle comprises a single metal plate, folded so as to form a flap intended for coupling by welding to the side wall of the vessel, and a handle flap perpendicular to the axis of symmetry of the vessel, said plate being entirely covered with heat-insulating plastic material with the exception of the face of the flap intended for coupling with the side wall of the vessel, which faces the same side wall, and at least one area of the opposite face of the same flap, of limited proportions with respect to the same face, and provided with appropriate covering means, also of heat-insulating plastic material.

The shape and size of the plate are related to considerations of economy of construction and ergonomics of use. In view of the appropriate size of the handles relative to the vessel, ease of use, and simple assembly, a substantially ellipsoidal plate has been preferred, which is folded into two flaps of different sizes, with the handle flap larger than the flap for coupling with the vessel wall. Advantageously, where the pan is traditionally cylindrical, the flap intended for coupling is formed concave, with cylindrical symmetry and with the radius of curvature corresponding to the radius of the vessel.

In a preferred embodiment, the plate is provided with one or more through-holes in the handle flap; this allows a stronger cohesion of the coating with the plate, as well as ensuring better heat dissipation. Advantageously, a plurality of embossments are formed on the flap intended for coupling, for the purpose of aiding welding to the wall of the vessel; around the said embossments are defined two circular areas devoid of heat-insulating coating; the edge of said areas, formed in the coating, is able to cooperate with means of closure, i.e., plugs, which are themselves formed so as to cooperate with said edge.

Further advantages and features of the vessel according to the present invention will be apparent from the following description of an embodiment of the same rendered, for illustrative and non-limiting purposes, with reference to the accompanying tables of drawings, wherein:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a vessel according to the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a plan view from above with sectional parts of the vessel according to the invention;

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of a handle of the vessel according to the invention, which has no heat insulating coating;

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of the handle of fig. 3, provided with heat insulating coating;

Fig. 5 is a cross-sectional view along the V-V line of fig. 4;

Fig. 6 is a perspective view with sectional parts along the VI-VI line of fig. 4; and

Fig. 7 is a perspective view with exploded parts of the vessel of fig. 1.

A cooking vessel according to the present invention is illustrated in Fig. 1; 1 designates the container of the cooking vessel, comprising a cylindrical side wall 101, a bottom wall 201, and a mouth flange 301, projecting radially outward, which connects with the side wall along line 311. The vessel has two handles 2, which show the coating 102 made of heat-insulating plastic material, specifically silicone rubber. Two openings 112 covered by the caps 122 are formed on the coating.

In Fig. 2 the vessel of the invention is shown in plan view from above, with a partial break of flange 301 and a section of wall 101 along line 311 of figure 1. Equal parts correspond to equal numerals. The figure shows the connection of the handle 2 to the wall 101 by the welds 111; it is also apparent that the portion of the handle in contact with the wall 101 has the radius of curvature corresponding to the radius of the container 1 of the cooking vessel according to the invention.

Fig. 3 shows the plate 202, which constitutes the handle 2 lacking the silicone rubber coating 102. The plate has a substantially ellipsoidal shape, and is folded into two flaps; the handle flap 212, provided with the slots 222, and the flap 232 for coupling to the wall 101 of container 1 of the vessel, provided with the embossments 252. Figure 4 shows the handle ready to be connected to the wall 101 of container 1; equal parts correspond to equal numerals. The figure shows the circular openings 112 surrounding the area of the face 232" of the flap 232 in which the embossments 252 are formed. The section in Figure 5 shows the face 232’of flap 232, i.e., the one intended to mate with wall 101, without a coating; it can also be seen that the two flaps 212, 232 are not equivalent to each other in size, with the handle flap 212 being larger. Fig. 6 shows a further section, along the VI-VI line of Fig. 4; equal parts correspond to equal numerals. Highlighted in the figure are some construction details of the vessel handles according to the invention. In particular, it can be seen that the through-slot 222 allows for better solidarization of the lining 102 to the plate 202, as well as improved heat dissipation. Further, the opening 112 has, at the end facing the face 232" of the flap 232, a radial groove 142, which is intended to mate with the cap 122 in the manner best described below. Additionally, the embossments 252 form reliefs 252’ on the face 232’ of the flap 232, so as to provide a well-localized contact to the weld between handle and container.

Finally, Fig. 7 shows the exploded perspective of the cooking vessel according to the invention; equal parts correspond to equal numerals. Particularly highlighted in the figure is the cap 122 intended to fit into the opening 112; as can be seen, the cap has a radially protruding flange 132, which is intended to cooperate with the groove 142 (see fig. 6) at the bottom of the opening 112, so as to allow the cap to fit stably into the same opening.

The operation of the cooking vessel according to the present invention and its manufacture will be evident from the following. As can be seen from Figure 1 of the attached drawings, the handles of the vessel according to the invention have the coating both in the part deputed to the handle and in the part immediately below the plane of the handle means. This preserves the user from direct contact with the side wall of the vessel, and thus makes the handle of this cooking vessel safer and more comfortable. The problem lies in applying a stable coating to the handles and making welding possible without limiting the protection of the handle area facing the vessel.

To this aim, the handles of the vessel according to the present invention are made from a plate of sheet metal, and in the specific case of steel, which is folded into two flaps, one of which is intended for coupling with the wall of the vessel, and the other intended to be gripped by the user. Plate 202 in Fig. 3 is ellipsoidal in shape, since this shape offers excellent solutions from both an ergonomic and an aesthetic point of view, as well as offering an excellent solution from a construction point of view. Flap 232 is formed curved in cylindrical symmetry, with the radius of curvature corresponding to the radius of the cooking vessel.

Once the plate 202 is formed as shown in Fig. 3, it is introduced into a mold into which the heatinsulating coating is injected, which specifically is a high heat-resistant silicone rubber with a Shore A hardness in the range of 30 to 70. The mold allows the coating to be applied to both faces of flap 212, and to the face 232" of flap 232 only, with the exclusion of the areas bounded by openings 112. In this way, access of the weld heads to the embossments 252 is guaranteed, allowing the coupling of the handles 2 to the wall 101 of the container 1. At this point, the caps 122 can be introduced, which, thanks to the flange 132, fit stably into the openings 112, thus making the face 232’ of the flap 232 homogeneously protected. Of course, the plugs are made of the same material as the heat-insulating coating.

The cooking vessel according to the present invention solves a usage problem and a consequent construction problem in a simple, effective and economical way-