Electrically powered service vehicle

摘要

An electrically powered service vehicle having a plurality of programmable electrical stations is exemplified by a food service vehicle for use with food serving trays including internal heating elements for providing localized areas of heat on the trays for maintaining food placed thereon at a desired temperature. The vehicle has a plurality of storage compartments, each of which holds a plurality of the food serving trays in vertically spaced relation to each other. An on-board d-c. power source is connected to the heating elements within the trays via a plurality of electrical contacts within each storage compartment. A d-c. drive motor for propelling the vehicle is selectively connected to the power source through a drive control. The electrical contacts within the storage compartment are positioned to engage corresponding contacts on the trays when the trays are inserted into the storage compartments. The electrical contacts within the storage compartments are part of a plurality of controllable power circuits associated with each tray station within the various compartments for supplying separately controllable power to each individual tray heater, and manually operable programming means are connected to each power circuit and generate control signals to enable or disable each separate circuit to permit the programming of the various tray stations within the storage compartments. A resilient bumper is provided on the front of the vehicle, and bumper switch means are actuated in the event the bumper contacts an external object, with the switch de-energizing the drive motor through the drive control. The d-c. power source also powers an air blower which forces air through an inlet means in the rear wall of each storage compartments and directs a stream of forced air forwardly through the storage compartment on the heated side of the tray. A door covering the front of the storage compartment forms an air outlet adjacent the side wall of the storage compartment on the heated side of the trays so that the forwardly flowing stream of forced air exits through the door.