BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION [0002] Barbeque packs of the above type are known and consist of a metal foil pan which is filled with a slow burning flammable material such as charcoal or the like and which includes, over its open surface, a food supporting grid and with the charcoal, a fire lighting material. The pack typically includes a cardboard container in which the cooking pan is sold.

[0003] A second type of known barbeque pack includes the above charcoal or the like containing cooking pan and a wire pan support frame on which the pan is located to be clear of the surface on which the frame is placed, in use, with both of these components again being sold together in a carton box. The wire pan support frames add significantly to cost of these packs.

[0004] The barbeque packs of the first type are relatively inexpensive as they do not include the convenient wire pan support frames that are provided with those of the second type and, in use, the pans are located directly on any convenient surface at their site of use. As the sidewalls and under sides of these thin gauge metal pans become extremely heated in use they need responsibly to be placed on a heat resisting surface which will not be damaged by the heat emitted by the pan, in use.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0005] A single-use barbeque pack according to the invention comprises a pan which is made from a metal foil to have an outwardly tapering side wall, a slow-burning flammable material in the pan, a cooking grid which is fixed to the pan sidewall to extend over the flammable material, and a container in which the pan is sold with one side of the container being adapted to support the heated pan for at least the full burning period of the flammable material in it, in use.

[0006] The container may be a carton and the pan supporting side of the carton could include a panel, the outer profile of which is defined by perforations so that it is removable to provide an aperture in that side of the carton in which the base portion of the pan is located with at least two opposite wall portions of the pan supported between their upper ends and the pan base on edge formations of the aperture. The two opposite wall portions for the purpose of this specification include the diagonally opposite wall corner portions in the event that the pan is of a shape which includes corners.

[0007] The pan and carton may be rectangular in plan with the side of the carton which includes the panel defining perforations being contiguous with the common edges of the side walls of the carton with the pan supporting aperture being shaped and dimensioned to receive the base portion of the pan, in use. The aperture edge formations which support the wall portions of the pan, in use, may be clad with a heat resisting material.

[0008] The heat resisting material may be an initially liquid material, such as a suitable ink, which is applied to the edge formations and when cured enhances the heat resistance of the material from which the carton is made. l0009] The heat resisting material may, however, be thin-gauge metal strips which are attached to the carton to extend over at least opposite aperture edges to provide the pan supporting edge formations which are in contact with the pan wall portions, in use.

[0010] In yet another form of the invention the carton may be made from corrugated cardboard and the aperture edge formations could be lengths of wire with their free ends located in corrugations in the edges of the aperture.

[0011] The side of the carton which carries the panel perforations may include a plurality of apertures which are located on the outside of the pan side wall, in use, for the convection exhaustion of heated air from the carton, in use. At least one of the side walls of the carton may additionally include an air ventilation aperture.

[0012] In still another form of the invention at least a substantial proportion of the outer surface of the side of the carton which is adapted to support the container may be clad with a heat resisting material. The heat resisting material may be a heat resisting ink.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0013] The invention is now described, by way of non-limiting examples, with reference to the drawings in which:

Figure 1 is an exploded isometric view of a first embodiment of the barbeque pack of the invention prior to use, Figure 2 is an exploded perspective view of the barbeque pack of Figure 1 about to be used, Figure 3 is a partially diagrammatic sectioned side elevation of the barbeque pack of Figure 2, in use, Figure 4 is an isometric view of a second embodiment of the barbeque pack carton, and Figure 5 is a view similar to that of Figure 4 of yet a further embodiment of barbeque pack carton of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE ILLUSTRATED EMBODIMENTS [0014] The barbeque pack of Figure 1 is shown in the drawing to include a cooking pan 10 and a carton 12 in which the pan is sold.

[0015] The cooking pan 10 is conventional and is press-formed from a suitable metal foil to the shape shown in the drawing and includes an outwardly projecting rim 16 with its outer edge portion folded back on itself to trap a metal grid 18, shown only in Figures 2 and 3, together with a sheet of advertising material 20 in its overlap.

[0016] The carton 12 is made from a good quality cardboard to include a base and four side walls which are upstanding from the base. The side walls of the carton 12 conveniently carry ventilation holes 22 for a purpose to be explained below. The base of the carton includes a tear-out panel 24 the peripheral shape of which is defined by perforations 26.

[0017] For sale, the pan 10 is placed in the carton 12 with its base resting on the panel 24 in the base of the carton. The height of the walls of the pan 10 are such that with the pan resting on the carton base the underside of the outer edge of the pan rim 16 rests on the upper free edges of the carton 12 walls. The pack is then shrink-wrapped with plastic sheeting which is transparent at least over the advertising material on the sheet 20.

[0018] When the pack is to be used, the shrink-wrapping is obviously removed, the pan 10 is lifted from the carton 12 and the sheet of advertising material 20 is removed from the pan. The panel 24 is then torn or punched from the carton base 12 and the carton is inverted as shown in Figure 2. The peripheral profile of the aperture 26, which is provided by the removal of the panel 24, is clearly seen in Figure 2. The corners of the rectangular aperture 26 are rounded on a radius which corresponds to the radius of the corners 28 of the outwardly tapered wall of the pan 10, at a position a little above the underside of the base of the pan 10, so that with the pan 10 placed in the aperture 26 the pan will be seated in the aperture with the rounded corners 30 of the aperture 26 engaged with the walls of the pan 10 at its corners 28, at the positions shown in Figure 3. In this position, as shown in Figure 3, the base of the pan 10 is well clear of a surface 32 on which the carton rests.

[0019] As is seen from Figure 2 the opposite edges 34 and 36 of the carton aperture 26 are recessed outwardly from the rounded corner edges 30 to provide, with the pan 10 located in the container aperture 26 as shown in Figure 3, elongated apertures 38 which extend over a substantial portion of the lengths of the pan 10 side walls. These apertures, in use, serve as vents for the convection escape of hot air from the inside of

the container, as shown by the arrows in Figure 3. The side walls of the pan 10, including their corners, are wrinkled in the process by which the pan is formed, to provide point contact areas of the corners of the pan with the edges of the rounded corners 30 of the aperture 26. The corner wrinkles provide between them small flutes through which hot air may additionally escape from the inside of the carton and provide a small measure of cooling of the point contact areas between the pan corners and the rounded corner edges of the recess 26 to inhibit excessive charring of the carton material in these areas by heat from the pan 10. To further minimise charring of the carton corner edges 30 the corners could be overprinted during the printing of written material on the sides of the carton with a heat resisting ink 40 shown in Figures 1 and 2.

[0020] In the Figure 4 embodiment, the barbeque pack carton 40 has a substantially rectangular aperture 42 in its base and carries, over the long edges of the aperture 42, thin gauge metal strips 44 which are fixed to the carton around the aperture 42 by means of a suitable adhesive. The facing edges 46 of the metal strips 44 are spaced from each other by a dimension which will engage the long side walls of the cooking pan 10 at much the same position as shown in Figure 3 to support the base of the pan well above a surface on which it is placed. The end walls of the pan are well clear of the remaining opposite edges of the aperture 42 to provide ventilation slots between the end walls of the pan and the edges of the aperture 42. The strip edges 46 could additionally include a number of small recesses which are spaced from each other along the edges to serve as hot air exhaust vents in addition to the minute vents which will naturally be created by the wrinkles in the long side walls of the cooking pan 10.

[0021] The carton 48 of the Figure 5 embodiment of the invention is made from a corrugated cardboard, as the previous embodiments may be, with the pan 10 support formations, in this embodiment, being lengths of wire 52 which have their ends bent to provide the wires with a substantially U-shape. The free ends of the wires are then pressed into the corrugations in the sides of the aperture 50, as shown in the drawing.

[0022] The invention is not limited to the precise details as herein described. For example, in its most basic form, the carton could include, in place of the pan supporting aperture, a suitable heat resistant outer surface cladding, such as the heat resisting ink 40 of Figures 1 and 2 or the like, and its base could be holed at suitable positions around the clad pan support area on the outside of the carton base for exhausting hot air from the carton.