Thermal Engineering Corp: TEC Uses Glass Panel with New Grill Grates.

The original TEC infrared grill was a Huge invention for the world because the infrared burner could generate over a thousand degrees in less than a minute without burning exponentially more gas. When Thermal Engineering Corporation started making gas grills with this intense heat one of the changes to the traditional barbecue design was the cooking grates.

The TEC grilling grates were different from the ubiquitious wire rod grids every barbecue in the world had used. Instead TEC looked at the "Finger Grates" designed by DCS because the finger grates had the ability to hold the greases and sauces in a concave groove so the flavor was vaporized by the grills heat. However, the heavy and dense cast stainless design would be problematic at fourteen-hundred degrees so TEC made concave U channel grates fabricated from 18 gauge stainless steel.

The stainless U channel grates were spot welded and were very easily broken or knocked out of square. After the original TEC Sterling 28 and Patio model infrared grills TEC released the updated TEC Sterling 2 and Patio 2 and all of these used the stainless concave U channel grids.

When TEC stopped using the ceramic-topped infrared burners and started using all stainless steel infrared burners they also changed the cooking grate design to the convex grates in the large image above. The design still has the same effect as the original U channel grates but only because the glass acts like a vaporizer and heat diffuser. Any moisture lands on the glass and vaporizes to add flavor and texture to grilled meats, vegetables and even fruits.

Glass panel for TEC G model infrared gas grills. 16 inches by 9 inches black glass panel is flat and smooth on one side and textured on the other side. After the production of the Sterling 2 and 3 the G series and the stainless burner models have been using glass panels as heat diffuser and as vaporization shields with the changed design of the convex grilling grates.