Patent Application
20250003663
The present invention relates to an ice making machine for making liquid water based and other liquid based ice cubes, and rapid latch dispensing of cylindrical-shaped ice cubes through the use of momentary rapid heating of the cylindrical ice molds.
Among the related patents is U.S. Pat. No. 6,588,219, dated Jul. 8, 2003, of Applicant John Zevlakis herein, which discloses a commercial ice making apparatus and method. The apparatus described in the '219 patent includes a high throughput, short batch cycle commercial ice making machine that produces commercial ice (which resists melting) in convenient sizes for mobile food carts, market produce, or fish displays. The machine introduces super-cooled water, that is in a liquid state while exposed to a temperature below freezing, into a batch of pre-formed hollow crescent-shaped molds of one or more horizontally oriented ice forming freezing trays. Using vapor compression refrigeration, the machine produces a plurality of supercooled ice cube segments in crescent-shaped pockets within the freezing tray. The supercooled ice cube segments are rapidly subjected to a short, temporary contact with a high heat source from a corresponding crescent-shaped sleeve below and integral with the freezing tray compartments, along a peripheral bottom surface of the crescent-shaped ice trough segment accommodating freezing tray molds. This temporarily melts a bottom crescent-shaped surface of each ice cube segment, lubricating it and loosening it. Then the machine rotates the freezing tray containing the batch of crescent-shaped ice cube segments about its horizontally oriented axis to a vertically oriented dump position, thereby dumping the temporarily heated crescent-shaped ice cube segments into the freezing tray.
However, Zevlakis '219 does not describe an apparatus and method for making cylindrical ice cubes, which can be released from the ice cube making molds without the necessity of rotating and inverting the crescent-shaped molds with ice cubes therein, from a first (molding) position into a second vertically-oriented (discharge) position. Also, in Zevlakis '219, the volume of the ice cubes is limited to the flat topped, crescent-shaped cubes because the sleeve underneath the tray of trough segments forming the ice cubes is limited to provide heat within the boundaries of the crescent-shaped sleeve.
Similar ice cube making machines are also disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,920,764, dated Jul. 26, 2005, also of Applicant John Zevlakis herein, and in U.S. Pat. No. 7,059,140, dated Jun. 13, 2006. Neither Zevlakis '764 or Zevlakis '140 solved the aforementioned disadvantages of Zevlakis '219.
The use of an array of cylindrical-shaped sleeves surrounding cylindrical-shaped molds in the present invention enables the making of uniform, larger volume, cylindrical ice cubes, where the cubes are loosened after momentary exposure to heated refrigerant within the cylindrical-shaped sleeves, and where an array of coordinated openable latches, directly underneath the cylindrical ice cube molds, initiate release therefrom and dropping of the loosened cylindrical ice cubes into a receptacle bin directly, without the forceful rotation of the molds and dumping required by the prior art ice making machines.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide optimal cylindrical-shaped ice cubes, which are sturdy and smooth along their surfaces without angular corners.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an ice making machine for making liquid water based and other liquid based ice cubes with rapid latch dispensing of the ice cubes from momentary rapid heating of cylindrical ice molds after the cubes are fully formed.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide an ice making machine, which utilizes rapid latch dispensing of the ice cubes without any forcible rotating and inversion of the ice cube tray, and which promotes smooth dispensing of the ice cubes.
Other objects which become apparent from the following description of the present invention.
In keeping with these objects and others which may become apparent, the present invention is an ice making machine for making liquid water based and other liquid based ice cubes with rapid latch dispensing of the ice cubes resulting from momentary rapid heating of cylindrical ice molds, without the need of forcible rotation and dumping of the ice cube tray.
The ice making machine disclosed herein differs from those machines described in Applicant's three issued U.S. Patents (i.e., the '219, the '764, and the '140 patents), for ice making machines for making ice cubes followed by momentary rapid heating of the concave half-moon shaped ice cubicles that are formed in sheets, where the intermittent flash heating was through adjacent hollow concave half-moon shaped refrigerant conduits underneath the concave half-moon shaped molds containing the ice cubicles. In those earlier patents, the liquid in the concave cubicles was temporarily heated by heating of the refrigerant, after the refrigerant was first administered as a cold refrigerant to freeze the liquid in the half moon shaped molds.
To harvest the ice cubes formed by the machines of Zevlakis '219, '764, and '140, they are temporarily subjected to rapid heating by the refrigerant through the underneath half-moon shaped conduits to loosen them, then the sheet arrays of multiple half-moon shaped molds had to be mechanically rotated and pivoted from a horizontal ice-cube forming orientation, to a vertical discharge orientation, to accomplish dumping of the loosened ice cubes into an adjacent receptacle bin.
This forcible dumping is not required in the ice cube making machine for the present invention.
In contrast, the herein disclosed ice cube making machine improves the shape of the ice cubes from being shallow, half-moon shaped ice cube pieces, to being sturdy three-dimensional cylindrical ice cubes. These cylindrical shaped ice cubes can be consumed as “popsicle” pieces of flavored ice that are cylindrically shaped. Optionally, the cylindrical ice cubes can be broken down into smaller pieces, such as smaller pieces of ice cubes being made of coffee or other particular liquids, which may be introduced into servings of iced coffee or other iced beverages in smaller pieces, so that instead of diluting the ice coffee when liquid-water based ice cubes melt in the serving of coffee thereby diluting the taste of the iced coffee in drinkable liquid form, the frozen cubes made of iced coffee cubicle pieces would also melt in the coffee serving, but conversely would not dilute the initial liquid coffee of the beverage.
Instead of the conventionally melted cubes made of water-based ice cubes, the iced coffee cubicle pieces would be melted in an iced coffee serving as pure coffee, without diluting the initial serving of liquid cold iced coffee. Likewise, for iced tea beverages, instead of being water-based ice cubes, the ice cubes would be made of pure iced tea, so that when they melted in the serving of iced tea, they would not dilute the flavor of the initial serving of iced tea, as conventional water ice cubes would, but rather they would melt and merely add additional (chilled) iced tea to the original liquid beverage.
Another improvement of the present invention is to have the hollow inner ice cube forming cylinders surrounded by the hollow outer cylindrical sleeves, to alternately circulate cold refrigerant for freezing of the liquid, followed by rapid momentary exposure of the cylindrical ice cubes to heated refrigerant in the adjacent hollow, cylindrical outer refrigerant sleeves, to loosen the cylindrical ice cubes.
The ice making machine provides optimal cylindrical-shaped ice cubes, which are sturdy and smooth along their surfaces without angular corners.
The present invention includes an array of openable floor latches located directly underneath each cylindrical ice making mold, which open up when the rapid flash heating loosens the ice cubes in the cubicles, so that the floor latches open like trap doors, to allow the formed cylindrical ice cubes to drop directly down by gravity into receptacle bins loaded immediately below the array of ice forming cubicles.
In doing so, the simple, openable floor latches below the array of multiple cylindrical ice forming molds negate the need to mechanically pivot the ice trays of half-moon shaped ice cubes disclosed in Applicant's three earlier U.S. Patents, '219, '764, and '140, thereby saving energy and reducing wear and tear from constantly needing to pivot the array of horizontal half-moon shaped ice forming molds from a horizontal orientation to a vertical orientation for dumping the half-moon-shaped ice cubes into an adjacent storage receptacle bin.
The present invention can best be understood in connection with the accompanying drawings. It is noted that the invention is not limited to the precise embodiments shown in the following drawings, in which:
a. The present invention has broad applications to many technical fields for ice making machines. However, it is particularly adapted for use with cylindrical-shaped ice cubes (see
b. As used throughout this specification, the word “may” is used in a permissive sense (i.e., meaning having the potential to, or being optional), rather than a mandatory sense (i.e., meaning must), as more than one embodiment of the invention may be disclosed herein. Similarly, the words “include”, “including”, and “includes” mean including but not limited to.
c. The phrases “at least one”, “one or more”, and “and/or” may be open-ended expressions that are both conjunctive and disjunctive in operation. For example, each of the expressions “at least one of A, B and C”, “one or more of A, B, and C”, and “A, B, and/or C” herein means all of the following possible combinations: A alone; or B alone; or C alone; or A and B together; or A and C together; or B and C together; or A, B and C together.
d. Also, the disclosures of all patents, published patent applications, and non-patent literature cited within this document are incorporated herein in their entirety by reference. However, it is noted that the citing of any reference within this disclosure, i.e., any patents, published patent applications, and non-patent literature, is not an admission regarding a determination as to its availability as prior art with respect to the herein disclosed and claimed apparatus/method.
e. Furthermore, any reference made throughout this specification to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” means that a particular feature or characteristic described in connection therewith is included in at least that one particular embodiment. Thus, the appearances of the phrases “in one embodiment” or “in an embodiment” in various places throughout this specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment. Therefore, the described features, advantages, and characteristics of any particular aspect of an embodiment disclosed herein may be combined in any suitable manner with any of the other embodiments disclosed herein.
The ice making machine 1 is supported by a frame 2, having vertical braces 2a, 2b, 2c, 2d on each of all four corners of the frame 2, which also includes horizontal braces 3a, 3b, extending in a length wise direction of the frame 2, and horizontal braces 3c and 3d extending perpendicularly to the length-wise direction of the frame 2 of the ice making machine 1. The floor latches 13, 13a, 13b, 13c, etc. open and close by pivoting from a horizontal closed position, in which they are positioned below an array of hollow vertically-oriented cylindrical-shaped ice cube forming segments/molds 11, 11a, 11b, 11c, etc., which are each surrounded by hollow closed cylindrical sleeves 12, 12a, 12b, 12c, etc. Preferably, the inner surface of each cylindrical sleeve 12, 12a, 12b, 12c, etc., forms the outer surface of the hollow, cylindrical ice forming segments 11, 11a, 11b, 11c, etc., so that efficient thermal transfer (hot or cold) from the refrigerant flow can occur and, the heat or cold therein can contact the ice cubes 20 formed from frozen water or other fluid in the ice forming segments 11, 11a, 11b, 11c, etc.
As shown in
When the refrigerant fluid is momentarily heated and flows within each sleeve 12, 12a. 12b, 12c, etc. to temporarily heat the outer surface of the ice cube forming segments/molds 11, 11a, 11b, 11c, etc., the respective heated inner surfaces of the molds temporarily melts a very thin exterior portion of the frozen ice cubes 20 formed within the ice cube forming segments 11, 11a, 11b, 11c, etc., which reduces friction quickly, so that, as shown in
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In summary, the cylindrical ice cube molds 11, 11a, 11b, 11c, etc., are filled with chilled water for freezing into cylindrical-shaped ice cubes. Each cylindrical hollow trough segment 11, 11a. 11b, 11c, etc. is surrounded by a respective hollow sleeve 12, 12a, 12b, 12c etc., that is also cylindrical in shape. Therefore, the e comprises of a cylinder within a cylinder. The hollow cylindrical sleeve 12, 12a, 12b, 12c, etc., provide an interconnected conduit through which the refrigerant will flow. When the time for harvesting the cylindrical ice cubes occurs, the dispensing may occur through the us of a floor latch system positioned below the array of cylindrical ice-forming trough segments. The floor latch system is an array of floor latches 13, 13a, 13b, 13c, etc., which are connected by a chain 4 and set of pulleys 4a, and 4b that are connected to an auxiliary motor M that moves this chain 4 and set of pulley 4a and 4b and/pivots these floor latches 13, 13a, 13b, 13c, etc., from a closed position, acting as a floor for each cylindrical-shaped ice-forming trough segment 11, 11a, 11b, 11c, etc., to an open position, where the ice cubes that are formed can fall straight down into the receptacle bin BR.
As shown in
Therefore, the cylindrical shape of the ice cubes is better, for the fact that the ice making machine 1 and process has a better flow enveloping the liquid that's going to be frozen, as well as less friction and easier drop when it's time for harvesting the ice cubes, when the opening of the floor latches 13, 13a, 13b, 13c, etc. drops the ice cubes into the receptacle bin.
In the foregoing description, certain terms and visual depictions are used to illustrate the preferred embodiment. However, no unnecessary limitations are to be construed by the terms used or illustrations depicted, beyond what is shown in the prior art, since the terms and illustrations are exemplary only, and are not meant to limit the scope of the present invention.
It is further known that other modifications may be made to the present invention, without departing the scope of the invention, as noted in the appended Claims.
