Patent Application
20130312449
In early times, humans hunted and gathered the food they needed each day. Techniques to preserve food were developed that allowed humans to store food ahead of time. It was discovered that keeping food cool increased the usable time to safely consume the food. People started digging holes and constructing boxes within the Earth to cool the food. Later people used ice in insulated boxes to keep food fresh longer. The first practical demonstration of artificial refrigeration occurred in the late 1700's with the first practical refrigerator appearing in the 1830's.
Modern refrigerators include frost free freezers, climate controlled drawers, touch screen interfaces, beverage and ice dispensing units with new features appearing all the time. Although the modern refrigerator represents a tremendous advance in technology, there remains a need to quickly cool beverages for immediate consumption. Often people will place a beverage to be cooled in the freezer only to have it explode making a mess if not removed in time.
There is a need for a portable, convenient beverage chilling device that can rapidly lower the temperature of a beverage to be consumed.
A tabletop beverage quick cooling device has a housing that contains a chiller portion with a hinged cover. A refrigeration unit is provided to cool water to use to cool the beverage. The refrigeration unit may be mechanical or solid state. The chiller contains a removable cage that holds cans or bottles. The chiller holds chilled water to bathe the cage in the low temperature water. The cage rests on two rollers that provide rotation and are rotated by a motor. A compressor, condenser and associated components are used to produce the low temperatures needed to chill the water. In another embodiment, solid state thermoelectric modules take the place of the compressor, etc. Rotation is controlled by a control panel which can also monitor temperature. An optional ice storage chamber is provided to store ice. Additionally, an ice maker may be provided to produce ice.
Other features and advantages of the instant invention will become apparent from the following description of the invention which refers to the accompanying drawings.
In the following detailed description of the invention, reference is made to the drawings in which reference numerals refer to like elements, and which are intended to show by way of illustration specific embodiments in which the invention may be practiced. It is understood that other embodiments may be utilized and that structural changes may be made without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention.
Referring to
A control panel 215 is used to control all functions such as power on/off control 220, timer control 221, rotation control 225, temperature control 226, etc. Not all of these functions need to be available and may be offered as options depending on the needs of the user. In one embodiment, only a power switch is provided. In the embodiment having a water holding tank 300, a water fill port 295 is provided to allow the user to fill water holding tank 300 with water. In one embodiment, the water is chilled in water holding tank 300 and transferred to chilling chamber 235 through water transfer port 310. A refrigeration portion 290 is provided to hold the refrigeration components needed to chill water 305. Additionally, rotation control 225 may be include speed control to allow the user to vary the rotational speed.
In one embodiment, an ice storage unit 210 is provided to hold ice in an ice storage chamber 245 and an optional ice making unit 260 may be provided to make ice as is known in the art. An ice shutoff switch 285 is provided to stop ice production once full. In this embodiment, the water required to make the ice may be stored in water holding tank 300 or may be plumbed to a water line as is known in the art. A cover 205 is provided to keep the ice cool and clean. Support legs 240 are provide to stabilize and support tabletop beverage quick cooling device 200.
Referring to
Referring now to
Although the instant invention has been described in relation to particular embodiments thereof, many other variations and modifications and other uses will become apparent to those skilled in the art.
This application is a continuation in part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/566,702, filed Sep. 25, 2009, which was a continuation in part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/839,420, filed Aug. 15, 2007, the complete disclosures of each of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 12566702 | Sep 2009 | US |
| Child | 13955071 | US | |
| Parent | 11839420 | Aug 2007 | US |
| Child | 12566702 | US |
