GB2089648A - Dispensing apparatus for cooked foods - Google Patents

Abstract

Fried product dispensing apparatus comprises a frying bath 5, a food hopper 1 located above and to one side of the bath, a frying basket 3 pivotally mounted on a frame 4, and means to move the frying basket and frame 4 through a cycle of movement including charging, immersion/frying and ejection positions. The basket 3 is pivoted at or near its base and the device includes means adapted to tip the basket following its raising from the frying bath about its pivoting axis to a substantially inverted position. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Dispensing apparatus for cooked foods This invention relates to vending machinery and in particular to cooked product dispensing apparatus.

British Patent Specification 1337547 describes and claims fried product dispensing apparatus comprising a frying bath, a food hopper located above and to one side of the bath, a frying basket rockably movable about a fixed horizontal axis from a first upwardly open position in the frying bath to a second inverted position outside the bath in which material in the basket tends to fall therefrom under gravity, means for effecting such a movement and means for ejecting a portion of food from the hopper into the basket.

One of the perennial problems with devices of this and analogous type is to ensure that all of the cooked fried product is ejected from the frying basket after each operation. If any material remains, it is subjected to a further frying operation when the machine is next operated, and is accordingly usually burnt. Not only is the sight of one or two burnt pieces of food unsightly, but the burntflavourtends to spread to the remainder of the second portion which is clearly unacceptable in practice.

In Specification 1337547 the frying basket is slidably mounted in such a way that when it is moved from the partly immersed frying position to the food ejection position, as it reaches the latter it is suddenly allowed to slide underthe influence of gravity until arrested by a stop. The suddeness of this arrest jerks loose, it is hoped, all of the fried product in the basket.

Such an arrangement does not work well in practice and the use of a gravity slide system effectively relies on constant maintenance of the machine. If the slide gets dirty, the system simply fails to function.

A further problem which arises in the use of the apparatus described in Specification 1,337,547 is the production of crushed or deformed pieces of food, e.g. broken potato chips, as a result of the operation of the sliding box portion control mounted at the base of the food hopper.

The present invention seeks to alleviate these various disadvantages.

According to a first feature of the present invention there is provided fried product dispensing apparatus comprising a frying bath, a food hopper located above and to one side of the bath, a frying basket pivotally mounted on a frame, means to move the frying basket and frame through a cycle of movement including charging, immersion/frying and ejection positions, wherein the basket is pivoted at or near its base and the device includes means adapted to tip the basket following its raising from the frying bath about its pivoting axis to a substantially inverted position.

Such a basket mounting system has a number of advantages: first, it enables a very much more compact construction to be achieved than was possible using the system disclosed in Specification 1,337,547. Secondly, because the pivoting of the takes place about an axis substantially at the bottom of the upright basket, the pivotal axis is constantly lubricated by the frying liquid, commonly vegetable oil, and accordingly does not tend to seize up or become unlubricated. Furthermore, because the basket is tipped from a substantially upright position to a substantially inverted position, usually through an angle of at least 1500 and often substantially through 1809 the fried product tends to fall out rather than slide out from the frying basket.A wide variety of linkages may be employed to move the frying basket through its cyclic path of movement, but preferably simple pivoted arm linkages are used, an identical set of pivoting links being mounted each end of a central pivot pin located at the bottom of the frying basket. Preferably the links extend away to a suitable framework in which is set a drive motor which drives the links through a suitable cycle and mounted on the framework may be appropriate cams and micro switches to control the operation of the device such that e.g. on the insertion of a coin, a complete charging, frying and discharging cycle is automatically carried out.In order to cause the basket to tip as desired shortly after it has been lifted from the frying bath it is convenient to attach to the lower part ofthe basket a projecting member conveniently projecting laterally the side of the basket remote from the linkage and motor assembly, which is arranged to catch on a bar or like projection located slightly above and to one side of the frying bath. In such a system, as the frying basket is lifted, usually obliquely, away from the frying bath, the projection catches on the second projection or bar causing the basket to overturn and deposit its contents e.g. onto a waiting chute or slide.

According to a further feature of the invention, there is provided fried product dispensing apparatus comprising a frying bath and food hopper located above and to one side of the bath, and including food portion control means comprising: drive means for advancing food product from an outlet of the hopper at a predetermined rate, a portion basket located below the outlet of the hopper and mounted on an arm, means for detecting when the portion basket contains a predetermined weight of food and as a result stopping the drive means, and means for releasing the arm thereby to let the portion basket drop and release its contents into the frying bath.

Preferably the portion basket has a hingedly mounted wall releasable by means of a latch on low ering the basket to enable food to be released from the portion basket, and drop into the frying bath. The latch may then re-engage when the basket rises. This can conveniently be achieved by a suitable stop and actuating bar, and by mounting the basket on one end of an arm, the arm being pivoted for rotation about a horizontal axis. Means are then associated with the arm to control the drive means in dependence on the position ofthe arm. Most preferably the arm is counterweighted at a point further from the basket than the pivotal mounting thereof, and latching means are provided to restrain downward movement of the basket and associated pivotal movement of the arm, until it is required to cook a portion of food.

The hopper, which is preferably refrigerated, is suitably in the form of a cylindrical drum open at one end and mounted for rotation about its central axis, the central axis being inclined at an angle to the horizontal of 5 -459 and the open end of the drum being uppermost. The inside of such a drum may contain one or more helical drive members, e.g. mounted on the drum inner walls, which, as the drum is rotated, urge food material in the drum towards the upper open end of the drum. In orderto control the flow of food product dropping from the drum, a fixed plate may be provided adjacent the upper end face of the cylindrical drum and arranged to permit material to leave the drum only at the lowermost portion of the end face ofthe drum.

Ways of putting the invention into effect are shown by way of example, in the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a side view of the central components of a chip dispensing machine according to the present invention; Figures 2 to 4 are detailed views showing the pivotal mounting of various linkage parts and ofthe frying basket in side view and at different stages during the operating cycle of the machine, and Figure 5 is a side view of improved portion control apparatus.

Referring to Figure 1, the apparatus comprises a cooled uncooked or part cooked chip hopper 1, means for ejecting a portion of uncooked or part cooked chips from the base of the hopper 2, a frying basket 3, a pivotal linkage 4 for supporting and moving the frying basket, a frying bath 5 and a motor 6 to drive the basket aground.

Referring in more detail to the mounting of the frying basket, the generally box-shaped basket is supported by a shaft 7 which runs across its base and is pivotally set in the ends of two levers 8 which are pivoted to further levers 9,10,11,12, 13 and 14.

Levers 12 and 14 are pivoted to a bridge piece 15 which is rocked back and forth around a bar 16 in the frame ofthe apparatus by means of an actuating arm 19 pivotally secured to one end of the rocking frame and also to a crank arm 20 which is fixedly secured to a drive shaft 21 of the electric motor 6. An unloading spring 17 is providedtoassistthe movementofthe linkage. Suitable micro switches are provided together with a delay timer which may be set at any time from e.g. 10 seconds to 100 seconds depending upon the desired frying time. These parts are omitted from the drawings for the sake of clarity.

To the side of the frying bath 5 is a bar 23 which is set in the frame of the apparatus and which bears two rollers 24 on it. Projecting from the base of the basket is a projection 25 which is suitably dimensioned that it can engage under the bar 23 if the frying basket is lifted out obliquely from a position in which at least its lower part is immersed in oil in the frying bath 5, whereupon the frying basket is caused to tip pivoting around shaft 7 and depositing its contents to the right of the bar 23 as shown in the drawing, into a waiting container 25 in a depression 28 below a guide hopper 27.

Container 25 has been released from a stack of such containers on a carousel device 31 which includes a container release mechanism 34 and guide 35, and has a drive motor 32 and microswitches 39 and 33 to secure rotation when each stack of containers is used up and to disenable the whole machine when no further containers are to hand.

Figures 2 to 4 show the sequence of operations.

On the insertion of a coin or other appropriate release, the motor 6 is actuated and a portion of material to be fried is inserted by means 2 into the basket 3. The basket then moves downwardly to the position shown in Figure 3 and at that position by means of a cam and microswitch arrangement not shown the motor drive is switched off for a predetermined period of time, e.g. 30 seconds. At the end of that period, the motor is actuated again and continues to drive arm 19 around thus causing the basket, by means of the various levers consituting the linkage, to move along the path shown by the dotted arrow in Figure 3. In this path projection 25 catches under bar 23 and tips the basket over as shown in Figure 4.As the motor is continued to be driven, the bridge piece 15 rocks back and the linkage bars pull the basket upright again and return it to the position shown in Figure 2 whereafterthe device is ready for a further cycle.

Referring now to Figure 5, this shows in side view a modified chip portion control mechanism which iri a preferred embodiment is used in place of chip hopper 1 and a portion control 2 as shown in Figure 1.

Basically the device consists of a refrigerated chip drum 50 mounted for rotation about its axis and with its axis slightly inclined to the horizontal, and its upper end open. On the interior of the drum are two drive helices 51, e.g. in the form of stainless steel ribs on the inside of the drum.

The upper open end of the drum is for the most part closed off by a plate 52 which can be removed to allow filling of the drum with chips and which, when in the operative position shown in Figure 5, exposes only the lowermost segment of the open drum end.

The drum may be rotated about its axis by means of a drive motor 53 and drive belt 54.

Located below the drum 50 is a bar 55 which is pivotally mounted at 56 so that it can swing about a horizontal axis. The right-hand end of the bar as shown in Figure 5 carries a chip receiving basket 57 which is of generally triangular cross section, its right-hand face being constituted by a wall section 58 pivoted at its upper end 59 and held in the position shown by a latching bar 60 which is pivotally mounted on basket 57 itself. Located in fixed position on the apparatus frame and below the left-hand end of latching bar 60 is a stop plate 61.

The left-hand end of bar 55 carries a counterweight 62 in the form of an internally threaded block of metal. Bar 55 is threaded and the distance between counterweight 62 and point 56 can thus be varied by rotating the counterweight.

Also associated with bar 55 is a latch 63 which can be operated by a solenoid 64 as explained below.

Finally, a microswitch 65 is located adjacent the left-hand end of bar 55 and a stop 66 is located on the machine frame.

The sequence of operations of the dispenser is as follows: the bar 55 effectively acts as the beam of a pair of scales, the right-hand dropping when the weight of chips 67 falling into basket 57 reaches a predetermined amount. This amount may be varied by varying the position of counterweight 62. When the desired weight is reached, bar 55 rotates slightly clockwise actuating microswitch 65 and coming to rest against latch 63. The actuation of microswitch 65 turns off motor 53 which had previously been driving drum 50 round in order to dispense chips from its open end as it is driven round. The chips are forced out by virtue of the drive helices 51 but at a relatively slow rate.The shape of the drive helices may be such as to facilitate easy cleaning of the drum and such that despite driving the chips towards the right-hand upper end of the drum, they are not subjected to sufficient stress to break or crush them.

At the stage that the drum stops with the basket 57 carrying the desired weight of chips, the entire apparatus is at rest, waiting for someone to come and operate it. On operation, e.g. the insertion of a coin to purchase a portion of chips, soleniod 64 is actuated pulling back latch 63 and allowing basket 57 to drop. As it does so, the left-hand end of latching bar 60 contacts stop plate 61 thus rotating bar 60 clockwise and freeing wall section 58 which hinges about its end 59 and releases the chips in basket 67.

They fall into the waiting frying basket 3 and are then treated as indicated above with reference to Figures 1 to 4.

As soon as the chips are released from basket 57, the weight distribution on bar 55 is then different and the counterweight 62 moves down, raising the basket, allowing wall section 58 to latch automatically back into position when bar 60 comes out of contact with plate 61 and letting the basket come to rest with bar 55 contacting stop 66. At this point, the left-hand end of bar 55 has travelled down to such an extent that microswitch 65 is released thus starting motor 53 which accordingly commences to drive the drum and fill basket 57 with chips again until the required weight is reached. By this time solenoid 64 has been deactuated so latch 63 then holds the bar substantially in the position shown until the next frying cycle isto be effected.

Claims (11)

1. Fried product dispensing apparatus comprising a frying bath, a food hopper located above and to one side of the bath, a frying basket pivotally mounted on a frame, means to move the frying basket and frame through a cycle of movement includes ing charging, immersion/frying and ejection positions wherein the basket is pivoted at or near its base and the device includes means adapted to tip the basket following its raising from the frying bath about its pivoting axis to a substantially inverted position.

2. Apparatus according to claim I wherein the frying is mounted on a paired set of pivoted arm linkages each supporting a central pivot pin located at the base of the frying basket.

3. Apparatus according to claim 1 or 2 wherein attached to the lower part of the basket is a laterally projecting member adapted to catch on a bar or like projection located slightly above and to one side of the frying bath as the basket emerges from the bath in order to tip the basket out its pivoting axis.

4. Fried product dispensing apparatus substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to Figures 1 to 4 of the accompanying drawings.

5. Fried product dispensing apparatus comprising a frying bath and a food hopper located above and to one side of the bath, and including food portion control means comprising: drive means for advancing food product from an outlet of the hopper at a predetermined rate, a portion basket located below the outlet of the hopper and mounted on an arm, means for detecting when the portion basket contains a predetermined weight of food and as a result stopping the drive means, and means for releasing the arm thereby to let the portion basket drop and release its contents into the frying bath.

6. Fried product dispensing apparatus according to claim 5 and wherein the portion basket has a hingedly mounted wall releasable by means of a latch on lowering the basket to enable food to be released from the basket.

7. Fried product dispensing apparatus according to claim 5 or 6 wherein the basket is mounted on one end of an arm, the arm being pivoted for rotation about a horizontal axis, means being associated with the arm to control the drive means in dependence on the position of the arm.

8. Fried product dispensing apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the arm is counterweighted at a point further from the basket than the pivotal mounting thereof, and wherein latching means are provided to restrain downward movement of the basket and associated pivotal movement of the arm.

9. Fried product dispensing apparatus according to any one of claims 5 to 8 wherein the hopper is in the form of a cylindrical drum open at one end andmounted for rotation about its central axis, and so that its central axis is inclined at an angle to the horizontal of 5 -45", with its open end uppermost and wherein the inside of the drum contains one or more helical drive members which, as the drum is rotated, urge food material in the drum towards the upper open end of the drum.

10. Fried product dispensing apparatus according to claim 9, wherein a fixed plate is provided adjacent the upper end face of the cylindrical drum and arranged to permit material to leave the drum only at the lowermost portion of the end face of the drum.

11. Fried product dispensing apparatus including portion control apparatus substantially as hereinbe fore described with reference to Figure 5 of the accompanying drawings.