US2223762A - Air conditioned display counter - Google Patents

Description

Dec. 1940- I K. w. HALL 2,223,762

AIR CONDITIONED DISPLAY COUNTER Filed July 1, 1938 2 Sheets-Sheet l kc/r/l W Ha ATTORNEYS Dec. 3, 1 940.

K. w. HALL AIR CONDITIONED DISPLAY COUNTER Filed July 1, 1958 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Ks/ih 14/ #0 V INVENTOR I %MM a x 4 8 o. a a 4 l 4 2 i i 7 2 l 2 4 7 l 1 v 11 11 1 1 1 1 11 1111 1 11 11 11 11 1 1 1 11 11 11 11 1 11 11 11 11 7 11 1 1 1 11 11 1 11 1 11 11 0 1 11 11 1 11 11 11 11 11 1 1 1 71 1 11 1 11 1 I. I i F a 8M 6 8 v 5 ATTORNEYS Patented Dec. 3, 1940 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE Tolco, Inc., Toledo, v Ohio Ohio, a corporation of Application July 1, 1938, Serial No. 217,103

2Claims. The invention relates to an air conditioned display counter suitable for use in retail stores for displaying fruit, vegetables, baked goods,

cigars, and other products for which air conditioning is desirable. I

The principal object of the invention is to provide a highly effective system for conducting and distributing the air in an air conditioned display counter. More specific objects and advantages are apparent from the descriptioni in which reference is had to the accompanying drawings illustrating a preferred embodiment of the invention.

Fig. I of the drawings is a perspective of a counter embodying the invention, with portions broken away to show the interior construction.

Fig. II is a fragmentary vertical section taken on the line 11-11 of Fig. I.

Fig. III is a fragmentary vertical section taken on the line III-III of Fig. I.

Fig. IV is a fragmentary vertical section taken on the line IV-IV of Fig. II.

Fig. V is a fragmentary horizontal section taken on the line V--V of Fig. IV.

These specific drawings and the specific description that follows merely disclose and illustrate the invention and are not intended to impose limitations upon the claims.

Many products, such as fruit, vegetables, and baked goods, keep best in conditioned air that has a high relative humidity and a low temperature. When such air is supplied to a display compartment in a counter, it is difllcult to prevent the temperature of the air from rising rapidly as it flows into the compartment. A small increase in the temperature of the air, occurring as the air enters the display compartment, causes a considerable reduction in its relative humidity. In accordance with the invention, a display counter may be constructed to prevent the conditioned air from incurring a material rise in temperature as it flows into the display compart distribution passage. supplying conditioned air to the chamber and to the space between the floor and the false bottom of the-compartment. After passing up through the false bottom of the compartment, the air flows among the products resting thereon,- The conditioned air is supplied to the chamber below the impervious floor for 55 the purpose of preventing the air flowing through the space between the false bottom and the floor from being warmedby conduction of heat up through the floor. This arran ement is much more effective in accomplishing t at purpose than heavy, bulky insulation of the compartment floor 5' would be.

The drawings show a counter suitable for displaying iruit and vegetables. It is made up of several identical sections, each containing two superimposed display compartments, and any dc}- l0 sired number of sections may be employed. Fig. I shows a complete section and a portion of each of the two adjacent sections.

Although the drawings, for the sake of simplicity, show a counter made up of identical 15 sections, the sections in a counter embodying the invention do not all need to be of a similar type. For example, any one of the sections of the counter may be so constructed that it serves as a wrapping or weighing table instead of a display more space for the apparatus than a display section.

Located in the middle section of Fig. I is an air conditioning apparatus that supplies conditioned air through a supply duct 1. A blower 8 driven by a motor 9 supplies air to the ap& 80

paratus 6.

The main supporting members of each section are its two side panels Ill, which rest upon the floor of the room and are tied together at the front by means of a reinforcing bar II. The rear wall 12 of each section is secured to the side panels I 0, and has its lower edge turned inward to form a flange I3. Resting .upon the flange l3 and the reinforcing bar H is a plate I4 closing the bottom of the section. In the middle section of Fig. I the plate I 4 is omitted so that the apparatus which supplies the air may be mounted directly upon the floor.

Upon the plate l4 may be placed baskets containing a reserve supply of produce to be displayed. The masses of produce in the display compartments become depleted as the produce is sold, and it is desirable to have the reserve supply of produce handy so that an attractive massive display can be maintained by continuously replenishing. the display compartments.

In front of the baskets stored in the lower portion' of the sectionis a removable front panel [5. Conditioned air to protect the produce stored in the lower portion of the section is suppliedfroim a duct section |6 forming part of the main duct for conditioned air. The air supplied to the lower portion of the section flows through perforations IT in the bottom of the duct section I6. (See Fig. II.) v In the rear edge of each of the side panels I0 is cut a rectangular opening or notch I8 through which may escape the air that is displaced from the lower portion of the section by the entering conditioned air. Secured to the rear wall |2 of each section by means of screws I9 is a drain trough that extends from section to section through the rectangular openings l8, and leads to a suitable drain connection.

Above the rectangular opening or notch I8 in each side panel i0 is a larger rectangular opening that permits the duct sections Hi to connect with one another. Fig. V shows how the duct sections are connected to form a single continuous duct. Each of the duct sections MS has outwardly turned flanges 2| surrounding its ends. Telescoping within the adjacent ends of the duct sections is a connecting sleeve 22. A rubber gasket 23 surrounding the connecting sleeve 22 is compressed and seals the connection when the ends of the two adjacent duct sections are pressed together by means of connecting bolts 24.

At the front of the sections the two adjacent side panels H! are held apart by means of channel-shaped spacers 25. Secured to the spacers 25 by means of screws 26 are decorative strips 21 that conceal the edges of the side panels H]. The lower end of each decorative strip 21 extends down to the fioor and covers the space between the adjacent ends of the two reinforcing bars I (SeeFig. I.)

The side panels In of each section support a pan 28 that forms the cover or top wall of the bottom compartment in which the reserve supply of produce or air conditioning apparatus is located. Dove-tailing with the front edge of the pan 28 is a suitably shaped ledge 29, to the bot-l tom of which is hinged a removable swinging door 3|]. In the left-hand section in Fig. I the swinging door 30 is shown in its uppermost position, in which it may be held by a suitable catch. The doors 30 in the other two sections of Fig. I are shown in their closed positions.

In front of the duct section I6 is a distribution chamber 3|, the top of which is closed by an upper pan 32 similar to the lower pan 28. 'Im-' mediately below the upper pan 32 is a sheet 33, which with the pan 32 forms a fiat duct for leading air forward from the distributing chamber 3|. An upper ledge 34, somewhat similar to the lower edge 29, dovetails with the front edge of the upper pan 32., To continue the lower wall of the hat air passage, a suitably formed strip 35 dovetails with the front edge of the sheet 33. Closing'the flat air passage at its front end are an upper closure strip 36 and a lower closur strip 31. (See Fig. III.)

The upper closure strip is separated from the upper ledge 34 by means of a spacer 38, to form a slot through which is discharged a sheet or curtain of rapidly moving air. (Indicated by arrows in Fig. I.) Similarly, the lower closure strip 31 is separated from the adjacent strip 35 to form a slot for discharging an air curtain. In the construction shown, most of the air tends to pass through the lower discharge slot, so that an adjustable plate 39 is provided for partially obstructing it. If the bolts supporting the adjustable plate 39 are loosened, they may be slid forward or backward in slots provided in the strip 35 to apportion the amounts of .air discharged to form the upper and lower air curtains. The flow of air into the distributing chamber 3| can be cut off when desired by means of a slidable metering plate 40. (See Fig. II.) Guides 4| hold the metering plate 40 against the main duct I6, and the plate can be shifted by means of a channel-shaped bracket 42, which is secured to the front of the metering plate and is provided with a handle 43. In the operation of the device the handle 43 may be positioned in either one of two notches 44. (See Fig. IV.) The drawings show the metering plate in its right-hand position, so that the orifices in the metering plate are in registry with the corresponding orifices in the wall of the duct section Hi. When the metering plate is in its left-hand position, the fiow of air into the distribution chamber 3| is shut off.

.As shown in Fig. I, the sheet 33 forms the top of the lower display compartment and a cover plate 45 forms the top of the display compartment. Electric light fixtures may be provided beneath the sheet 33 and the cover plate 45 at points near the front where they are concealed.

Products in the upper and lower display compartments are supported upon perforated plates 46, the front edges of which rest upon the upper ledge 34 and the lower ledge 29. At their rear edges the perforated plates 46 are supported by hooks 41 (see Fig. III) which are provided at various levels so that the perforated plates can be supported at any desired angle. Conditioned air is supplied to the display compartments through suitable orifices 48 in the duct section I6, and the conditioned air flows upward through each perforated plate 46 and through the bed of products resting upon the plate.

The air curtain that is discharged in front of the upper display compartment overcomes eddies and drafts that might cause atmospheric air to enter the compartment, and thus inhibits dilution of the conditioned air in the compartment by atmospheric air. The sheet of moving air forming the curtain is narrowest near the point of discharge, because the curtain tends to become wider and wideras additional air is entrained. In fact the curtain consists not of air moving in a single direction but of air moving with considerable turbulence.

Since the air curtain is directed across the open front of the compartment, it entrains air I from the compartment on one side and air from the atmosphere onthey other side. The air curtain' in front of the upper compartment is so directed that it does not enter the compartment, and there is a continuous loss of air from the upper display compartment, caused by the entraining action of the air curtain. If this loss of air occurs at a rate substantially greater than the rate at which conditioned air is supplied to the compartment, there may be a tendency for atmospheric air to flow into the compartment; therefore, conditioned air should be supplied to the compartment at a 'rate substantially as great as the loss of air from the compartment caused by the curtain of air.

Since the curtain does not enter the upper compartment, the temperature or humidity of the air forming the curtain might not appear material. However, cool conditioned air is' discharged to form this curtain in order that the fiat passage which supplies the air for the curtain, like the bottom or basket cc mpartment, may serve as a chamber for holding a body of cool air beneath the display compartment floor.

The aircurtain that protects the front of the lower display compartment is discharged in a different manner from the upper air curtain.'

Secured to the lower closure strip 31, by means of bolts 49, is a deflecting strip 50 for directing the lower air curtain slightly inward. The purpose of the deflecting strip is to make the lower display compartment suitable for products that require a slightly lower relative-humidity than the products in the upper display compartment. A reduction of the relative humidity in the lower display compartment is caused by 'the'entrainment of atmospheric air in the air curtain. Since the lower air curtain is directly slightly inward, a portion of the curtain, carrying entrained atmospheric air with it, is discharged into the lower display compartment. Thus the deflecting strips 50 serve as convenient attachments for introducing some atmospheric air into selected display compartments along with the conditioned 'air.

It is much more convenient to provide the deflecting strips than to provide a separate supply of less humid air. Moreover, the amount of atmospheric airthat is introduced to dilute the conditioned air in a compartment can ,be controlled much more effectively by using a deflecting strip than by simply cutting down the amount of conditioned air supplied to the compartment.

If the amount of air used. to condition 'a display compartment is cut down for example by shutting off the air curtain; the entry of atmospheric air into the compartment depends solely upon the random currents of the air in the'room.

The deflecting strip can be adjusted to regu-' of a grocery store or produce market.

As shown in Fig. I, the conditioned air is supplied to the middle duct section I6 by thesupply duct 7. The air that is forced through the air conditioning apparatus by the blower 8 is withdrawn from the atmosphere throughlouvers 5|. The pans 28 and 32 that form the floors of the display-compartments have upturned rear and side edges 52 compressing rubber gaskets 53 against the duct section l6 and the side panels H! (see Fig. III). Thus the display compartments are watertight at the bottom and are easy to flush out and clean. An upper drain'spout 54 receives water from the upper pan 32 and leads it into the lower pan 28. Water from the lower pan is led into the drain trough 20 through a lower drain spout 55, the inlet of which is protected by a drain guard 56.

Each of the display compartments is divided into two parts by. means of a partition 51. The rear wall [2 behind the display compartments and the main duct I6 is covered with insulation 58. The apparatus may be finished in porcelain enamel or any other suitable resistant finish.

The apparatus shown in the drawings is designed to operate at only 1020 F. below the temperature of the surrounding atmosphere. For lower temperatures, additional insulation may be employed underneath the cover plate 45 and underneath the bottom plate ll. When the apparatus is used to display fruit and vegetables the cool air should have a relative humidity of .to per cent. From to 250 cubic feet of the air per hour should be forced upward through each square foot of the perforated plates 46. The air curtains are preferably made up of a. discharge of air at about 600 cubic feet per hour per foot of length of, the curtains, flowing at a discharge velocity of about 15 feet per second. A few feet from the discharge slots the velocity of the air is less than at the point of discharge, but is still currents in the room, which flow at velocities up to 5 feet per second.

When the products in the compartments are not being displayed to customers a cloth may be thrown over the apparatus to close the display compartments. While the compartments are so covered the metering plate 40 may be shifted to its left-hand position to shut off the air curtains.

It should be noted that the display compartments need not be open at the front. If desired, the compartments may be closed in front. by slidable glass partitions. If the display compartments are of the closed type, an outlet should be provided forv discharging into the atmosphere, or recirculating back to the air conditioning apparatus, the air that is displaced from the display compartments by the entering conditioned air.

The construction illustrated in the drawings may be modified and various embodiments of the invention may be devised to meetvarious requirements.

Having. described my invention, I claim:

I. A display counter comprising, in combina- 'tion, a display compartment having a foraminous false bottom, a distribution passage for supplying conditioned air, communicating with the space immediately below said false bottom, and a duct extending below said folse bottom, having. a top wall that forms the floor of said display compartment, for conducting conditioned air from said passage and-discharging it to form a protective curtain that shields said display compartment from the atmosphere.

2. A display counter comprising, in combina-.- tion, two superimposed display compartments, the upper of which has a foraminous false bottom, a distribution passage for supplying conditioned air, communicating with the space immeair entrained by the discharged air is carried into 6 the lower compartment.

KEI'I'H- W.

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