US2446788A

US2446788A - Refrigerated dispensing cabinet

Info

Publication number: US2446788A
Application number: US609055A
Authority: US
Inventors: Rifkin Milton
Original assignee: FREZ O MAT SALES CORP
Current assignee: FREZ O MAT SALES CORP; FREZ-O-MAT SALES Corp
Priority date: 1945-08-06
Filing date: 1945-08-06
Publication date: 1948-08-10
Anticipated expiration: 1965-08-10

Description

Aug. l0, 1948. M. RlFKlN 2,446,788

v REFRIGERATED DISPENSING CABINET Filed Aug. e, 1945 s sheets-sheet 1v B ,3 bg'gg.

Aug.1o,194s. MRW-K1N y2,446,783

REFR'IGBRATED msrENsING CABINET Filed Aug. 6, 1945 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 T7-omver. i

`ug. l0, 1948. M, R|FK|N 2,446,788

REFRIGBRATED DISPENSING CABINET Y Filed Aug. 6, 1945 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 o ogllgl,

oelell: aboga j Ill ll "nh L ulm M ATTORNC )f Patented Aug. 10, 1948 amaai REFRIGERATEUDISPENSING CABINET Milton aman, einem, m, minor, by mme assignments, to Frez-O-Mat Sales Corporation, a corporation oi Illinolsr Application August 6, 1945, Serial No. 609,055r

(ci. i2-1oz) 'I'hls invention relates to a refrigerated food dispensing cabinet, and has for its principal object the provision of a cabinet in which frozen packages will be held in separated classified compartments, from which the desired package may be removed without opening the cabinet to outside air.

Another object of theinvention is to provide a refrigerating system for a cabinet of this character which will always maintain a slight air pressure within the cabinet to prevent warm air from entering from the exterior.

A further object is to provide a dispensing mechanism which will deliver one package at a time; which will be adjustable for various sizes of packages; which will allow fresh packages to be quickly and easily inserted; and which will give a suitable indication when the packages should be replenished.

Other objects and advantages reside in the vdetail construction of the invention, which is designed for simplicity, economy, and eiciency. These will become more apparent from the following description.

In the following detailed description of the invention, reference is had to the accompanying drawing which forms a part hereof. Like numerals referto like parts in all views of the drawing and throughout the description.

In the drawing:

Fig. 1 is a front view of the improved refrigerating dispensing cabinet partially broken away to show the interior mechanism;

Fig. 2 is a side View thereof, similarly broken away;

Fig. 3 is an enlarged, detail section through a portion of the cabinet illustrating one of the dispensing mechanisms;

Fig. 4 is a perspective View illustrating one of the package slides employed in the improved cabinet;

Fig. 51s a detail perspective view illustrating proved cabinet, illustrating an annunciator which form. of door, taken on the line II-I I, Fig. w10;

and

Fig. 12` is a longitudinal section through the latter door, taken on the line I 2--I2, Fig. 11.

The improved cabinet, designated in its entirety by the numeral I0, may be any of the usual refrigerator constructions. such as having an inner wall II and an outer .wall I2 separated by suitable heat insulation I3. The cabinet contains storage compartments I4, closed by means of doors I5, and positioned at the bottom thereof. At the top thereof, a motor compartment I6 is provided alongside of a refrigerating compartment I1, the latter being closed by a suitable lid I8.

Between the storage compartments I4 and the compartments I6 and Il, the front of the cabinet contains a plurality of small doors I9 closing package delivery openings 20 in the front of the cabinet. A peripheral sealing gasket 2| surrounds each of the doors I9 and contacts the front of the cabinet to seal the door thereto when in the closed position. Each door is also provided with a block of heat insulating material 22 rsecured inwardly into the cabinet each pair being in alignment with one of the package openings 2B. The

.slide tracks are secured to the inner wall II by means of U-shaped attachment clips 25,.and are maintained in proper parallel, spaced relation by means of U-shaped cross braces 26. The tracks 24 are formed from angle-iron with their convex sides turned inwardly to form a support and guide for a row of frozen foods packages, indicated at 21. n'

Each row of packages is forced` forwardly toward the door-opening 20 by means of a pusher block 28. The pusher block is arranged to slide along the tracks 24, and is held in slidable relation thereon by means of underlapping clips 29, which extend beneath the tracks 24. The pusher block 28 is urged forwardly by means of a ratchet rack bar 30 having forwardly facing teeth along its upper edge.

l The'teeth of the rack bar 30 engage a hinged pawl 3l which is mounted on a pivot pin 32 in a pawl bracket 33 on the rear of the pusher block 28. r`The extremities of the pawltbracket 33 engage 3 the slides of the rack bar 3l to maintain the block 28 at t angles therewith. The downward movem t of the pawl 3| is by means of a stop pin 34.

It can be seen that each forward movement of inwardly by means of a tension spring .35 which is secured at its forward extremity to a spring hook 35 on the rack bar 38 and at its rearwardly extremity to the rearmost cross brace 25, asshown at 58.

'I'he rack bar 38 is moved forwardly by the openof a flexible cable 31. The cable 31 extends from a. terminal itting 38 attached to the door i8 beneath a roller 39. attached to the bottom of the frame of he opening 20, thence through a hole in the extremity of the rack bar 38 and back to the fitting 38.' The two extremities of the cable are clamped in the fitting by means of a clamp block 48. In the fitting 38 the two reaches of the cable extend beneath a bending pin 4|,ltl1e position of which is adjustable in a series of pin holes 42.

The doors I3 are mounted on hinge pins 43 ex- Y to the point of attachment of the cable 31. That is, if the pin 4| is in the pin h'ole 42 closest to the axis of the hinge pin 43, the distance the cable is pulled at each opening of the door will be less than it would be if the pin 4| were in the pin hole 42 furtherest from the axis of the hinge pin. The pin 4| is pre-set to accommodate packages of various thicknesses. The `thicker packages, of course, require a longer movement of the rack bar 38 than the thinner packages.

Since the only means of access to the cabinet is through the doors I8, it is necessary that some means be provided to release the pusher block 28 so that it can be forced inwardlyV to allow the insertion of fresh packages. This is accomplished in the present invention by mounting therack bar 38 upon supporting pins 45 in the cross braces 26. The pins 45 pass through guide plates 48 secured on each side of the rack bar 38 and projecting therebelow. The plates 46 are provided ing motion of the door I8 through the medium 4 and are clamped in place therein by means of leaf springs 5I, as shown in detail in Fig. 5. The flexible ap 48 of the top and bottom strips 88 is notchedas shown at 52 in Fig. 8 to allow the exible flaps of the side strips 88 to join therewith. 'I'he removable strips 88 are for the purpose of accommodating packages of various sizes. These strips will'be supplied with ilexible flaps 48 of various widths so that the opening i'n' the sealing frame can be adjusted to suit th'e size of any given package. Y

It can be readily seen from the above description that a patron can select the desired door .Il containing the desired packages, and by simply pulling this door outwardly and downwardly can cause the pusher block 28 to move the packages in the row suiiiciently far forward to deliverY one package and seal the cabinet with the next package.

The cabinet is kept filled with coldv dehydrated air under slightly higher than atmospheric pressure at al1 times. This is accomplished by mounting a circulating fan 52 in the refrigerating compartment I1. The fan 52 is driven .from a suitable motor 53. A small pressure blower 54 is also driven from the motor 53 and draws its air with horizontally extending slotted openings 41 through'which the pins 45 pass. The inner extremitles of the openings 41 are enlarged upwardly as shown atl 48. When the door I9 is fully opened, the rack barv 38 will be pulled sum- Y ciently far forward to. allow the. enlarged extremities 48 of the slots 41 to drop over the pins 45. This'allows the entire rack bar to drop so that it will no longer engage the pawl 3l. Thus, the pusher block 28 is released and can be forced inwardly by the insertionof fresh packages.

embrace of a ilexible sealing frame which seals the interior of the cabinet from the exterior while the .door is open.

v in

70 'I'he sealing frame consists of four removable` elongated strips 88, each ofwhich carriesa iiexfrom the exterior of the cabinet through an air intake tube 55. 'I'he fan 52 blows the air through a cooling and dehydrating coil 58 which is kept chilled from any suitable refrigerating mecha nism 51. v

The cooled, dehydrated air enters the food compartment through an elongated slot 18, adiacent the front wall thereof and flows rearwardly and downwardly to ports 1I in the rear wall and through a port 58 into the storage compartments The ports 1I opento a return duct 58 at the back of the cabinet which returns the air to the fan 52. It will be noted that the ports' 1| increase in size as the bottom of the food cabinet is approached in order to attain a uniform ilow through the entire cabinet.

The capacity of the blower 54 is such as to maintain a slight pressure on the air in the housing. When this pressure is reached, no lfurther air'will be drawn into the intake 55. Should any air escape through the doors or compartments, the pressure will be lowered and the blower will then build it up to the predetermined point.

The lowermost tubes of the cooling coil 58 are provided with electrical heating elements 60. The current to the heating elements 68 is controlled by means of a clock switch 8l, which at pre-set intervals acts to shut oir the current to the fan motor 53 and turn the vcurrent into the heating elements 60 to heat the coils 5B sufliciently to melt the frost therefrom.-

'I'he melting frost drips into 'a drip pan 52 and is conducted away through a drain pipe 63; thus the coils will be defrosted at regular intervals to maintain the efdciency of the cooling and dehydrating action thereof. During the defrosting period the fan and blower are idle so that warm air is not forced into the food compartment and will be supportedby the more dense cold air therewith a suitable thermostat 81 for controlling the refrigeration mechanism 51 and the fan motor 53. The thermostat 81 also controls the flow of current to a signal lamp 84 to indicate when the temperature in the cabinet is reaching a dangerous point due to breakdown of the system or current supply.

The food compartment is provided. of cmirse.

gifagg'series of reload signal lights BB are also provided.' one being positioned over each of the doors i9. These lights indicate -to the operator when the merchandise behind that particular door needs replacing. This is accomplished by allowing a tilting arm 66 to rest on the row of packages at the desired point for indication. As long as there is a package beneath. the arm Si, the circuit to that signal light 85 will be open.v As soon as the last package passes from beneath the arm 466, the latter will tilt a mercury switch 88 downwardly to close the circuit to that particular signal light 65. thus indicating to the operator that that particular compartment needs relling.

Instead of placing the signal lights over the individual doors, they may be placed in an annunciator box 12, as shown in Fig. 9, wherein the individual compartment signal lights are shown at 65' and the cabinet temperature signal light is shown at 64'. An alternate construction which may be used in place of the terminal iitting 38 is illustrated in Figs. 10, 11, and 12. This construction employs a slide frame 13 which is mounted on the inside of the door within the insulating block thereon. The slide'frame acts as a guide for a nut member 14 which is threaded on a threaded rod 15. The rod 15 is rotatably mounted in any suitable manner, such as by means of an ear 16 on the frame 13. l v

Rotation of the rod 15 causes the nut member 14 to travel along the frame 13. The rod may be rotated by means of head 11, which is accessible when the door is opened. The cable 31 is attached to a cross pin 18 in the nut member 1I. This accomplishes the same purpose as the bending pin l i that is, it regulates the length of the stroke of the rack bar 30 to accommodate packages of different thicknesses. The stroke can be preset by means of a thickness scale 19 on the inner face of the door, there being a pointer 80 mounted on the nut member 1t for indicating positions on the scale 19.

While'a speciiic form of the improvement has been described and illustrated herein, it is desired to be understood that the same maybe varied,

- within the scope of the appended claims, without departing from the spirit of the invention.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed and desired secured by Letters Patent is:

1. A dispenser for frozen food packages comprising: a cabinet; a refrigerating medium; a fan forcing air through said refrigerating medium and into said cabinet; means for returning air from said cabinet to said fan; a plurality of doors opening through the front of said cabinet; means for supporting a row of the packages within said cabinet in alignment with each of said doors; means for forcing each row of said packages forwardly when that respective door is opened, and means for supplying air from the exterior to said fan when the pressure in the cabinet falls below a predetermined point.

2. A dispenser for frozen food packages comprising: a cabinet; a refrigerating medium; a fan forcing air through said refrigerating medium and into said cabinet; means for returning air from said cabinet to said fan; a plurality of doors opening throughthe front of said cabinet; means for supporting a row of the packages within said cabinet in alignment with each of said doors; means for forcing each row of said Apackages forwardly when that respective door is opened; and motor-operated means for supplying air from the ing means incorporated in said refrigerating means for heating the latter; and a time-operated switch mechanism for,closing a circuit to said heating means and opening a circuit to the fan at pre-set intervals.

4. A dispenser for frozen food packages comprising: an insulated cabinet; an insulated cooling chamber in said cabinet; a cooling element in said chamber; a fan for forcing air past said cooling element for cooling and dehydrating the air;

a package compartment in said cabinet; a passage communicating between said cooling compartment and said package compartment for the transmission of cooled, dehydrated air thereto: a return duct in said package compartment positioned to return air from the package compartment to said fan; and means for dispensing packages of frozen foods from said package compartment.

5. A 'dispenser for fro-zen food packages com-l prising: an insulated cabinet; an insulated cooling chamber in said cabinet; a cooling element in said chamber; a fan for forcing air past said cooling element for cooling and dehydrating the air; a package compartment in said cabinet; a passage communicating between said cooling compartment and said package compartment for the transmission of cooled, dehydrated airthereto; a return duct in said package compartment positioned to return air from the package compartment to said fan; means for dispensing packages of rozen'foods from said package compartment; a motor-operated pressure blower; and an intake conduit to said blower from the exterior of said cabinet for intaking outside air, the discharge from said blower being fed to said fan.

6. A dispenser for frozen food packages comprising: an insulated cabinet; an insulated cooling chamber in said cabinet; a cooling element in saidchamber; a fan for forcing air past said cooling element for cooling and dehydrating the air; a package compartment in said cabinet; a passage communicating between said cooling compartment and said package compartment vfor the transmission of cooled. dehydrated air thereto: a plurality of package openings in the front of said cabinet; a door closing each of said openings; means for supporting a row of packages in alignment with each package opening; and means operable by each door for forcing the row of packages aligned with that door forwardly when the door is opened.

"I. A dispenser for frozen food packages comprising: an insulated cabinet; an insulated cooling chamber in said cabinet; a cooling element in said chamber; a fan for forcing air past said cooling element for cooling and dehydrating the air; a package compartment in said cabinet; a passage communicating. between said cooling compartment and said package compartment for the transmission of cooled. dehydrated air thereto; a return duct in said package compartment positioned to return air from the package compartment. to said fan; and means for dispensing packages of frozen foods from said package compartment, said ilrst passage being positioned adjacent the front of said cabinet, and said return duct being placed adjacent the rear of said cabinet.

8. A dispenser for frozen foodpackages comprising: a cabinet; a package compartment in said cabinet; a cooling compartment in said cabinet; a cooling coil in said cooling compartment; a fan positioned adjacent the rear of said cooling compartment and forcing air forwardly through said coil toward the front of said cablnet; a passage at the front of said cabinet. communicating between said cooling compartment and said package compartment; and a vertical return duct positioned at the back of said package compartment and communicating at its upper extremity to the intake side of said'ian, there being openings in said return duct vertically a fan positioned adjacent the rear of said cooling compartment and forcing air forwardly through said coil toward the front of said cabinet; a passage at the front of said cabinet communicating betweenA said cooling compartment and said package compartment; `Va, vertical return duct positioned at the back of s`a2id package compartment and communicating at its upper extremity to the intake side of said fan.4 there being openings in said return duct vertically spaced throughout its length within said package compartment, said openings increasing in size as the bottom of said package compartment is approached; and motor-operated pressure means for drawing exterior air into said cooling compartment rearwardly of said fan.

11. A dispenser for frozen food packages comprising: a cabinet; a refrigerating medium; a

.spaced throughout its length within said package compartment.

9. A dispenser for frozen food packages coml prising: a cabinet; a package compartment in said cabinet; a cooling compartment in said cabinet; a cooling coil in said cooling compartment; a fan positioned adjacent the rear of said cooling compartment and'forcing air forwardly through said coil toward the front of said cabinet; a passage at the front of said cabinet communicating between said cooling compartment and said package compartment; and a vertical return duct positioned at the back of said package compartment and communicating. at its upper extremity to the .intake side of said fan, there being openings in said return duct vertically spaced throughout its length within said package compartment, said openings increasing in size as the bottom of said package compart.

ment is approached.

10. A dispenser for frozen food packages comprising: a cabinet; a package compartment in said cabinet; a cooling compartment in said cabinet; a cooling coil in said cooling compartment;

`fan forcing air through said refrigerating medium and into said cabinet; means for returning air from said cabinet to said fan; a plurality of doors opening through the front of said cabinet; means for supporting a row of the packages within said cabinet in alignment with each of said doors; means for forcing each row of said packages forwardly when that respective door is opened; a peripheral channel about said opening; sealing strips in said channel surrounding said opening; exible skirts projecting from said sealing strips so as to contact the packages passing through said opening; and means for securi'ng said strips in said peripheral channel.

MILTON RIFKIN.

EFEaENcEsc-:rrnn

The following references are of record in the ille of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS -40 Number Name Date 2,137,822 Gilmore Nov. 22, 1938 2,315,515 'Gibson Apr. 16, 1943 2,382,084 Mathews Aug. 14, 1945 2,389,619 Green Nov. 27, 1945