WO2003045757A1

WO2003045757A1 - Refrigerated trolley

Info

Publication number: WO2003045757A1
Application number: PCT/FR2002/004058
Authority: WO
Inventors: Jean-François VINCENT
Original assignee: Vincent Jean-Francois
Priority date: 2001-11-30
Filing date: 2002-11-27
Publication date: 2003-06-05
Also published as: AU2002361348A1; FR2833075A1

Abstract

The invention concerns a refrigerated trolley of the type used by consumers for transporting goods purchased in a departmental store but whereto has been added, or incorporated a refrigerated compartment. Thus the cold chain is prolonged from the moment when the consumer places in the refrigerated compartment (31) the fresh food he has purchased thereby ensuring better preservation and maintenance of its hygienic properties. Said trolley and its refrigerated compartment (31) can be made in plastic material in a single piece, for example by rotational casting.

Description

REFRIGERATED TROLLEY

The present invention relates to a refrigerated cart. Professionals in department stores that sell fresh food have refrigerated or frozen gondolas and tubs, which correctly ensure the "cold chain" and thus safeguard the sanitary quality of food. By cons as soon out of these preserved places, to be arranged by the consumer on the cart placed in his service, no more precautions comes to extend this cold chain, even partially, in and out of the store, because no cart existing at present cannot protect them from ambient heat. The invention consists in supplementing the usual trolley, or in creating a new one, by adding to it, or by integrating it, a refrigerated compartment to help the conservation of fresh food.

The cold compartment of the refrigerated cart (FIG 1) will include a box (FIG 1 -25), forming inside, the volume intended to receive the fresh food products, and a cover (FIG 1 -27), integral or not with the box by any suitable fastener (FIG 1 -29), intended to close the box. The box and its cover can be manufactured:

- Either from a plastic material, such as polyethylene, polypropylene or other, of food grade, recyclable, with or without addition, in an internal layer of recycled plastic, colored in its mass and resistant to ultraviolet rays and temperatures ranging from minus 20 ° to + 60 ° Celsius;

- Either in wood, in expanded material, in foam, in cellular concrete or in an inflatable envelope formed by fabric or a plastic film;

- Either by a combination of several materials such as a double plastic envelope (FIG 1 -3 1) filled inside by plastic foam, or a fractionated solid.

To cool this compartment, you can add or integrate it with an independent cooling source for a certain period. This cooling will be constituted for example:

- either by a block (FIG 1 -33) comprising a solid or a liquid brought to very low temperature, type "Supergel" ® or other, which is placed inside the box

- either by a system similar to that of a mini fridge with an electric autonomy provided by a battery,

- or by any other device allowing autonomous cooling. As the above-mentioned sources of freshness are autonomous and therefore of limited duration, in order to prolong their effectiveness it is provided that the walls and the cover of the compartment are thermally speaking very insulating.

4 To this end, the constituent elements of the refrigerated compartment will be thick, preferably, for example, constituted by a double envelope (FIG 1-31) of plastic containing a very insulating product such as air, foam, a material expanded, a fractionated solid of the cork or sawdust or plastic ball or other type.

To introduce this insulating element into the double envelope, a filling orifice will be provided in the upper part of the envelope.

In addition, to check the freshness offered by the compartment internally, a thermometer or any other temperature indicator can be conveniently placed, with an external indicator visible to the consumer.

Furthermore, to avoid any shock or injury, the refrigerated cart can be made up exclusively of rounded corners, edges and edges, which also makes it easier to fit into each other. Similarly, to avoid any liquid stagnation at the bottom of the refrigerated compartment, a hole, acting as self-emptying (FIG 1 -35) can be provided in the lower part of the box, with or without valve.

In addition, to stiffen and obtain good flatness of the double plastic envelope of the refrigerated compartment, it may be provided, between the walls of the envelope, stiffening bridges connecting them. As for the food piled up in the refrigerated box, it can be placed in a plastic or flexible plastic bag or basket, surmounted by a handle or a handle (FIG 1 -37) internally matching the volume of the box, in order to be able to take out the set of goods from the box at one time by means of said pocket or basket. For the refrigerated compartment, if it is added to an existing cart, it can be secured to this cart by any system of fasteners, locking, clipping, slide, hinge, buckle, belt, grasshopper, riveting, welding, screwing, hooking ... in particular so that the consumer cannot borrow it. Finally, the cart, whatever its type, cart-cart, cart-tray, or other, can be equipped with a refrigerated compartment, in addition or integration with the rest of the cart.

To have a refrigerated cart, comprising the cart and the refrigerated compartment completely integrated and forming only one product, the rotational molding process can be used for its plastic manufacture because it offers the possibilities described above, and, in addition allows the autoscanning of goods, which it contains since the phenomenon of the Faraday cage observed with metal carts disappears, and, moreover, it allows any engraving, registration, logo, advertising in the plastic mass of the cart (FIG 1 - FIG 2 - FIG 3).

Claims

1) The refrigerated cart, for use in medium and large surface stores, is composed,

-a compartment, (Figure 1-31), and plastic cover (Figure 1-27) with a double envelope, which can be connected by stiffening bridges: the whole compartment forms, with the rest of the carriage, a single monobloc product which is produced by the rotational molding process.

2) The refrigerated cart, according to claim 1, is characterized by a manufacturing carried out with a plastic material being able to be of food quality, recyclable, colored in its mass, resistant to rays υl has violet, and at temperatures ranging between - 20 ° at + 60 ° celsius, and containing in its double envelope a thermally insulating material such as a fractionated solid, a foam or air.

3) The refrigerated cart, according to claims let 2, is characterized, for its insulating compartment, by the fact that it has an independent cooling source (Figure 1- 33} of the type containing liquid or solid previously cooled and intended to restore the cold, or of the analogous type to the system of a refrigerator.ur powered by a battery or a battery.

4) The refrigerated cart according to any one of the claims there

3, is characterized by rounded shapes and edges, by a self-emptying (Figure 1-35) and a temperature indicator for the insulating compartment which, for its part, can contain a basket or pocket with handle (Figure 1-37). 5) .The refrigerated trolley according to any one of claims 1 to

4, is characterized by engravings on the external plastic envelope which can represent inscriptions, logos, advertisements ... (Figure 3). 6) The rotomolded plastic refrigerated cart, according to any one of claims 1 to 5, is characterized by the possibility of automatically reading (autoscanning) the goods contained in its basket and its insulating compartment.