WO2014167158A1

WO2014167158A1 - Fried product-dispensing machine

Info

Publication number: WO2014167158A1
Application number: PCT/ES2014/070281
Authority: WO
Inventors: Javier FERNÁNDEZ PÁEZ
Original assignee: Qualityfry, S.L.
Priority date: 2013-04-09
Filing date: 2014-04-09
Publication date: 2014-10-16
Also published as: ES2520515A1; ES2520515B1; JP3203982U

Abstract

The invention concerns a fried product-dispensing machine comprising a freezer cabinet (1) with a frozen product-metering device (2) which is formed by a rotary shaft (10) with pivoting devices (11) disposed in a helical arrangement along the entire length thereof and which guides the product to be fried to electronic scales (5) with an extensiometric gauge (12) which weighs the product received, and a movable load carriage (6), disposed inside the freezer, by means of a shaft (17) activated by a motor reducer (8) with position control, conveys the portions of product weighed by the scales (5) to a fryer (3). The machine further comprises means for dispensing complementary items such as cutlery, sauces, salt and serviettes, a tray-dispensing mechanism, and an electronic control system which regulates the operations performed by the dispensing machine.

Description

FRITO PRODUCT EXPENDING MACHINE

DESCRIPTION

Field of the Invention

The present invention belongs to! technical field of vending machines for food products, more specifically to the technical field of vending machines for fried products that include fried potatoes and other pre-fried and frozen products, such as squid, meat and chopped fish, with the possibility of dosing products Very different sizes. The invention relates in particular to a vending machine for fried products that has a freezer cabinet with a frozen product dispenser that drives the product to be fried to an electronic scale, which weighs the received product, transporting it in a loading cart located in the inside of the freezer from the balance to the fryer.

Background of the invention

At present, a large number of vending machines of all kinds are known, and among them are the vending machines for food products, and more specifically for potato chips, in which, after payment by the user, a dosage is made, Preparation and delivery of the fried product.

Many of the vending machines for french fries work by means of hot air instead of using a deep fryer, so you can't talk about fried products strictly.

Other machines known in the state of the art have a deep fryer inside and there is a real frying of the product, but the starting product that is used is not peeled and chopped potatoes but a rehydrated potato paste and conformed to different sizes, but All of them similar to each other. In addition, many of the vending machines that have a fryer have only a smoke filter as a flue gas purification system, so the purification performed is not effective.

The Spanish invention patent with publication number ES2107367, describes a vending machine that improves the previously existing ones, presenting a fryer with a smoke scrubbing system that has a blanket and activated carbon filter system, whereby it is improved the filtration of the frying fumes. However, the outgoing smoke from the fryer still had a large amount of contaminating particles that were not removed by the filters, and a high moisture content. In addition, this vending machine had dosing means comprising a conventional blind helix auger that drags the products, which presented the disadvantage that sometimes, and especially when the initial products had different sizes, the auger got stuck. It also featured a freight car and a dosing scale to prepare the dose of product to be fried. This system of weighing and movement of the car of load was realized by counterweights, microswitches and stops, reason why its reliability, maintenance and repair were complicated tasks, and the rations did not obtain a uniform weight. In addition, the weighing of the ration was done outside the freezer, at the time when the customer made the purchase of the ration, which meant a long waiting time for the client, until the weight was reached and the ration was transferred to the fryer, time that had to be added to the frying time of the ration in the fryer. Likewise, when the ration is weighed out of the freezer, remnants of the product to be fried were deposited on the scale platform, which remained there at room temperature, with the consequent risk of rot.

Therefore, a system that solved the inconveniences existing in the prior art systems was desirable.

Description of the invention

The present invention solves the problems existing in the state of the art by means of a vending machine of fried products with a freezer cabinet, for the storage of the product to be fried. The product to be fried can be any of the products marketed by the different manufacturers of frozen pre-cooked products, and is introduced in bulk into a hopper inside the freezer cabinet. The freezer cabinet additionally has a product dispenser that feeds an electronic balance to weigh the product to be fried, and this product to be fried is supplied to a vertical fryer through a mobile loading cart driven by a gearmotor and located inside of the freezer.

In addition, the vending machine object of the invention has dispensing means of accessories such as sauces, sai, cutlery and napkins, which together with the fried product is delivered to the customer in a package provided by a dispensing mechanism. All operations performed are managed by an electronic control system that governs the vending machine.

By means of these elements, the user makes the payment in the machine and chooses a type of frying and some complements, and the fryer fry the product that he has received directly from the storage hopper, located inside the freezer cabinet, through the loading cart , which has been dosed by means of the electronic balance. Once the product ration is fried, the vending machine delivers it to the user in a tub along with the supplements, which are dispensed into a packet. The dispenser of the hopper in the freezer cabinet that deposits the product to be fried in the balance is an auger formed by a spindle that has a plurality of pivots around it arranged in a helical arrangement. The movement of the spindle is achieved through a gearmotor. This arrangement of a set of pivots arranged to form a propeller, has the advantage over the augers existing in the state of the art, which in this case, since it is not a conventional blind propeller, the spindle lock due to irregularities is avoided Freiry product also manages to effectively dose a wide variety of products of different shapes and sizes. With a traditional propeller, the formation of hollow vaults is formed, due to the fact that the products are glued together by the humidity they contain and by the low temperatures to which they are subjected, and the propeller acts as a drill creating a hollow cylinder . However, with the spindle of the present invention, this effect is eliminated.

The electronic balance is formed by a tray that has a strain gauge connected to the electronic control system, which allows to obtain an exact weight, and therefore a correct dosage of the product to be fried.

As for the mobile cargo carriage, it travels through a travel spindle that is connected to a gearmotor. This load carriage is triple positionable along its spindle travel, from the balance to the fryer, by means of an electronic position controller arranged in the gearmotor. The three positions in which the load carriage can be positioned and which are controlled at all times by the electronic controller are: a first loading position on top of the balance, a second unloading position on the fryer, and a third position of Waiting for the car between operation and operation in which it is arranged between the other two positions. In this third waiting position of the freight car, the freezer cabinet and the fryer are kept closed and without communication, to avoid both thermal leaks of! freezer, such as leaking frying fumes in the fryer.

The mobile cargo car is located inside the freezer and receives from the control system the order to move to the first loading position just when a portion is being fried. In this way, two important advantages are achieved: first, there is one minute, which is the usual frying time, for weighing, which guarantees an absolute uniformity in the weight of all rations; Secondly, the reception time of the fried ration is shortened considerably by the customer after making their purchase, because their ration has already been weighed previously and is moved to the fryer immediately after making the purchase. In order to achieve an efficient purification of the fumes originating in the frying, the vending machine has a smoke purification system that is connected to the fryer. This smoke purification system comprises at least one condenser and a set of filters at the outlet of the latter. Subsequently it has an activated carbon filter, in which an adsorption filtration is carried out by means of porous carbon. Finally, the resulting filtered current is mixed with a current emitted by an ozone generator before being expelled abroad.

To facilitate cleaning and maintenance of the fryer, which is necessary from time to time, this fryer is divided into two separable and connectable parts, which are: a motor and a frying chamber. The motor is fixed inside the vending machine, and the frying chamber is attachable to this motor. In this way, when it is necessary to carry out the cleaning of the machine's oil, it will only be necessary to remove said frying chamber, which will facilitate its cleaning, being able to be cleaned manually or in an industrial dishwasher, leaving the motor inside the vending machine .

The fryer additionally has an oil level control system that has a series of temperature measuring probes arranged at different heights in the tank. The level control system has a reference temperature probe arranged at the bottom of the tank that measures the temperature in this area, and at least one other level temperature probe disposed at a certain height that measures the temperature at that height. . If the temperature difference between the reference probe and the other probe is greater than a predetermined n value, this will indicate that at that given height there is a very low temperature compared to the bottom of the tank because in that area at that given height there's no oil. If another temperature probe is included at a higher height, it can be determined in one way similar to a maximum level, which when reached by the oil will be indicated because the temperature difference between the reference probe and the level probe is, in this case, less than the predetermined n value. Thus, a maximum level and a minimum level can be determined between which to place the oil level, and if said oil level is not between these minimum and maximum levels, the oil level control system disconnects the fry pan to avoid a frying with an amount of oil, either insufficient or excessive.

These temperature probes also function as an anti-fire system, since they provide instant oil temperature information. If a predetermined safety temperature is exceeded, the power is cut off automatically, the resistance that heats the oil being disconnected. Additionally, the lower oil level control will indicate when the oil level is below the active zone of the fryer's resistance, and thus prevent a fire from being caused. As an additional safety measure, there is a thermostat that would cut off the power automatically if a certain temperature was reached in a certain predetermined area, also, if a fault occurred in any of the temperature probes, the electric current would be cut off automatically.

If there was a fire caused by an external element, the low concentration of oxygen, because both the input and the output of the product are practically sealed, would cause the flame to extinguish.

In the unlikely event that the previous safety systems failed and the resistance was kept on continuously, due to a vandalism, for example, continuous fires would occur inside the fryer that would be extinguished by the lack of oxygen. The successive succession of fire and its extinction would completely consume the oil, causing the "breakage" of the electrical resistance by keeping warm without being submerged in any fluid, which guarantees the safety against fires caused by external elements. In addition, the vending machine fryer may also include a polar component control probe, and the fryer will automatically disconnect when the values measured by the polar component control probe are outside a preset range and since the oil could be harmful to health. In a particular embodiment, the machine has a pump that is connected to the fryer, and with this, and with the help of a filter that is arranged inside the fryer, a filtering of the fryer oil is performed when the measured values by the controlling probe of polar components are outside the preset range, that is, when the quality of the oil does not meet minimum legal conditions.

In another particular embodiment of the invention, the machine additionally presents an automatic oil injection system in the fryer formed by a pump, an injection tube and a suction tube, which takes oil from an external container and injects it into the tank. deep fryer

Brief description of the drawings

Next, to facilitate the understanding of the invention, an illustrative but non-limiting way will describe an embodiment of the invention that refers to a series of figures.

Figure 1 is a view of the vending machine object of the present invention showing the closed freezer cabinet and the bottom of the open machine showing its components.

Figure 2 shows the inside of the freezer cabinet and the loading means, together with the fryer, of the vending machine of Figure 1.

Figure 3 shows the hopper in the freezer cabinet and the dispenser of the product to be fried. Figure 4 is a view of the loading means of the present invention showing the electronic balance and the loading car of the vending machine.

Figure 5 shows different views of the engine and the fry pan and its different positions and coupling means.

In these figures reference is made to a set of elements that are:

1. freezer cabinet

2. frozen product dispenser

3. fryer

4. fryer load input

5. electronic balance

6. freight car

7. fryer motor

8. gearmotor

9. freezer cabinet hopper

10. frozen product dispenser spindle

11. frozen product dispenser spindle pivots

12. strain gauge gauge

13. fryer fry chamber 14. First loading position of the cargo car

15. second loading car unloading position

16. third waiting position of the cargo car

17. loading carriage spindle

Detailed description of the invention

Figure 1 shows a vending machine for fried products object of the present invention which is formed by a freezer cabinet 1, which has inside a frozen product dispenser 2 that feeds an electronic balance 5, which weighs the rations of said products to be fried, and are supplied to a fryer 3, there are also dispensing means of complements to the fried product such as salt, sauces, cutlery and napkins that deposit them next to a tub with the fried product in the fryer 3 to be collected by the user In a preferred embodiment of the invention, these complements are distributed in packs that store different combinations of each of said complements.

All operations performed are controlled by an electronic control system that governs the vending machine.

As can be seen in figure 2, and more clearly in figure 3, the freezer cabinet 1 has inside a hopper 9 where the product to be fried is stored and which flows into a frozen product dispenser 2 that separates the quantity of product to be introduced in the fryer and leads to it.

According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the machine can have a multiproduct hopper 9, which makes it possible to convert the single fried product vending machine (monoproduct) into a vending machine of several products, thus providing an advantage over other vending machines of fried product that could be in the market.

Figure 3 shows in detail the frozen product dispenser 2, which consists of an auger formed by a rotating spindle 10 driven by a gearmotor 8, with a plurality of pins arranged helically on the surface of said spindle 10 along along its entire length, which by means of the turning movement move the product to be fried to the bottom of the hopper 9 until it leaves.

The frozen product dispenser 2 drives the product to an electronic balance 5 that receives the product from the frozen product doser 2 from the hopper 9 of the freezer cabinet 1, and weighs it in order to provide a fair preset dose of product, by a ration. A mobile cargo carriage 6 carries the dose of heavy product by the scale 5 to the fryer 3. This cargo carriage 6 is driven by another gearmotor 8. The electronic balance 5 is arranged in the movement lane of the cargo carriage 6 and It has a tray on which the product driven by the frozen product dispenser 2 is arranged. In addition, the balance 5 has an extensiometric gauge 12 connected to the electronic control system that governs the vending machine, and which simply and accurately measures the weight of a quantity of product that is deposited in the tray until it reaches a predetermined quantity, at which time the control system for the dispenser 2. The mobile loading carriage 6 is moved by means of a displacement spindle 17 connected to the gearmotor 8 and is triple positioned along its path from the balance 5 to the fryer 3 by an electronic position controller arranged in the gearmotor 8 that detects at every moment the position in which the load carriage 8 is located, in a first load position 14 in the balance 5, in a second discharge position 15 on a load inlet 4 of the fryer 3, and in a third waiting position 16 arranged between the other two positions 14, 15. Figure 4 shows in detail the balance 5 and the load carriage 6, also showing the three possible positions in which the load carriage can be fixed 6.

As shown in Figure 5, the fryer is formed by two separable parts, which are the fryer motor 7 and the frying chamber 13. The fryer motor 7 is fixed to the vending machine, and the chamber of frying 13 is coupled to it, being able to separate for oil cleaning and maintenance greatly facilitating this task, and the fryer motor 7 being fixed inside the machine.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention there is a fume purification system connected to the fryer 3, formed by a condensation system with at least one condenser, at least one metal filter that retains solid particles from the outgoing current of the condensation system, a subsequent activated carbon filter that retains particles from the adsorption stream, and finally an ozone generator that emits an ozone stream that mixes with the output stream of the activated carbon filter by purifying it before expelling it to the outside.

Additionally, the fryer 3 of the vending machine, according to a particular embodiment, has a reference temperature probe arranged at its bottom and a set of temperature probes arranged at certain levels, which measure the temperature at these points. The difference in the values measured by the probe reference temperature and the rest of the temperature probes indicate if the oil level reaches a certain height, and if the oil level is not set between predetermined values, the electronic control system that governs the vending machine disconnects the fryer 3. In a preferred embodiment of the invention the temperature probes are PT100 probes,

In addition, in a preferred embodiment of the invention, the fryer 3 comprises a polar component controlling probe, which measures the amount of substances likely to be hazardous to the health of the consumer, and said fryer 3 is automatically switched off when the measured values by said polar component controlling probe they are outside a predetermined range as allowed.

To solve the problem of the purification of the oil used without having to change it frequently, in a particular embodiment of the invention, the vending machine comprises a pump that is connected to the fryer 3, and a filter inside the fryer 3. The pump sucks the oil from the fryer by passing it through the filter, and once purified it returns it to the fryer 3.

In a further particular embodiment of the invention, the machine has an automatic oil injection system formed by a pump, an injection tube and a suction tube, which takes oil from an external container and injects it into the fry pan.

Additionally, according to a particular embodiment of the invention, the fryer 3 may have a flavor mixing elimination system. According to this, the frying chamber 13 of the fryer 3 has a solid waste storage system in a temperate zone to prevent the wastes from frying and producing a mixture of flavors between the different fried foods inside (meat, vegetables, fish , battered, potatoes, etc.). The fryer 3 has a perforated grid inside the frying chamber 13 arranged at a certain height of the resistance or any other means of heating the oil, which prevents food contact with this resistance or heating means, and allows Let the waste go to the temperate zone. The frying process used consists of cooking the product on the surface, leaving approximately one quarter of the total volume of oil below the resistance responsible for heating said oil. This arrangement of the fryer and its components, cause that the residues are always below 100 ° C, preventing burning, while the frying area is between 180-190 ° C. The fryer 3 also incorporates an evacuation system solid waste with a minimum oil consumption, thus preventing the solid residue from previous products from carbonizing, thereby increasing the durability of the oil.

Once the invention is clearly described, it is noted that the particular embodiments described above are subject to modifications in detail as long as they do not alter the fundamental principle and essence of the invention.

Claims

1. Vending machine for fried products, characterized in that

understands

- a freezer cabinet (1) which in turn includes inside

a hopper (9) that stores the frozen products to be fried, a frozen product dispenser (2) that feeds an electronic scale (5), configured to receive the products to be fried, weigh a portion of these and supply it to

a fryer (3) via

a mobile loading cart (8) powered by a gear motor (8), dispensing means for accessories selected from cutlery, sauces, salt and napkins, and combinations of these,

- a dispensing mechanism for tubs configured to hold fried products, and

an electronic control system that governs the vending machine,

because the frozen product dispenser (2) is an auger, which comprises - a rotating screw (10) driven by a gear motor (8),

with a plurality of pivots (1 1) arranged in a helical shape along said spindle (10),

because the electronic scale (5) comprises a strain gauge (12) connected to the electronic control system that governs the vending machine, - and because the mobile loading cart (8) moves by means of a displacement spindle (17 ) connected to the gear motor (8) and is triple positionable along its path from the scale (5) to the fryer (3) by means of an electronic position controller arranged in the gear motor (8), in

a first loading position (14) on the scale (5),

- a second discharge position (15) on a loading inlet (4) of the fryer (3),

and a third waiting position (18) between the first loading position (14) and the second unloading position (15),

2. Vending machine for fried products, according to claim 1, characterized in that it comprises a smoke purification system connected to the fryer (3), and comprising

at least one capacitor,

- a filter selected from metal filters, fabric filters, and a combination of the above,

an active carbon filter and

an ozone generator.

3. Vending machine for fried products, according to any of the previous claims, characterized in that the fryer (3) comprises

a motor (7) fixed to the vending machine, and

a frying chamber (13) attachable to said motor (7), both being separable from each other.

4. Vending machine for fried products, according to any of the previous claims, characterized in that

the fryer (3) includes

a reference temperature probe arranged at its bottom and a set of temperature probes arranged at certain levels, indicating the difference in the values measured by the reference temperature probe and the rest of the temperature probes if the oil level reaches a certain height,

and because the electronic control system that governs the vending machine disconnects the fryer (3) when the oil level is not within predetermined values.

5. Vending machine for fried products, according to the previous claim, characterized in that the temperature probes are PT100 probes.

6. Vending machine for fried products, according to any of the previous claims, characterized in that

The fryer (3) comprises a polar component controller probe, and because said fryer (3) is automatically disconnected when the values measured by said polar component conirolator probe are outside a preset range.

7, Vending machine for fried products, according to the previous claim, characterized in that it comprises

a pump connectable to the fryer (3), and

a filter arranged inside the fryer (3), through which the oil used by said fryer (3) is filtered when the values measured by the polar component controller are outside a preset range.

8. Vending machine for fried products, according to any of the previous claims, characterized in that

It comprises an automatic oil injection system which in turn comprises

a bomb,

an injection tube and

a suction tube,

and because said automatic injection system takes oil from an external container and injects it into the frying chamber of the fryer (13).

9. Vending machine for fried products, according to any of the previous claims, characterized in that the accessories selected between cutlery, sauces, sai and napkins, and combinations of these are distributed in boxes that contain different combinations of each of said accessories, being said packets dispensed by the supplement dispensing means.