Variable cooling time rack-type cooler

Claim 2

An article treating apparatus including a housing enclosing an article treating zone; a plurality of article supporting shelves; means for conducting said shelves in a closed loop through said article treating zone past an article loading station and an article unloading station; drive means for operating said shelf conducting means including a motor and means associated with said motor for selectively changing the speed of said conducting means for correspondingly changing the residence time of said articles in said treating zone in their travel from said loading station to said unloading station; an endless article infeed conveyor in said loading station in confronting relation with respect to the path of movement of said shelves through said loading station; an endless article discharge conveyor in said unloading station in confronting relation with respect to the path of movement of said shelves through said unloading station; drive means including motor means for operating said infeed and discharge conveyors at a constant speed and in a direction for feeding untreated articles into said loading station and discharging treated articles from said unloading station from the same side of said housing; and control means operated in timed relation with said shelf conducting means for effecting intermittent operation of said infeed and discharge conveyor motor means as each of said shelves passes through said loading and unloading stations to automatically vary the run time of said infeed and discharge conveyors and the linear travel thereof proportionally to the residence time of said articles in said treating zone to introduce into and discharge from said loading and unloading stations proportionally varying lengths of rows of articles.

Claim 3

An article treating apparatus including a housing enclosing an article treating zone; a plurality of article supporting shelves; means for sequentially conducting said shelves in a closed loop through said article treating zone in equidistantly spaced relation past an article loading station and an article unloading station; drive means for operating said shelf conducting means including a motor and means associated with said motor for selectively changing the speed of said conducting means for changing the residence time of said articles in said treating zone in their travel from said loading station to said unloading station between a desired maximum and minimum; an endless infeed conveyor in said loading station in confronting relation with respect to the path of said shelves through said loading station and extending at least the width of said shelves; an endless discharge conveyor in said unloading station in confronting relation with respect to the path of said shelves through said unloading station and extending at least the width of said shelves; drive means including motor means for operating said infeed and discharge conveyors at a constant speed and in a direction for feeding untreated articles into said loading station and discharging treated articles from said unloading station from the same side of said housing; and control means operated in Timed relation with said shelf conducting means for intermittently operating said infeed and discharge conveyors during a portion of the movement of a shelf by said shelf conducting means through a shelf space to automatically vary the run time of said infeed and discharge conveyors and the linear travel thereof proportionally to the residence time of said articles in said treating zone to introduce into and discharge from said loading and unloading stations proportionally varying lengths of rows of articles; said last named drive means being arranged to operate said infeed and discharge conveyors at a speed to introduce into and discharge from said loading and unloading stations a full shelf row of articles at said maximum residence time of said articles in said treating zone.

Claim 4

An article treating apparatus including a housing enclosing an article treating zone; a plurality of article supporting shelves; means for sequentially conducting said shelves in a closed loop through said article treating zone in equidistantly spaced relation past an article loading station and an article unloading station; drive means for operating said shelf conducting means including a motor and means associated with said motor for selectively changing the speed of said conducting means for changing the residence time of said articles in said treating zone in their travel from said loading station to said unloading station between a desired maximum and minimum; an endless infeed conveyor in said loading station in confronting relation with respect to the path of said shelves through said loading station and extending at least the width of said shelves; an endless discharge conveyor in said unloading station in confronting relation with respect to the path of said shelves through said unloading station and extending at least the width of said shelves; drive means including motor means for operating said infeed and discharge conveyors at a constant speed and in a direction for feeding untreated articles into said loading station and discharging treated articles from said unloading station from the same side of said housing; and control means operated in Timed relation with said shelf conducting means for intermittently operating said infeed and discharge conveyors during a portion of the movement of a shelf by said shelf conducting means through a shelf space to automatically vary the run time of said infeed and discharge conveyors and the linear travel thereof proportionally to the residence time of said articles in said treating zone to introduce into and discharge from said loading and unloading stations proportionally varying lengths of rows of articles; said last named drive means being arranged to operate said infeed and discharge conveyors at a speed to introduce into and discharge from said loading and unloading stations a full shelf row of articles at said maximum residence time of said articles in said treating zone.

Claim 5

An apparatus in accordance with claim 2 including means operated in timed relation with said shelf conducting means during the lull in the intermittent operation of said infeed and discharge conveyors for loading a row of articles from said infeed conveyor onto each of said shelves and unloading a row of articles from each of said shelves onto said discharge conveyor.

Claim 6

An article treating apparatus including a housing enclosing an article treating zone; a plurality of article supporting shelves; means for conducting said shelves in a closed loop through said article treating zone past a loading station and an unloading station; drive means including a motor for operating said shelf conducting means, a variable frequency power source for said motor including means for selectively varying the frequency to said motor to operate said shelf conducting means at different selected speeds for selectively changing the residence time of said articles in said treating zone in their travel from said loading station to said unloading station; an endless article infeed conveyor in said loading station in confronting relation with respect to the path of movement of said shelves through said loading station; an endless article discharge conveyor in said unloading station in confronting relation with respect to the path of movement of said shelves through said unloading station; a constant frequency power source; drive means including motive means connected with said constant frequency power source for operating said infeed and discharge conveyors at a constant speed and in a direction for feeding untreated articles into said loading station and discharging treated articles from said unloading station from the same side of said housing; and control means operated in timed relation with said shelf conducting means for effecting intermittent operation of said infeed and discharge conveyor motive means as each of said shelves passes through said loading and unloading stations to automatically vary the run time of said infeed and discharge conveyors and the linear travel thereof proportionally to the residence time of said articles in said treating zone to introduce into and discharge from said loading and unloading stations proportionally varying lengths of rows of articles.

Claim 7

An article treating apparatus including a housing enclosing an article treating zone; a plurality of article supporting shelves; means for conducting said shelves in a closed loop through said article treating zone past a loading station and an unloading station; drive means including a motor for operating said shelf conducting means, a variable frequency power source for said motor including means for selectively varying the frequency to said motor to operate said shelf conducting means at different selected speeds for selectively changing the residence time of said articles in said treating zone in their travel from said loading station to said unloading station; an endless article infeed conveyor in said loading station in confronting relation with respect to the path of movement of said shelves through said loading station; an endless article discharge conveyor in said unloading station in confronting relation with respect to the path of movement of said shelves through said unloading station; a constant frequency power source; drive means including motive means connected with said constant frequency power source for operating said infeed and discharge conveyors at a constant speed and in a direction for feeding untreated articles into said loading station and discharging treated articles from said unloading station from the same side of said housing; and control means operated in timed relation with said shelf conducting means for effecting intermittent operation of said infeed and discharge conveyor motive means as each of said shelves passes through said loading and unloading stations to automatically vary the run time of said infeed and discharge conveyors and the linear travel thereof proportionally to the residence time of said articles in said treating zone to introduce into and discharge from said loading and unloading stations proportionally varying lengths of rows of articles.

Claim 8

An apparatus in accordance with claim 4 including means operated from said variable frequency power source during the lull in the intermittent operation of said infeed and discharge conveyors for loading a row of articles from said infeed conveyor onto each of said shelves and unloading a row of articles from each of said shelves onto said discharge conveyor.

Claim 9

An apparatus in accordance with claim 4 including shelf loading means at said loading station and shelf unloading means at said unloading station; motor means connected with said source of variable frequency power for operating said shelf loading and unloading means; and control means for said last named motor means operated in timed relation with said shelf conducting means for operating said shelf loading and unloading means during the lull in the intermittent operation of said infeed and discharge conveyors iN timed relation with the arrival of said shelves at said loading and unloading stations.

Claim 10

An article treating apparatus including a housing enclosing an article treating zone; a plurality of article supporting shelves; means for sequentially conducting said shelves in a closed loop through said article treating zone in equidistantly spaced relation past an article loading station and an article unloading station; an article infeed and an article discharge conveyor adjacent the path of said shelves through said article loading and unloading stations operated respectively in a direction for feeding successive rows of untreated articles in front of said shelves and for discharging successive rows of treated articles from in front of said shelves from the same side of said housing; an intermittently operated loading pusher for pushing successive rows of articles from said infeed conveyor onto successive shelves; an intermittently operated unloading pusher for pushing successive rows of articles from successive shelves onto said discharge conveyor; a first motor for operating said shelf conducting means; a second motor for operating said pushers; a variable frequency power source connected with said motors for selectively changing the speed of operation of said shelf conducting means and said pushers concurrently and by the same proportional amount to selectively change the residence time of said articles in said treating zone; a third motor for operating said infeed conveyor; a fourth motor for operating said discharge conveyor; said third and fourth motors being connected with a constant frequency power source; and control means operated in timed relation with said shelf conducting means for intermittently operating said third and fourth motors to proportionately vary the run time of said infeed and discharge conveyors and the linear travel thereof to correspondingly vary the retention time of said articles in said treating zone and introduce into and discharge from said treating zone proportionately longer or shorter rows of articles.

Claim 11

An article treating apparatus including a housing enclosing an article treating zone; a plurality of article supporting shelves; means for sequentially conducting said shelves in a closed loop through said article treating zone in equidistantly spaced relation past an article loading station and an article unloading station; an article infeed and an article discharge conveyor adjacent the path of said shelves through said article loading and unloading stations operated respectively in a direction for feeding successive rows of untreated articles in front of said shelves and for discharging successive rows of treated articles from in front of said shelves from the same side of said housing; an intermittently operated loading pusher for pushing successive rows of articles from said infeed conveyor onto successive shelves; an intermittently operated unloading pusher for pushing successive rows of articles from successive shelves onto said discharge conveyor; a first motor for operating said shelf conducting means; a second motor for operating said pushers; a variable frequency power source connected with said motors for selectively changing the speed of operation of said shelf conducting means and said pushers concurrently and by the same proportional amount to selectively change the residence time of said articles in said treating zone; a third motor for operating said infeed conveyor; a fourth motor for operating said discharge conveyor; said third and fourth motors being connected with a constant frequency power source; and control means operated in timed relation with said shelf conducting means for intermittently operating said third and fourth motors to proportionately vary the run time of said infeed and discharge conveyors and the linear travel thereof to correspondingly vary the retention time of said articles in said treating zone and introduce into and discharge from said treating zone proportionately longer or shorter rows of articles.