Apparatus for storing and dispensing particulate ice

Abstract

Abstract Dispenser apparatus for particulate ice and/or ice cooled beverage has an ice bin with upright walls about a substantially vertical axis, a bottom canted rearwardly, a transverse ice discharge chute coplanar with the bin bottom and having a width continually divergent from the bin, a metallic ice dispensing chute point is secured in a resin bin wall on a downstream side of a dispensing rotor sweep and a self-closing dispensing door on an outlet of the chute has a barrier and a limit stop for placing the barrier in the path of ice being dispensed when the door is fully opened, an elongate drainage slot for melt water is in the bin bottom and extends radially outward from an axis of dispensing rotor rotation, a drain port extends from within the drain slot and is at a level below a level of the chute outlet, an ice dispensing rotor is within the bin and is revolvable about an axis canted rearwardly from the axis of the bin; the rotor has a hub, a ring, a plurality of paddlewheels mounted to the ring, entry rings on top of the paddlewheels for precluding admittance of oversize ice into the paddlewheels, and a helical agitator above the paddlewheels, the agitator has an axis eccentric to both of the rotor axis and the bin axis, and a separator shelf and barrier is above the rotor for lifting oversize ice off of the entry rings; a cold plate for cooling beverage is sealed to the bottom of tubular bin walls and the plate and walls are structurally secured together by foamed-in-place thermal insulation, a motor mount for an ice dispenser motor and mounts for the bin assembly are embedded, and thermally isolated, and structurally retained in the assembly by the thermal insulation.

Inventors

• 👤 Charles M. Lents
• 👤 Craig A. Swanson

Bibliographic Details