AU2004203217B2 - A dispensing unit for ice or snow-like particles - Google Patents

Description

P/00/011 Regulation 3.2

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION STANDARD PATENT Invention Title: A dispensing unit for ice or snow-like particles The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to us: 004513024 1A A DISPENSING UNIT FOR ICE OR SNOW-LIKE PARTICLES Field of the Invention The invention relates to a dispensing unit for dispensing ice or snow like particles to a customer on demand. In particular, the invention relates to a machine for making instant packing ice or powdered snow for use as an ice or crushed ice substitute. Typically such products are used for cooling foods and beverages in ice boxes, eskies and the like. The present specification is an application for a patent of addition based on our earlier application 2002248984.

Backqround of the Invention The supply of ice cubes in plastic bags is a multi billion industry throughout the world. The ice can be supplied in 2 ways. The first way is through an ice making factory where the ice is first produced by ice making machines. The ice produced is transported by conveyor to be bagged, stockpiled on a pallet, transported to a cold room where it is stored for later use, transported to a truck that delivers it to a service outlet where it is unloaded into a smaller storage box requiring refrigeration, where the customer can purchase and use the ice for their intended use. The product when used by the customer has gone through a number of refrigeration processes and it is not uncommon for the ice cubes to have frozen together making them impossible to separate without first applying force. Further, because of the large particle size being between 1/2 to 1 cubic inch (1.3 to 2.5 cm), it is difficult to distribute the ice evenly to the food to be cooled.

The second known mode of operation is where the same type of ice particles are formed but are done so at the point of sale of the product. In this application a small capacity ice making machine is installed and the ice is made and bagged by a machine. The bags are then stored at the premises for sale. The system requires mechanical refrigeration both to make and store and the machines are normally built to meet the peak demand period. As ice is a product with seasonal use, there is a lot of redundancy and down time with the system. In both cases the 005129468 2 00 C capital expenditure is high to set up the operating plants and the returns need to

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N be generated in the peak seasons.

n Reference to any prior art in the specification is not, and should not be taken as, Nan acknowledgment or any form of suggestion that this prior art forms part of the common general knowledge in Australia or any other jurisdiction or that this prior art could reasonably be expected to be ascertained, understood and regarded as N relevant by a person skilled in the art.

NSummary of the Invention In accordance with a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for making and dispensing a material comprising ice, snow or snow-like particles made from ingredients including water in the form of a free liquid and a cryogenic material, said apparatus comprising: a mixing vessel having a mechanical agitator or mechanical mixer for mechanically agitating or mixing at a speed sufficient to convert the water into ice, snow or snow-like particles; and a device for actuation of the apparatus, wherein the material is made solely in response to the actuation of the apparatus and without storing the material prior to being dispensed; and wherein the apparatus delivers the material to a containment vessel.

Preferably the invention described in this document relates to a self dispensing machine that can deliver optionally a 40 pound, 20 pound or 7 pound bag of packing ice (snow) every 30 seconds by feeding a container such as a bag or tub into the machine. The container may be purchased by the customer from the shop assistant and then placed by the customer at the feed section of the machine. The container may include a scanner code. Once the machine reads the scanner code, the machine knows that the container is in place and it starts the process of filling the container with packing ice. In the present form of the invention, the code reader comprises the actuation device to commence operation of the apparatus. In an alternative form of the invention, a button or a coin or note insert mechanism may start the process. Alternatively, tokens may be inserted in place of currency.

The coin/token/note receptor may comprise the actuation device to commence operation of the apparatus.

005088250 3 00 0 Once the process is started, preferably water and liquid refrigerant are mixed together in a mixing process to produce a granulated or particulate product referred to as packing ice. Reference is made to our earlier application Australian Patent Application no 200248984 for further details of the process. The disclosure of the earlier application is incorporated herein. The packing ice produced is expelled from the machine to fill the container below. The process is quick and energy efficient as power is only used at the time of making the product and there is no requirement for storage, transport or expensive refrigeration or bagging cNi equipment. As well, the cost of producing the product may be a similar gross cost 0 10 than the current method of producing bagged ice but the consumer is provided ci with a free flowing product that is easy to spread in their cooler box. The packing ice can also be provided at a desired selected temperature from 0 degrees Celsius to -20 degrees Celsius or lower for use.

The packing ice making machine may be operated by adding pure water to liquid carbon dioxide, nitrogen or similar type of cryogenic refrigerant whereby a mixture of both are mixed in the machine as described below to convert the mixture into a powder ice product for immediate use by the consumer. The machine can also be operated by adding other liquids such as soft drinks, syrup and also pure ice.

The cryogenic material or refrigerant can be recycled for reuse. The amount of cryogenic material such as carbon dioxide or nitrogen can be as little as 2 to of the total mixture and up to 99% of this material may be recovered for further use. The mixing of the materials may be done in a specially designed insulated vessel that can create the powder snow product in amounts of up to 40 pounds or more in less than 10 seconds.

The packing ice or snow produced by this cryogenic process may also be created to have a longer life cycle than any other snow produced by varying the amount of cryogenic material included in the process. This also makes the storage of the product in cold rooms more favourable as the snow does not stick together due to the elimination of water from the final product.

005088250 3a 00 0 As used herein, the term "comprise" and variations of the term, such as CN "comprising", "comprises" and "comprised", are not intended to exclude other additives, components, integers or steps.

Brief Description of the Drawings 5 In order that the invention may be more fully understood, one embodiment will now be described by way of example with reference to the drawings in which:- 004513024 4 Fig. 1 is a schematic view of a dispensing unit in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 2 is a schematic view of a recovery process for the recovery of cryogenic material used in the dispensing unit of Figure 1; and Fig. 3 is another schematic view of a dispensing unit according to the present invention, illustrating further useful features.

Preferred Embodiments Referring to the attached drawing the dispensing unit comprises a mixing vessel of between 2-100 litres capacity, preferably in the form of an insulated stainless steel tank that holds water. The mixing vessel can also be made from polypropylene, plastic, mild steel or other non corrosive metals.

The vessel can be made of any size. Inside the vessel is a mixing implement (2) with sheer blades that extend to the radius of the tank. Each vessel will have between 1 to 10 blades that can be spaced at 5 to 20mm apart and are limited to the bottom half of the vessel. This will allow sufficient space for the aerated packing snow that is to be formed in the top half of the vessel. The mixing vessel can also use other forms of mixing blades and utensils that are commonly used in sheering or milling vessels. The blades are attached to a centre shaft that is connected to a rotating motor The ingredients are added by way of the clean filtered water pipe line and a liquid refrigerant feed line Optionally, ice may be added from ice hopper The mixing implement is rotated at 450 to 3000 rpm or more by a suitable hydraulic, air or electric motor At the same time as the motor operates, a blower fan attached to the exhaust (11) removes any expandable refrigerant gas from the cryogenic material that is used in the process.

The machine can be placed on a tipping stand (12A). At the end of the cycle the mixing vessel or the machine can be tilted by an air ram or similar device to drop 004513024 the packing ice into the container (12B). Alternatively the side gate (12) of the tank is opened by a cylinder (13) controlled by a solenoid valve and the snow is thrown from the tank by centrifugal force when the door is opened at the end of the cycle.

The packing ice formed is collected in a container or bag (12B) which can be placed by the consumer or operator into position or automatically placed into position by the machine. In another form of the invention, the machine may have a removable base that allows the packing ice formed to drop out.

In a preferred form of the invention a recovery system can be built into the process to recycle the cryogenic material and further reduce the cost of snow production.

Referring to Figure 2, this drawing shows the machine linked to a refrigeration plant to reduce the cost of the snow making process by recycling the refrigerant such as nitrogen or carbon dioxide. The drawing deals specifically with the recovery of the CO2 gas that is drawn from the machine by a non-lubricating compressor (14) which draws the gaseous CO2 from the machine and compresses the gas to a pressure of 1 Bar or more, preferably 2 Bar. After compressing, the gas is forced through desiccant driers condensers or similar appliances to remove any water residue from the gaseous CO2. After this process the gaseous CO2 is drawn to an evaporator chamber (18) of a suitably sized refrigeration unit The coil temperature of the evaporator should be in the range of -5 to -70 degrees Celsius, preferably -20 degrees celsius. When the pressure of the gas and the coil temperature meet the dew point of the Gaseous CO2 state, the CO2 will liquefy and be collected at the bottom of a liquefier unit.

The liquefier unit can be a vertical shell and tube, inclined double pipe or a shell and tube configuration.

The CO2 liquid that is collected can be stored in a pressure vessel (20) at a pressure of 1 to 3 Mpa and can be maintained at a temperature of -20 degrees Celsius or lower. The liquid CO2 can be returned to the machine by line (21) for reuse in the snow making system. A solenoid valve (22) provided to control the flow. Expanding chambers placed at the entry point of the liquid allow for the liquid to be released into the snow making machine as carbon dioxide snow. A suitable quantity is added and mixed with the aqueous solution to be made into packing 004513024 6 ice. The CO2 snow is returned to its gaseous state and the cycle is again repeated. This process of recycling the CO2 cuts down on green house gas emissions and substantially reduces the cost of the snow produced.

A large liquid CO2 reservoir could be created to hold the liquid when not needed for use. The process described above may be appropriate for use with other cryogenic materials.

Referring to Figure 3, a diagram of another preferred embodiment of the machine is shown. The control panel (31) including display has the capability to question the requirement of temperature of the packing ice and asks the consumer to insert the container When the container is added, the operator is asked to close the door Once the door is closed the container is scanned for to detect valid payment indicia on the container. The scanner thereby constitutes the actuation device and the process commences whereby solenoid valve (34) for water opens for a predetermined time and solenoid valve (35) for liquid carbon dioxide opens for a predetermined time. The opening of the valves is calculated by a logic controller (36) based on the temperature of the water and packing ice temperature input by the customerloperator. After both ingredients are in the bowl the exhaust fan (37) is opened and the mixing motor (38) is started. The mixture of materials creates the packing ice product quickly. When this is done (normally after seconds) the motor is stopped and the mixing vessel (38) tilted to distribute the product to the container (32) below. The exhaust fan then stops. The mixing vessel is tilted back into the operating position and the door (33) is opened automatically and the consumer can take their packing ice product for use. The machine is ready for reuse. The mixing vessel (38) is sterilised on a regular basis by an injection of liquid refrigerant.

The foregoing describes only some embodiments of the present invention and modifications can be made thereto without departing from the spirit of the invention set out in the following claims.

004513024 7 It will also be understood that the term "comprising" (or its grammatical variants) as used in this specification is equivalent to the term "includes" and should not be taken as excluding the presence of other elements or features.

The foregoing prior art discussion does not form part of the common general knowledge.

It will be understood that the invention disclosed and defined herein extends to all alternative combinations of two or more of the individual features mentioned or evident from the text or drawings. All of these different combinations constitute various alternative aspects of the invention.

Claims (11)

1. Apparatus for making and dispensing a material comprising ice, snow or snow-like particles made from ingredients including water in the form of a free liquid and a cryogenic material, said apparatus comprising: a mixing vessel having a mechanical agitator or mechanical mixer for mechanically agitating or mixing at a speed sufficient to convert the water into ice, snow or snow-like particles; and N a device for actuation of the apparatus, wherein the material is made solely in response to the actuation of the apparatus and without storing the material prior to being dispensed; and wherein the apparatus delivers the material to a containment vessel.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said apparatus is a self- service apparatus and said device for actuation is actuated upon detecting an indication of a payment by a customer.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, in the form of a vending machine in which actuation results from the introduction of a suitable currency or tokens into the vending machine.

4. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the device for actuation is actuated by detecting indicia provided on the containment vessel.

5. The apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the cryogenic material comprises dry ice.

6. The apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the mixing vessel tilts to cause the material to be discharged from the mixing vessel.

7. The apparatus according to claim 6 wherein the mixing vessel has a closure which opens to empty the mixing vessel's contents. 005129468 9 00

8. The apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims including a c-I housing wherein the containment vessel is accessible to a customer.

9. The apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims further Sincluding a controller which controls the proportion of the ingredients based on the temperature of the water. C-

10. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein a customer selects the temperature of the ice, snow or snow-like particles by activation of the controller.

11. The apparatus substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying figures.