Article dispensing – With article treatment – With cooling or heating
Patent
1996-01-22
1998-11-10
Noland, Kenneth
Article dispensing
With article treatment
With cooling or heating
221 26, A24F 2714
Patent
active
058331220
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a dispensing machine for dispensing items of hot food, comprising a freezer compartment for storing the items to be dispensed, a microwave oven, a dispensing location and a transport mechanism for conveying items from the freezer compartment, via the microwave oven, to the dispensing location, the transport mechanism comprising a flexible transport web to which the items to be dispensed are secured and driving means for advancing the web from the freezer compartment to the dispensing location.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART
A dispensing machine as described above is known from GB-A-996,039. In this machine, an oven that is open from above and below is located inside the freezer compartment. The transport mechanism includes a wheel with a polygonal circumference positioned next to the top of the oven and allows an item that is to be dispensed to drop under its own weight into the oven when the wheel is rotated. After the item has been heated, it is severed from the transport web and allowed to fall under its own weight into the dispensing location.
In the above machine, as in many other known hot food dispensing machines, items are moving downwards as they leave the freezer compartment, and the aperture by which the items leave the freezer compartment is below the top of the compartment, often in its base. As a result, each time that the freezer compartment is opened to allow an item to be dispensed, cold air leaves the freezer compartment and is replaced by warm air. The warm air brings with it moisture which freezes and causes a build up of frost.
As a result, known machines for dispensing hot food have required frequent defrosting, thereby increasing their maintenance costs and reducing their efficiency.
OBJECT OF THE INVENTION
The present invention therefore seeks to provide a hot food dispensing machine in which the freezer compartment used for storing the items of food is less prone to the build up of frost.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to the present invention, there is provided a dispensing machine for dispensing items of hot food, comprising a freezer compartment for storing the items to be dispensed, a microwave oven, a dispensing location and a transport mechanism for conveying items from the freezer compartment, via the microwave oven, to the dispensing location, the transport mechanism comprising a flexible transport web to which the items to be dispensed are secured and driving means for advancing the web from the freezer compartment to the dispensing location, characterized in that the microwave oven is located above and outside the freezer compartment, and the web of the transport mechanism is arranged to pass out of the freezer compartment and into the microwave oven through an opening in the roof of the freezer compartment, to avoid warm air entering the freezer compartment by convection.
The heating compartment in GB-A-996,039 is located within the freezer compartment. This is unavoidable in the latter proposal because the items enter the heating compartment from above and must remain frozen until such time as they are to be dispensed. Also, because the top of the heating compartment is open, heat is inevitably transferred to the freezer while an item is being heated. By contrast, in the present invention, the microwave oven is disposed entirely outside the freezer compartment. The heat generated does not therefore cause defrosting of the freezer compartment. Once the items to be dispensed have left the freezer compartment a door may close the opening at the roof of the compartment thereby effectively isolating the freezer compartment from the oven and the dispensing location. For this reason no moisture-laden warm air can enter the freezer compartment at any subsequent stage in the heating and dispensing of the item.
The disposition of the freezer compartment at the bottom of the machine is also particularly convenient for the loading of the food items into the freezer compartment. Also, raising the microwave oven abov
REFERENCES:
patent: 3224361 (1965-12-01), Ojelid
patent: 3340789 (1967-09-01), Simjian
patent: 3984030 (1976-10-01), Morini
patent: 4146150 (1979-03-01), Low et al.
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