Refrigeration – Means producing shaped or modified congealed product – Freezing surface mounted for movement during freezing
Reexamination Certificate
2000-08-28
2001-10-16
Tapolcai, William E. (Department: 3744)
Refrigeration
Means producing shaped or modified congealed product
Freezing surface mounted for movement during freezing
C062S457100, C249S120000, C249S137000, C249S139000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06301919
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND
This invention relates generally to an apparatus for affecting the temperature of a substance by placing the substance in a container and immersing the container in a bath. More particularly, the invention concerns an ice cream bar maker, including a receptacle for holding an ice and brine bath, an upper lid and a lower lid for holding the container partially immersed in the bath, and a drive mechanism for rotating the lids to move the container in the bath, thus to promote sinking of heat away from the substance, particularly an ice cream mix which freezes in the container to form an ice cream bar.
Children enjoy preparing and eating ice cream and other frozen treats. Ice cream is made by freezing a cream-based mixture or other appropriate mixture in a tub while turning a paddle in the mixture to combine air with the mixture as it freezes. The churning of the mixture by the paddle also helps to distribute the effect of a surrounding refrigerant throughout the mixture to speed the freezing. Such manual preparation of ice cream can be an enjoyable, albeit laborious prelude to the serving and eating of the ice cream. Ice cream can also be formed simply by combining an appropriate dry mixture with cream or half-and-half, i.e., cream mixed with whole milk and freezing the combination, which method is well suited for preparing ice cream in bars or other shapes.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The apparatus of the present invention provides for making ice cream bars on reusable sticks by a method that mimics the manual preparation of ice cream, although without tuning a paddle in a cream mixture. The invented apparatus includes a receptacle or bowl for holding an ice and brine bath four containers for holding an ice cream-forming mixture. A lower lid is disposed over the receptacle and has a toothed rim that mates with a drive gear mounted to the receptacle. A handle coupled to the gear extends from the receptacle so that a user can grasp and turn the handle to rotate the lower lid about a vertical axis. An upper lid disposed over the lower lid includes four slots that correspond to four slots in the lower lid. Each container is inserted through a pair of upper and lower lid slots so that a portion of the container depends into the receptacle and is immersed in the ice and brine bath.
The receptacle includes a rim defining an upward-facing opening and the upper lid holds the containers so that the container's edge is higher than the rim of the receptacle, thus preventing the bath from leaking or seeping into the container. That is, even if the receptacle is overfilled, the bath flows over the rim of the receptacle before it reaches the edge of the container. Children may use the apparatus, with or without parental supervision depending on the children's maturity, to make their own ice cream bars by following simple instructions.
The receptacle includes a central mount surrounded by an annular basin and the mount has an annular bearing surface. The lower lid has a corresponding annular bearing surface that mounts rotatably to the receptacle's bearing surface. The upper lid mounts over the lower lid, and with the containers in place through the slots of both lids, the upper and lower lids rotate together as the handle is turned, thus moving the containers through the bath. Rotating the containers is not strictly necessary for freezing the mixture, but it speeds sinking away of heat from the containers and thus speeds freezing. Additionally, cranking the handle is reminiscent of cranking a handle on a manual ice cream maker and can be a pleasant pastime while one waits for the mixture to freeze.
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Blaustein Lawrence A.
Brown Patrick W
Gall Douglas A.
Dukelow Owen W.
Kolisch Hartwell et al
McCormack John M.
Tapolcai William E.
Wham-O, Inc.
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