Imi Cornelius, Inc.

Stainless Icetainer Company

Schneider Metal Manufacturing Co.

Craig A Swanson

Charles M Lents

David A Hassell

Ty C Taylor

Henry E Ramon, Iii

An ice cooled beverage dispensing apparatus including an L-shaped cold plate having a horizontal portion and a vertical portion. The cold plate includes a plurality of beverage lines extending there through and, in particular, extending in a serpentine fashion through the horizontal portion and vertically through the vertical portion thereof. The beverage lines providing for fluid connecting between a plurality of beverage dispensing valves and liquid sources of beverage constituents. The dispenser of the present invention includes a carbonator integral with the cold plate and located generally at the juncture of the vertical and horizontal portions. The integral carbonator provides for a reservoir of cooled carbonated water thereby lessening the thermal demand on the cold plate.

Beverage dispenser having an L-shaped cold plate with integral carbonator

A beverage dispenser of the cold plate type as shown wherein the cold plate is oriented within a housing of a dispenser such that the fluid lines extending through the cold plate extend in a pattern for preventing ice bridging occurring at the back end of the device. The cold plate also includes stainless steel wire coils within each water line along an end portion thereof for turbulating the water as it passes there through to provide for enhanced heat exchange between the fluid and the cold plate and the fluid line end portion.

Beverage dispenser with improved cold plate

An ice cooled beverage dispensing apparatus including an L-shaped cold plate having a horizontal portion and a vertical portion. The cold plate includes a plurality of beverage lines extending therethrough and, in particular, extending vertically through the vertical portion of the cold plate. The beverage fluid lines provide for connecting between a plurality of beverage dispensing valves and the cold plate. A heat tube extends partially into the cold plate vertical portion and terminates with an evaporative cooling tube portion adjacent a carbonated water manifold extending adjacent the beverage dispensing valves. A carbonator is integral with the cold plate and located generally at the juncture of the vertical and horizontal portions. Metal thermal jackets cover the portions of the beverage fluid lines extending between the cold plate and the beverage dispensing valves. In operation, the heat tube provides for evaporating cooling of the manifold. The metal jackets provide additional thermal cooling of the portion of the beverage fluid lines.

Beverage dispenser having cold plate with evaporative cooling

An ice cooled beverage dispenser with a cold plate and a tubular ice bin liner has an upstanding rim around a periphery of the cold plate. The bottom edge of the liner is pressed into and seated to the rim, and an L-shaped bracket is fastened to the outside of the liner and to the rim for positive securement of the liner to the cold plate in a sanitary and leak proof manner; a method of making the beverage cooler is also provided.

Ice cooled beverage dispenser and method of making same

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 means 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 means; 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.

Apparatus for storing and dispensing particulate ice

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.

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San Antonio, TX, United States of America

Craig A Swanson