Npi, Llc.

Other

James Allan & Sons, Inc.

Richard E Curtis

Victor J Dervin

Robert H Dench

John H Allan

Charles B Dull

Jerrold L Ball

Leo A Gabriel

A produce cooler for cooling produce placed on the floor in an enclosure and wherein the enclosure includes a cooling compartment for cooling air passing therethrough. The floor is formed of sections spaced apart to form slots therebetween through which cooling air can pass. Air passages are positioned beneath the floor in communication with the cooling compartment to carry air from the slots. A fan forces air through the cooling compartment such that produce placed along the slots will have air drawn thereacross for cooling.

Produce cooler

A produce cooler is for use with produce disposed in an enclosure. A vertically extending cooling compartment is located adjacent the enclosure. Within the cooling compartment is a horizontally extending heat exchanger substantially above the bottom of the compartment and well below the top thereof. A demister also extends across the cooling compartment below the top of it and sufficiently above the heat exchanger to leave an intervening chamber. There is a plenum between the produce enclosure and the cooling compartment in communication with produce in the compartment and in communication with the cooling compartment. A fan circulates air from the produce in the compartment through the plenum and into the bottom of the cooling compartment so that the air is made to rise upwardly therethrough and return from the top thereof to the produce in the cooling compartment. The heat exchanger comprises a series of superposed, generally horizontal plates of expanded metal held apart by spacers and subject to a cold water spray from spray nozzles. The spray falls through the heat exchanger and onto the floor of the cooling compartment, from which the water discharges into a sump and flows over a cooling coil, thus having its temperature reduced. The cooled water collects in the bottom of the sump and is restored by a pump to the spray nozzles. The air flowing upwardly interchanges heat with the water droplets falling downwardly. The rising air entrains some mist and in going upwardly through the demister loses water droplets and emerges as cool, dry air to flow in heat exchanging relationship with the produce, to withdraw heat therefrom and then to recirculate.

An air handler especially for use with a produce storage room has a housing with an air inlet near the bottom and an air outlet near the top. A fan or blower supplies air above atmospheric pressure to the inlet for flow through the housing and discharge from the top thereof and through a duct leading to the storage room. Adjacent the housing there is a water cooler, usually operated in a refrigerator circuit, into which water is introduced from a collector near the bottom of the housing and from which the cooled water is discharged into a distributor in the housing near the top thereof. The distributor, preferably a number of sprays, discharges the cooled water to fall over and through a water and air baffle unit within the housing between the inlet and the outlet thereof and into the collector. The water and air baffle unit has a plurality of expanded metal plates, conveniently of aluminum, extending substantially horizontally across the interior of the housing between the distributor and the collector, with the metal plates vertically separated and supported to provide intervening, cross spaces for air and water flow.

Air handler

An enclosure is divided by partitions to define a narrow sinuous passageway for the passage of carcasses from an inlet to an outlet. The sinuous passageway defines adjacent aisle portions and a blower directs refrigerated air downwardly over the carcasses in one of the aisle portions. The air passes under the dividing partition into the adjacent aisle portion and the blower draws it upwardly over the carcasses in that adjacent aisle portion to rapidly freeze a crust on the carcasses during their passage from the inlet to the outlet. The method of the invention is the blowing of cold air over a carcass in one vertical direction then over the same carcass in the opposite vertical direction.

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Pleasanton, CA, United States of America

Richard E Curtis