CA1298476C - Method of making soft ice-drink and apparatus of making the same - Google Patents
Method of making soft ice-drink and apparatus of making the sameInfo
- Publication number
- CA1298476C CA1298476C CA000539882A CA539882A CA1298476C CA 1298476 C CA1298476 C CA 1298476C CA 000539882 A CA000539882 A CA 000539882A CA 539882 A CA539882 A CA 539882A CA 1298476 C CA1298476 C CA 1298476C
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- Prior art keywords
- ice
- container
- shaved
- soft
- drink
- Prior art date
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Abstract
ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE
An apparatus of making a soft ice-drink comprises a mixing mechanism including a container containing a liquid material such as syrup and into which shaved ice pieces are discharged, rotary blades, rotatably supported within the container, for mixing together the liquid material and shaved ice pieces and smashing the shaved ice pieces into granules of ice, and a drive motor for rotating the rotary blades at high speeds, and an ice shaving mechanism, disposed on an apparatus bed and above the mixing mechanism, includ-ing a shaver casing having a slit to which a shaving blade is exposed and a shaved ice discharge chute opened to above the container, and rotatable blades, provided within the shaver casing, for cooperating with the shaving blade to shave ice blocks charged into the shaver casing.
An apparatus of making a soft ice-drink comprises a mixing mechanism including a container containing a liquid material such as syrup and into which shaved ice pieces are discharged, rotary blades, rotatably supported within the container, for mixing together the liquid material and shaved ice pieces and smashing the shaved ice pieces into granules of ice, and a drive motor for rotating the rotary blades at high speeds, and an ice shaving mechanism, disposed on an apparatus bed and above the mixing mechanism, includ-ing a shaver casing having a slit to which a shaving blade is exposed and a shaved ice discharge chute opened to above the container, and rotatable blades, provided within the shaver casing, for cooperating with the shaving blade to shave ice blocks charged into the shaver casing.
Description
'7~
~ACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Field of the Invention This invention relates to a method of making a soft drink at relativel~
low temperatures by mixing a liquid material such as syrup, honey or fruit juice with shaved ice and an apparatus of making the same.
Description of the Prior Art Conventionally, there has been available semi-refrigerated soft ice-drinks as represented by, for example, sherbet in which a principal raw material such as fruit juice is semi-frozen. Fruit juice and milk are charged into a refrigerator, cooled and stirred thereby to make the sherbet. Another method is ~not~n wherein syrup and water are adfled together with carbon-dioxide gas cooled and foamed in a refrigerator while being stirred to thereby prepare the sherbet.
In any conventional methods, however, a liquid drink material is stirred and cooled in a refrigerator so as to be partly frozen into ice particles and consequently the resulting drink, even if foam-like and soft, contains fine pieces of ice which advantageously give an actual cold feeling to the tactile impression in the mouth when the consumer tastes the drin~ but contrarily, often give an uncomfortable feeling to the tongue.
~0 SUMNARY OF THE INVE~TIO~
The present invention intends to eliminate the prior art disadvantages and provides a method of making a cold, soft ice-drink containing syrup, fruit juice or the like as the principal raw material and which does not give a feeling of the existence of pieces of ice to the consumer; and to an apparatus for making the same.
In the method for making a soft ice-drink according to the invention, ice blocks are shaved into pieces, the shaved pieces are discharged into a container containing a liquid material such as syrup, the pieces of shaved ice and liquid material are mixed together by means of high-speed rotary blades rotatably supported within the container to form a mixture in which the shaved ice is smashed into granules of ice while air i5 entrained during mixing to foam the mixture. Thus, since in this method of the present invention ice blocks are shaved into pieces of shaved ice and discharged into the container containing the liquid material such as syrup, and the pieces of ice and liquid material are mixed together by the high-speed rotary blades to form the 7~à
mixture in which the shaved ice is crushed into ice granules ~Ihile air is entrained during mixing to foam the mixture, a very soft, conventionally unknown drink can be prepared which is free of pieces of ice and is cold but comfortable to the tongue.
An apparatus for making a soft ice-drink according to the invention comprises a mixing mechanism including a container containing a liquid material such as syrup and into which shaved pieces of ice are discharged, rotary blades, rotatably supported within the container, for mixing together the liquid material and shaved ice and for crushing the ice into granules, and a drive motor for rotating the rotary blades at high speeds, and an ice shaving mechanism, disposed on an apparatus support and above the mixing mechanism, the ice showing mechanism including a shaver casing having a slit in which a shaving blade is exposed and a shaved ice discharge chute opening above the container; and rotatable blades, provided within the shaver ca~ing, for cooperating with the shaving blade to shave ice blocks charged into the shaver casing. With this soft ice-drink making apparatus, shaved ice can automatically be discharged into the container for the mixing mechanism through the discharge chute of the ice shaving mechanism, and the mixing mechanism and the ice shaving mechanism being both disposed on a single support can be interlocked with each other.
According to one embodiment of the invention, an ice block reservoir having, at its top, an openable lid and transparent cylindrical wall with a lower, inner funnel-like bottom wall, is detachably mounted on the top of the ice shaving mechanism, whereby both any excess and any deficiency in the necessary ice blocks can be inspected visually from the outside to ensure that the ice blocks can be appropriately supplemented as necessary at all times and ice blocks can be supplied to the ice shaving mechanism smoothly and continuously.
According to another embodiment of the invention, the upper portion of a rotary shaft carrying the rotary blades of the mixing mechanism extends upwardly to nearby the opening of the container and has a square form in horizontal cross section, whereby part of the air drawn into the container during mixing, except for air turned into bubbles to create foam, can rise along the rotary shaft 90 as to be dissipated to the outside, without stagnating in the container to form a void, and crushing and mixing by the rotary blades can thus be carried out with very high efficiency.
According to still another embodiment of the invention, a soft lid for covering the opening of the container is detachably mounted to a lower end portion of the shaved ice discharge chute of the ice shaving mechanism, whereby ice granules and liquid material can be prevented, by the soft lid, from scattering to the outside of the container during mixing, thereby preventing the apparatus and its environment from being splashed and contaminated, and the soft lid can be detached and cleaned to readily remove any ice granules and li~uid material colliding against the back of the lid and depositad thereon. A contaminated lid can thus be cleaned for remounting or alternatively, exchanged with a new one.
According to still another embodiment of the invention, the electric motor for driving the rotary blades of the mixing mechanism is disposed laterally of the container within the area of the apparatus bed for support, whereby the height of the mixing mechanism can be reduced as compared to that in which the drive motor is disposed benea~h the container, thereby ensuring that the worX
of charging ice blocks into the ice shaving mechanism can considerably be facilitated especially where an ice reservoir is mounted on the ice shaving mechanism in order for the ice shaving mechanism to retain a great number of ice blocks, and also ensuring that the centroid position can be lowered to permit stable operation of the apparatus.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
In the accompanying drawings:
Fig. 1 is a lon~itudinally sectioned front view of an apparatus for making a soft ice-drink according to a first embodiment of the invention;
~ ig. 2 is a similar sectional view for explaining the operation of the first embodiment; and Fig. 3 is a sectional view similar to Fig. 1 and illustrating an apparatus for making a soft ice-drink according to a second embodiment of the invention.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIME~TS
Ice Shavin~ Uechanism In a first embodiment of the invention as diagrammatically shown in Fig9.
1 and 2, an apparatus bed or support 1 has a base plate 2 and a plurality of struts 3 standing uprightl~ on the base plate 2. Detachably mounted to upper ends of these struts is a planar portion 6 of a frame 5 which is formed, with the e~ception of the planar portion 6, into an inverted conical shaver casin~
7~
The shaver casin~ 7 of the frame 5 has a central boss 8 with the back thereof fixedly mounted to the upper end of a cylindrical shaft housing 10 in which a rotary shaft 11 is journalled vertically, having its upper en~ passing through a center hole 9 of the bass 8 to project therefrom upwards and its lower end passing through the housing 10 to project therefrom downwards, the lower projecting portion of -the rotary shaft 11 being fixedly mounted to a pulley 12. A support arm 13 extends laterally of the housing 10 and a first 1~ electric motor 14 is attached to the support arm 13. A drive belt 16 runs about the pulley 12 and a pulley 15 fixed to the shaft of the motor 14.
Fo~led in the shaver casing 7 is an opening or slit 17 wlthin which a shaving blade 19 is removably supported such that the amount of its proj~ction lnto the shaver casln~ 7 is adjustable. A shaved ice discharge chute 18 contiguous to the opening 17 is provided on the shaver casing 7.
The rotary s~aft 11 passing through the center hole 9 of the boss 8 has the upper projecting portion which is slidably inserted in a center recess 23 formed in the lower surface of a boss 22 of a transfer rotor 217 and the rotary shaft 11 is removably and securely connected to the boss 22 by means of ~ a bolt 24. The transfer rotor 21 comprises several blades 25 which extendradially from the boss 22 with their bottom surfaces opposing the top surface of the shaver casing 7 in substantially parallel relationship therewith, an annular plate 26 which connects tips of the blades 25 together, and a hopper 28 having a flange 27 which extends outwards from the lower circumferential skirt of the hopper and by which the hopper 28 is removably and securely mounted to the ann~lar plate 26 by means of setscrews (not shown). A
water-proof cover 30 abutting against the circumferential periphery of the hopper 28 is mounted on the planar portion 6. Disposed above the hopper 28 is a splash preventative cover 31 which is removably and securely mounted, at its lower end, to the planar portion 6 of the frame 5 by means of setscrews (not shown). The top of the cover 31 is formed with an opening 32 that opposes the hopper 28. A lid 33 for opening or closing the opening 32 is pivotally and removably mounted on the cover 31.
Mixin~ Mechanism Under the discharge chute 18, a support box 40 is disposed on the base plate 2. The support hox 40 has, at its top, an engagirlg projection 41 and a cylindrical container stand 42 for engagement with the engaging projection 41 is removably mounted on the support box ~IO. An intermediate partition wall ~l3extends from the inner circumferential wall of the container stand 42 and has a center boss 44 in which a rotary shaft 45 i9 journalled vertically, having its upper end passing through a center hole of the boss 4~l to project upwards and its lower end likewise passing through the center hole to project do~lwards, the downward projecting portion of the rotary shaf~ 45 being fixedly mounted with an upper coupling 47.
1~ A lower coupling 48, disposed beneath the upper coupling 47 and being engagable and disenga~able therewith, is rotatably supported on the support box 40.
Placed within the support box 40 is a second electric motor 50 having its shaft connected with the lower coupling 48.
The upper end of the rotary shaft 45 extends into a container 57 and fixedly carries an upper rotary blade 53 for mixing and a lower knife-like rotary blade 54 for crushing and smashing which is vertically spaced apart from the upper rotary blade 53. The upper inner circumferential ~nd of the container stand 42 meshes with the lower outer circum~erential end of the container 57 in water-ti~ht fashion. ~he motors 14 and 50 are interlocked for rotation by means of control circuit not shown.
The operation of the first embodiment will now be described.
The lid 33 is first opened in a direction as indicated by arrow on Figure 2 and ice blocks A , such as in cubic form, are charged, by an appropriate number, into the shaver casing 7 of the frame 5 through the opening 32. The lid 33 is then closed.
Subsequently, the container 57 along with the container stand 42 is removed from the support box 40 and an appropriate amount of liquid material B
such as syrup is poured into the container 57. Thereafter, the container 57 3~ along with the container stand 42 is supportingly placed on the support box 40 such that the upper coupling 47 is brought into engagement with the lower coupling 48. After completion of the preparatory procedure as such, a power supply switch (not shown) is turned on. This activates the control circuit so that the first motor 14 of the ice shaving mechanism ls initially started to permit the shaving blade 19 to shave the ice blocks A, and the thus shaved ice ~ 3 ~
pieces c are discharg~d into the liquid material B p~esent within the container as indicated by ar~ows.
The second motor 50 of the mixing mechanism is subsequently started to rotate the rotary blades 53 ~nd 54 at high speeds, thereby ensuring that the shaved ice pieces C and liquid material B can be urged to run as a vertically-directed eddy-like whirling stream which, within the container 57, drops depressively at the center to generate air bubbles and whirls and rises at the outer side. Consequently, the s~aved ice pieces C are smashed or crushed or further granulated and admixed with the liquid material B to form a l~ predetermined amount of soft ice-drink. Following the formation of the soft ice-drink, the motor 14 is initially stopped to cease the supply of shaved ice pieces C and thera~ter the motor SO is stopped.
When the soft ice-drink has been prepared which is a mixture of the liquid material B and granulated, shaved ice C as well as air bubbles, the container 57 along with the container stand 42 is removed from the support box 40 by releasing the en~agement of the coupling ~l7 with the coupling ~8 and the drink within the container 57 is poured into a cup for services.
The thus prepared drink is removed of the feeling due to the existence of pieces of ice and is so soft that it gives a very comfortable feeling to the ~ tongue, exhibitin~ the intermediate quality between conventional cream andsherbet. Further, the granules of shaved ice in the drink are trapped in bubbles and so they are difficult to dissolve. Consequently, the drink can remain sufficiently cooled until it is served for consumers after being poured lnto a cup.
Turning to Fig. 3, a second embodiment of the invention will be described.
The second embodiment almost resembles the previously-described first embodiment, and like parts are designated by like reference numerals and need not be described herein. Principally, only different parts will therefore be described.
Firstly, in regard of an ice shaving mechanism of the second embodiment, an ice block reservoir 35 substitutes for the cover 31, opening 32 and lid 33 of the first embodiment and is detachably mounted to the planar portion 6 by means of, for example, bolts not shown. Thè reservoir 35 comprises a cylindrical transparent circumferential wall 36, a lid 37 removably mounted on the upper end of the circumferential wall, and a funnel-like bottom wall 33 d~
secured to the inner side of the circumferential wall 36 and havin~ an openin~
ich is in con~lunicatiorl with the hopper 28.
In shaving ice with such an ice shaving mechanism, the Lid 37 is first dismounted and a great number of ice blocks A such as in cubic fotm are charged into the reservoir 35. The lid 37 is then mounted. A soft ice-drink is then prepared similarly to the first embodiment.
Because the ice reservoir 35 can be charged with a great number of ice blocks when making soft ice-drink in this manner, a great amount of soft ice-drin~ can be prepared at a time. This can conveniently be done because t~le ice blocks A charged into the reservoir 35 are interlocXed with movement of ice blocks in the shaver casing 7 so as to be automatically moved to the center opening of the funnel-like wall 38 along the inclined surface thereof and eventually drawn into the shaver casing 7 through the hopper 28. As shaving proceeds, the number of ice blocks A within the reservoir 35 decreases. This condition can be inspected visually from the outside thanks to transparency of the circumferential wall 36 and ice blocks can be supplementarily charged into the reservoir 35 as necessary.
A mixing mechanism of the second embodiment is different from that of the first embodiment in that the upper portion of a rotary shaft 45' carrying rotary blades 53 and 54 extends upwards to nearby the opening of the container 57 and has a square form in horizontal cross section. Essentially, in the first embodiment, shaved ice pieces C discharged into the container 57 are urged to run together with liquid material B by means of the high-speed rotary blades 53 and 54 of the mixing mechanism, in the form of a vertically-directed whirling stream which depressively drops at the center of the container 57 to entrain ambient air and rises at the outer side. On the other hand, granules of smashed ice pieces stagnate at an upper portion of the container 57 to form a partition wall which forces part of the air, except for descending air turning into bubbles, to stagnate near the rotary blades 53 and 54 to thereby form a void in the vicinity of these rotary blades, thus causing a phenomenon that the rotary blades 53 and 54 are subjected to racing or cavitation to impair the smashing, crushing and mixing function.
In the second embodiment, however, the rotary shaft 45' of the above configuration permits the air to smoothly rise alon~ the rotary shaft 45' 50 as to be dissipated to the outside, thereby succeeding in preventing the occurrence of the aforementioned phenomenon.
Further, in the second embodiment, a soft lid 63 is detachablY mounted to a lower end portion of the shaved ice discharge chute 18 of the ice shaving mechanism to cover the opening of the container 57. In this mixing mechan;sm, when the rotary blades 53 and 5b are operating to smash shaved ice pieces C
and admix granules of ice with liquid material B, the ice granules and liquid material are excited by being exerted with centrifugal raising force by means of the rotary blades 53 and 5~l and tend to scatter to the outside of the container 57 by way of the circumferential edge o~ the upper opening of the container. Advantageously, however, the excited ice granules and liquid material can collide against the back of the lid 63 and scattaring can collapse. The lid 63 can be detached ~rom the discharge chute 18 and cleaned to remove any deposits generated by the collision on the back of the lid 63.
A contaminated lid 63 is cleaned in this matmer and remounted or alternatively, exchanged with a new one.
Further, in this embodiment, a second electric motor 50' is not supported beneath the container 57 but is disposed laterally of the container 57 and directly on the base plate 2, and a drive belt 52 runs on a pulley S1 fixed to the motor shaft of the motor 50', and one on the coupling 48. Accordingly, ~0 the height of the mixing mechanism can be reduced as compared to the firstembodiment. This considerably facilitates the work of charging ice blocks into the ice block reservoir 35 and permits lowering the centroid position which is effective for stable operation of the apparatus.
In the second embodiment, the base plate 2 is comprised of an upper aluminum plate 60 and a lower metal plate 61.
Although a particular preferred embodiment of the invention has been disclosed in detail for illustrative purposes, it will be recognized that variations or modifications of the disclosed apparatus, including the rearrangement of parts, lie within the scope of the present invention.
~ACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Field of the Invention This invention relates to a method of making a soft drink at relativel~
low temperatures by mixing a liquid material such as syrup, honey or fruit juice with shaved ice and an apparatus of making the same.
Description of the Prior Art Conventionally, there has been available semi-refrigerated soft ice-drinks as represented by, for example, sherbet in which a principal raw material such as fruit juice is semi-frozen. Fruit juice and milk are charged into a refrigerator, cooled and stirred thereby to make the sherbet. Another method is ~not~n wherein syrup and water are adfled together with carbon-dioxide gas cooled and foamed in a refrigerator while being stirred to thereby prepare the sherbet.
In any conventional methods, however, a liquid drink material is stirred and cooled in a refrigerator so as to be partly frozen into ice particles and consequently the resulting drink, even if foam-like and soft, contains fine pieces of ice which advantageously give an actual cold feeling to the tactile impression in the mouth when the consumer tastes the drin~ but contrarily, often give an uncomfortable feeling to the tongue.
~0 SUMNARY OF THE INVE~TIO~
The present invention intends to eliminate the prior art disadvantages and provides a method of making a cold, soft ice-drink containing syrup, fruit juice or the like as the principal raw material and which does not give a feeling of the existence of pieces of ice to the consumer; and to an apparatus for making the same.
In the method for making a soft ice-drink according to the invention, ice blocks are shaved into pieces, the shaved pieces are discharged into a container containing a liquid material such as syrup, the pieces of shaved ice and liquid material are mixed together by means of high-speed rotary blades rotatably supported within the container to form a mixture in which the shaved ice is smashed into granules of ice while air i5 entrained during mixing to foam the mixture. Thus, since in this method of the present invention ice blocks are shaved into pieces of shaved ice and discharged into the container containing the liquid material such as syrup, and the pieces of ice and liquid material are mixed together by the high-speed rotary blades to form the 7~à
mixture in which the shaved ice is crushed into ice granules ~Ihile air is entrained during mixing to foam the mixture, a very soft, conventionally unknown drink can be prepared which is free of pieces of ice and is cold but comfortable to the tongue.
An apparatus for making a soft ice-drink according to the invention comprises a mixing mechanism including a container containing a liquid material such as syrup and into which shaved pieces of ice are discharged, rotary blades, rotatably supported within the container, for mixing together the liquid material and shaved ice and for crushing the ice into granules, and a drive motor for rotating the rotary blades at high speeds, and an ice shaving mechanism, disposed on an apparatus support and above the mixing mechanism, the ice showing mechanism including a shaver casing having a slit in which a shaving blade is exposed and a shaved ice discharge chute opening above the container; and rotatable blades, provided within the shaver ca~ing, for cooperating with the shaving blade to shave ice blocks charged into the shaver casing. With this soft ice-drink making apparatus, shaved ice can automatically be discharged into the container for the mixing mechanism through the discharge chute of the ice shaving mechanism, and the mixing mechanism and the ice shaving mechanism being both disposed on a single support can be interlocked with each other.
According to one embodiment of the invention, an ice block reservoir having, at its top, an openable lid and transparent cylindrical wall with a lower, inner funnel-like bottom wall, is detachably mounted on the top of the ice shaving mechanism, whereby both any excess and any deficiency in the necessary ice blocks can be inspected visually from the outside to ensure that the ice blocks can be appropriately supplemented as necessary at all times and ice blocks can be supplied to the ice shaving mechanism smoothly and continuously.
According to another embodiment of the invention, the upper portion of a rotary shaft carrying the rotary blades of the mixing mechanism extends upwardly to nearby the opening of the container and has a square form in horizontal cross section, whereby part of the air drawn into the container during mixing, except for air turned into bubbles to create foam, can rise along the rotary shaft 90 as to be dissipated to the outside, without stagnating in the container to form a void, and crushing and mixing by the rotary blades can thus be carried out with very high efficiency.
According to still another embodiment of the invention, a soft lid for covering the opening of the container is detachably mounted to a lower end portion of the shaved ice discharge chute of the ice shaving mechanism, whereby ice granules and liquid material can be prevented, by the soft lid, from scattering to the outside of the container during mixing, thereby preventing the apparatus and its environment from being splashed and contaminated, and the soft lid can be detached and cleaned to readily remove any ice granules and li~uid material colliding against the back of the lid and depositad thereon. A contaminated lid can thus be cleaned for remounting or alternatively, exchanged with a new one.
According to still another embodiment of the invention, the electric motor for driving the rotary blades of the mixing mechanism is disposed laterally of the container within the area of the apparatus bed for support, whereby the height of the mixing mechanism can be reduced as compared to that in which the drive motor is disposed benea~h the container, thereby ensuring that the worX
of charging ice blocks into the ice shaving mechanism can considerably be facilitated especially where an ice reservoir is mounted on the ice shaving mechanism in order for the ice shaving mechanism to retain a great number of ice blocks, and also ensuring that the centroid position can be lowered to permit stable operation of the apparatus.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
In the accompanying drawings:
Fig. 1 is a lon~itudinally sectioned front view of an apparatus for making a soft ice-drink according to a first embodiment of the invention;
~ ig. 2 is a similar sectional view for explaining the operation of the first embodiment; and Fig. 3 is a sectional view similar to Fig. 1 and illustrating an apparatus for making a soft ice-drink according to a second embodiment of the invention.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIME~TS
Ice Shavin~ Uechanism In a first embodiment of the invention as diagrammatically shown in Fig9.
1 and 2, an apparatus bed or support 1 has a base plate 2 and a plurality of struts 3 standing uprightl~ on the base plate 2. Detachably mounted to upper ends of these struts is a planar portion 6 of a frame 5 which is formed, with the e~ception of the planar portion 6, into an inverted conical shaver casin~
7~
The shaver casin~ 7 of the frame 5 has a central boss 8 with the back thereof fixedly mounted to the upper end of a cylindrical shaft housing 10 in which a rotary shaft 11 is journalled vertically, having its upper en~ passing through a center hole 9 of the bass 8 to project therefrom upwards and its lower end passing through the housing 10 to project therefrom downwards, the lower projecting portion of -the rotary shaft 11 being fixedly mounted to a pulley 12. A support arm 13 extends laterally of the housing 10 and a first 1~ electric motor 14 is attached to the support arm 13. A drive belt 16 runs about the pulley 12 and a pulley 15 fixed to the shaft of the motor 14.
Fo~led in the shaver casing 7 is an opening or slit 17 wlthin which a shaving blade 19 is removably supported such that the amount of its proj~ction lnto the shaver casln~ 7 is adjustable. A shaved ice discharge chute 18 contiguous to the opening 17 is provided on the shaver casing 7.
The rotary s~aft 11 passing through the center hole 9 of the boss 8 has the upper projecting portion which is slidably inserted in a center recess 23 formed in the lower surface of a boss 22 of a transfer rotor 217 and the rotary shaft 11 is removably and securely connected to the boss 22 by means of ~ a bolt 24. The transfer rotor 21 comprises several blades 25 which extendradially from the boss 22 with their bottom surfaces opposing the top surface of the shaver casing 7 in substantially parallel relationship therewith, an annular plate 26 which connects tips of the blades 25 together, and a hopper 28 having a flange 27 which extends outwards from the lower circumferential skirt of the hopper and by which the hopper 28 is removably and securely mounted to the ann~lar plate 26 by means of setscrews (not shown). A
water-proof cover 30 abutting against the circumferential periphery of the hopper 28 is mounted on the planar portion 6. Disposed above the hopper 28 is a splash preventative cover 31 which is removably and securely mounted, at its lower end, to the planar portion 6 of the frame 5 by means of setscrews (not shown). The top of the cover 31 is formed with an opening 32 that opposes the hopper 28. A lid 33 for opening or closing the opening 32 is pivotally and removably mounted on the cover 31.
Mixin~ Mechanism Under the discharge chute 18, a support box 40 is disposed on the base plate 2. The support hox 40 has, at its top, an engagirlg projection 41 and a cylindrical container stand 42 for engagement with the engaging projection 41 is removably mounted on the support box ~IO. An intermediate partition wall ~l3extends from the inner circumferential wall of the container stand 42 and has a center boss 44 in which a rotary shaft 45 i9 journalled vertically, having its upper end passing through a center hole of the boss 4~l to project upwards and its lower end likewise passing through the center hole to project do~lwards, the downward projecting portion of the rotary shaf~ 45 being fixedly mounted with an upper coupling 47.
1~ A lower coupling 48, disposed beneath the upper coupling 47 and being engagable and disenga~able therewith, is rotatably supported on the support box 40.
Placed within the support box 40 is a second electric motor 50 having its shaft connected with the lower coupling 48.
The upper end of the rotary shaft 45 extends into a container 57 and fixedly carries an upper rotary blade 53 for mixing and a lower knife-like rotary blade 54 for crushing and smashing which is vertically spaced apart from the upper rotary blade 53. The upper inner circumferential ~nd of the container stand 42 meshes with the lower outer circum~erential end of the container 57 in water-ti~ht fashion. ~he motors 14 and 50 are interlocked for rotation by means of control circuit not shown.
The operation of the first embodiment will now be described.
The lid 33 is first opened in a direction as indicated by arrow on Figure 2 and ice blocks A , such as in cubic form, are charged, by an appropriate number, into the shaver casing 7 of the frame 5 through the opening 32. The lid 33 is then closed.
Subsequently, the container 57 along with the container stand 42 is removed from the support box 40 and an appropriate amount of liquid material B
such as syrup is poured into the container 57. Thereafter, the container 57 3~ along with the container stand 42 is supportingly placed on the support box 40 such that the upper coupling 47 is brought into engagement with the lower coupling 48. After completion of the preparatory procedure as such, a power supply switch (not shown) is turned on. This activates the control circuit so that the first motor 14 of the ice shaving mechanism ls initially started to permit the shaving blade 19 to shave the ice blocks A, and the thus shaved ice ~ 3 ~
pieces c are discharg~d into the liquid material B p~esent within the container as indicated by ar~ows.
The second motor 50 of the mixing mechanism is subsequently started to rotate the rotary blades 53 ~nd 54 at high speeds, thereby ensuring that the shaved ice pieces C and liquid material B can be urged to run as a vertically-directed eddy-like whirling stream which, within the container 57, drops depressively at the center to generate air bubbles and whirls and rises at the outer side. Consequently, the s~aved ice pieces C are smashed or crushed or further granulated and admixed with the liquid material B to form a l~ predetermined amount of soft ice-drink. Following the formation of the soft ice-drink, the motor 14 is initially stopped to cease the supply of shaved ice pieces C and thera~ter the motor SO is stopped.
When the soft ice-drink has been prepared which is a mixture of the liquid material B and granulated, shaved ice C as well as air bubbles, the container 57 along with the container stand 42 is removed from the support box 40 by releasing the en~agement of the coupling ~l7 with the coupling ~8 and the drink within the container 57 is poured into a cup for services.
The thus prepared drink is removed of the feeling due to the existence of pieces of ice and is so soft that it gives a very comfortable feeling to the ~ tongue, exhibitin~ the intermediate quality between conventional cream andsherbet. Further, the granules of shaved ice in the drink are trapped in bubbles and so they are difficult to dissolve. Consequently, the drink can remain sufficiently cooled until it is served for consumers after being poured lnto a cup.
Turning to Fig. 3, a second embodiment of the invention will be described.
The second embodiment almost resembles the previously-described first embodiment, and like parts are designated by like reference numerals and need not be described herein. Principally, only different parts will therefore be described.
Firstly, in regard of an ice shaving mechanism of the second embodiment, an ice block reservoir 35 substitutes for the cover 31, opening 32 and lid 33 of the first embodiment and is detachably mounted to the planar portion 6 by means of, for example, bolts not shown. Thè reservoir 35 comprises a cylindrical transparent circumferential wall 36, a lid 37 removably mounted on the upper end of the circumferential wall, and a funnel-like bottom wall 33 d~
secured to the inner side of the circumferential wall 36 and havin~ an openin~
ich is in con~lunicatiorl with the hopper 28.
In shaving ice with such an ice shaving mechanism, the Lid 37 is first dismounted and a great number of ice blocks A such as in cubic fotm are charged into the reservoir 35. The lid 37 is then mounted. A soft ice-drink is then prepared similarly to the first embodiment.
Because the ice reservoir 35 can be charged with a great number of ice blocks when making soft ice-drink in this manner, a great amount of soft ice-drin~ can be prepared at a time. This can conveniently be done because t~le ice blocks A charged into the reservoir 35 are interlocXed with movement of ice blocks in the shaver casing 7 so as to be automatically moved to the center opening of the funnel-like wall 38 along the inclined surface thereof and eventually drawn into the shaver casing 7 through the hopper 28. As shaving proceeds, the number of ice blocks A within the reservoir 35 decreases. This condition can be inspected visually from the outside thanks to transparency of the circumferential wall 36 and ice blocks can be supplementarily charged into the reservoir 35 as necessary.
A mixing mechanism of the second embodiment is different from that of the first embodiment in that the upper portion of a rotary shaft 45' carrying rotary blades 53 and 54 extends upwards to nearby the opening of the container 57 and has a square form in horizontal cross section. Essentially, in the first embodiment, shaved ice pieces C discharged into the container 57 are urged to run together with liquid material B by means of the high-speed rotary blades 53 and 54 of the mixing mechanism, in the form of a vertically-directed whirling stream which depressively drops at the center of the container 57 to entrain ambient air and rises at the outer side. On the other hand, granules of smashed ice pieces stagnate at an upper portion of the container 57 to form a partition wall which forces part of the air, except for descending air turning into bubbles, to stagnate near the rotary blades 53 and 54 to thereby form a void in the vicinity of these rotary blades, thus causing a phenomenon that the rotary blades 53 and 54 are subjected to racing or cavitation to impair the smashing, crushing and mixing function.
In the second embodiment, however, the rotary shaft 45' of the above configuration permits the air to smoothly rise alon~ the rotary shaft 45' 50 as to be dissipated to the outside, thereby succeeding in preventing the occurrence of the aforementioned phenomenon.
Further, in the second embodiment, a soft lid 63 is detachablY mounted to a lower end portion of the shaved ice discharge chute 18 of the ice shaving mechanism to cover the opening of the container 57. In this mixing mechan;sm, when the rotary blades 53 and 5b are operating to smash shaved ice pieces C
and admix granules of ice with liquid material B, the ice granules and liquid material are excited by being exerted with centrifugal raising force by means of the rotary blades 53 and 5~l and tend to scatter to the outside of the container 57 by way of the circumferential edge o~ the upper opening of the container. Advantageously, however, the excited ice granules and liquid material can collide against the back of the lid 63 and scattaring can collapse. The lid 63 can be detached ~rom the discharge chute 18 and cleaned to remove any deposits generated by the collision on the back of the lid 63.
A contaminated lid 63 is cleaned in this matmer and remounted or alternatively, exchanged with a new one.
Further, in this embodiment, a second electric motor 50' is not supported beneath the container 57 but is disposed laterally of the container 57 and directly on the base plate 2, and a drive belt 52 runs on a pulley S1 fixed to the motor shaft of the motor 50', and one on the coupling 48. Accordingly, ~0 the height of the mixing mechanism can be reduced as compared to the firstembodiment. This considerably facilitates the work of charging ice blocks into the ice block reservoir 35 and permits lowering the centroid position which is effective for stable operation of the apparatus.
In the second embodiment, the base plate 2 is comprised of an upper aluminum plate 60 and a lower metal plate 61.
Although a particular preferred embodiment of the invention has been disclosed in detail for illustrative purposes, it will be recognized that variations or modifications of the disclosed apparatus, including the rearrangement of parts, lie within the scope of the present invention.
Claims (3)
1. An apparatus of making a soft ice-drink comprising:
a mixing mechanism including a container containing a liquid material such as syrup and into which shaved ice pieces are discharged, rotary blades, rotatably supported within said container, for mixing together the liquid material and shaved ice pieces and smashing said ice pieces into granules of ice, and a drive motor for rotating said rotary blades at high speeds; and an ice shaving mechanism, disposed on an apparatus bed and above said mixing mechanism, including a shaver casing having a slit to which a shaving blade is exposed and a shaved ice discharge chute opened to above said container, and rotatable blades, provided within said shaver casing, for cooperating with said shaving blade to shave ice blocks charged into said shaver casing, wherein a soft lid for covering the opening of said container is detachably mounted to a lower end portion of said shaved ice discharge chute of said ice shaving mechanism.
a mixing mechanism including a container containing a liquid material such as syrup and into which shaved ice pieces are discharged, rotary blades, rotatably supported within said container, for mixing together the liquid material and shaved ice pieces and smashing said ice pieces into granules of ice, and a drive motor for rotating said rotary blades at high speeds; and an ice shaving mechanism, disposed on an apparatus bed and above said mixing mechanism, including a shaver casing having a slit to which a shaving blade is exposed and a shaved ice discharge chute opened to above said container, and rotatable blades, provided within said shaver casing, for cooperating with said shaving blade to shave ice blocks charged into said shaver casing, wherein a soft lid for covering the opening of said container is detachably mounted to a lower end portion of said shaved ice discharge chute of said ice shaving mechanism.
2. A soft ice-drink making apparatus according to claim 1, wherein an ice block reservoir having, at its top, an openable lid and a transparent cylindrical wall with a lower, inner funnel-like wall is detachably mounted on the top of said ice shaving mechanism.
3. A soft ice-drink making apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the upper portion of a rotary shaft carrying said rotary blades of said mixing mechanism extends upwards nearby the opening of said container and has a square form in horizontal cross-section.
Applications Claiming Priority (10)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| JP61141754A JPS62296843A (en) | 1986-06-18 | 1986-06-18 | Production of soft ice drink and device therefor |
| JP141754/1986 | 1986-06-18 | ||
| JP2159587A JPS63188145A (en) | 1987-01-30 | 1987-01-30 | Photosensitive body |
| JP2159687A JPS63188156A (en) | 1987-01-30 | 1987-01-30 | Photosensitive body |
| JP2159487A JPS63188144A (en) | 1987-01-30 | 1987-01-30 | Photosensitive body |
| JP2159787A JPS63188157A (en) | 1987-01-30 | 1987-01-30 | Photosensitive body |
| JP21594/1987 | 1987-02-17 | ||
| JP21596/1987 | 1987-02-17 | ||
| JP21595/1987 | 1987-02-17 | ||
| JP21597/1987 | 1987-02-17 |
Publications (1)
| Publication Number | Publication Date |
|---|---|
| CA1298476C true CA1298476C (en) | 1992-04-07 |
Family
ID=27520348
Family Applications (1)
| Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA000539882A Expired - Lifetime CA1298476C (en) | 1986-06-18 | 1987-06-17 | Method of making soft ice-drink and apparatus of making the same |
Country Status (1)
| Country | Link |
|---|---|
| CA (1) | CA1298476C (en) |
-
1987
- 1987-06-17 CA CA000539882A patent/CA1298476C/en not_active Expired - Lifetime
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| Date | Code | Title | Description |
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| MKLA | Lapsed |