DESCRIPTION

Field of the invention

[001] The present invention relates to juice dispensers, especially to the carrot juice dispensers.

Background of the invention

[002] The prior art discloses various juice dispensers. Especially well known juice dispensers are orange juice dispensers as disclosed in European patent publications Nos. EP0343488 and EP1692953 as well as in US patent application publication No. US2274020. Typical orange juice dispenser comprises a bunker for storing the fruit to be squashed, an assembly for cutting and squashing the individual citrus fruits, a station for removing a dose of squash, means for washing the squashing elements and for collecting the wash water and the peels of the citrus fruits and a control unit, which controls the assemblies and is adapted to make them operate in succession when activated by a user.

[003] Spherical shape of oranges allow easy handling and accordingly easy design of an automatic orange juice dispenser. When it comes to carrots which have a shape of elongated objects, the principles of oranges juice dispenser do not work. The Korean patent publication No. KR101871330 and US patent application publication No. US2014261019 disclose a manual carrot squeezing apparatus. This apparatus is suitable for manual feed of carrots for squeezing and smashing. It does not provide automatic dispensing. Japanese patent publications Nos. JP3629584 and JP3944868 discloses carrot juice dispensers where the carrots are purred into the bunker and fed for dispensing through various types of screw conveyors. Such carrot juice dispensers are very bulky, hard to manufacture due to the screw conveyors as well as complicated for service (cleaning) again due to screw conveyors and associated elements. Automatic dispensers with screw conveyors would imply that there can be a significant number of crashed carrots in the screw conveyor after a customer uses the dispenser to obtain a bottle/glass of juice. That creates at least two issues in self-service dispensers, where it is normal that not all carrots present in the bunker will be used by a customer. The two issues are: a) if there is a significant amount of time for the next customer to use the dispenser, this next juice will be produced from long time ago crashed carrots left in the screw conveyor; and b) at the end of the day, when the dispenser will be cleaned, there will be a significant amount of crashed carrots that will need to be disposed/thrown away.

[004] Aim of the invention is to design an automatic carrot juice dispenser, which is easy to manufacture, use and service, especially cleaning it.

Summary of the invention

[005] The aim is reached by a design of an automatic carrot juice dispenser comprising a combined conveyor system reliably transporting carrots from a bunker to a juicer. Reliable transportation of carrots means that each carrot is carefully without damaging it and in controlled order transported to the juicer. The problem of jammed dispenser is avoided, and it can be fully automatic and reliable.

[006] The automatic carrot juice dispenser comprises a frame structure with doors. The frame structure comprises not only a frame itself, but also a casing that covers all elements of the dispenser that are built in the frame structure. The frame structure also may be made as a sheet material construction.

[007] The dispenser comprises a bunker configured for a storage of carrots. The bunker in order to contain the carrots comprises a bunker floor and side walls. The bunker may comprise one or two side walls depending on a chosen configuration of the dispenser. In another embodiment of the invention one side wall may be a separate side wall or another one may be a part of the frame structure so that at least one side wall is integral part of the frame structure. The side wall may be metal sheet wall, a mesh, a net or any other equivalent of the side wall which may hold the carrots within the bunker. The bunker floor comprises an axle so that the bunker floor may swing around said axle like a swing. The axle may be arranged in the middle section of the bunker floor or at one side end of the bunker floor as long as the swing motion of the bunker floor may be provided. The dispenser further comprises a reciprocating means configured to provide reciprocating motion to the bunker floor so that the bunker floor can swing around said axle. The reciprocating means may be selected from the group comprising a pneumatic cylinder, a hydraulic cylinder, electric motor with a cam, motorized linear slide and crank mechanism.

[008] The conveyor system of the dispenser comprises a step feeder. The step feeder is configured to collect carrots from said bunker and move collected carrots upwards by means of reciprocating motion of steps of the step feeder. The reciprocating motion of the steps of the step feeder may be provided by a pneumatic cylinder, a hydraulic cylinder or motorized linear slide. The step feeder is arranged at the bunker floor so that the step feeder forms one or the fourth wall of the bunker to contain the carrots. Aforementioned swinging motion of the bunker floor facilitates loading of carrots onto a step feeder.

[009] At the upper edge of the step feeder a buffer zone gate is arranged. The buffer zone gate is configured to hold at least one carrot and release said carrot by opening said buffer zone gate. Opening of the gate may be provided by a pneumatic cylinder, a hydraulic cylinder, motorized linear slide or any other means allowing to move the buffer zone gate so that the gate may one and the carrot may be released.

[010] The conveyor system of the dispenser further comprises a gravity chute arranged at the upper edge of the step feeder and configured to receive the carrot from the buffer zone gate and to slide the carrot under a gravity to the entrance of the juicer and into said juicer. The gravity chute is so inclined that the carrot is repositioned from generally horizontal or about horizontal orientation at the buffer zone gate to generally vertical or about vertical orientation at the entrance into the juicer. Generally vertical repositioning of the carrot may be supplemented by a deflection wall arranged at the end of the gravity chute. The deflection wall is optional technical feature of the invention. The carrot drops from the step feeder or from the buffer zone gate with its longitudinal axis generally horizontally. Then the carrot slides along the gravity chute and the longitudinal axis of the carrot is changed by approximately 45 degrees towards vertical orientation. Finally, at the end of the gravity chute the carrot drops into the opening or hole of the juicer. In another embodiment of the invention the dispenser may comprise a deflection wall where the carrot sliding out from the gravity chute impacts the deflection wall and the carrot is further rearranged so that its longitudinal axis is generally vertical and the carrot drops into the juicer vertically as it would be with typical juicer where the user takes the carrot and moves it vertically into the juicer. [Oi l] The present invention allows to maintain carrots intact until it is pressed in the juicer. In result the user of the dispenser always receives a juice from fresh carrots and in the addition the dispenser shall not be cleaned from the crusher carrots.

Brief description of the drawings

[012] The drawings illustrate generally, by way of example, but not by way of limitation, various embodiments of the invention.

[013] Fig. 1 is a front perspective view of a carrot juice dispenser (1) with closed doors (20) and ready for use.

[014] Fig. 2 is a front perspective view of the carrot juice dispenser (1) as seen in Fig. 1, but with open doors (20).

[015] Fig. 3 is a front perspective view of the carrot juice dispenser (1) as seen in Figs. 1 and 2, but with cut-out in a frame structure (2) and doors (20) to illustrate main elements of the invention.

[016] Fig. 4 a principal schematic of the carrot juice dispenser (1) as seen in Figs. 1 to 3 illustrating the principles of the operation.

[017] Fig. 5 is a front perspective view of the carrot juice dispenser (1) as seen in Figs. 1 to 3 illustrating travel of carrots (11) along the dispenser (1).

Detailed description of the embodiments

[018] The preferred embodiments of the invention are now described with reference to the figures to illustrate objectives, advantages, and efficiency of the present invention.

[019] Figs. 1 to 5 illustrates one embodiments of the invention from various perspectives. The carrot juice dispenser (1) comprises a frame structure (2) in the form of sheet metal construction. The frame structure (2) forms a casing, and this casing is further enclosed by two doors (20). The dispenser (1) comprises a bunker (3) configured to store carrots (11). The bunker (3) comprises a bunker floor (4), two side walls (5). In presented embodiments of the invention one side wall (5) is made as an additional sheet metal side wall (5), but another side wall is integral part of the frame structure (2). The bunker floor (4) comprises an axle (6) arranged in the middle section thereof so that the bunker floor (4) may swing (S) around said axle (6). A reciprocating means (7) in the form of cylinder is connected to the bunker floor (4) so that the reciprocating means (7) provides reciprocating motion (B) to the bunker floor (4), in result of which the bunker floor (4) swings (S) around said axle (6). The dispenser (1) further comprises a step feeder (8). The step feeder (8) is arranged to the bunker floor (4) so that the step feeder (8) forms one wall of the bunker (3) and is configured to collect carrots (11) from said bunker (3) and move collected carrots (11) upwards by means of reciprocating motion (C) of steps (81) of the step feeder (8). The dispenser (1) further comprises a buffer zone gate (9) arranged at the upper edge of the step feeder (8) and configured to hold at least one carrot (11) and release hold carrot (11) by opening the buffer zone gate (9). The opening of the buffer zone gate (9) is provided by a reciprocating motion (D) of the buffer zone gate (9). The dispenser further comprises a gravity chute (10) arranged at the upper edge of the step feeder (8) and configured to receive the carrot (11) from the buffer zone gate (9) and to slide the carrot (11) under a gravity to an entrance (13) of a juicer (12) and into it. The gravity chute (10) is inclined by about 45 degrees in relation to the horizontal buffer zone gate (9). The carrot (11) falls from the buffer zone gate (9) onto the gravity chute (10) and slides down to an entrance (13) of the juicer (12) and into said juicer (12). The dispenser (1) further comprises a deflection wall (14) arranged at the end of the gravity chute (10) so that the carrot (10) exiting the gravity chute (10) bounces into the deflection wall (14) and fall into the juicer (12) in vertical orientation. The juicer (12) is configured to extract a carrot juice from the carrot/-s (11) and dispense said carrot juice through a juicer outlet (15).

[020] While the invention may be susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments of which have been shown by way of example in the figures and have been described in detail herein, it should be understood that the invention is not intended to be limited to the particular forms disclosed. Rather, the invention includes all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the scope of the invention as defined by the following claims.