System for Automatically Cooking and Selling Frozen Food

• US 20160379434A1
• Filed: 04/03/2014
• Published: 12/29/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/05/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Zisheng Huang
• Original Assignee: Zisheng Huang
• Inventors: Huang, ZiSheng
• Granted Patent: US 11,468,727 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: F25D 21/125 the hot fluid being ambient air
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 11/004 Restocking arrangements therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 11/70 in which the articles are formed in the apparatus from components, blanks, or material constituents
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/0078 Food articles which need to be processed for dispensing in a hot or cooked condition, e.g. popcorn, nuts

Abstract

Disclosed is an automatic-cooking-and-processing vending system for frozen-food, comprising the low-temperature chamber, the object-moving system, the product shelves, the low-temperature chamber equipment, the food container; the said low-temperature chamber equipment is inside the low-temperature chamber, or connected to the casing of the low-temperature chamber; the low-temperature chamber equipment contains hot-air source and the humid-air source; the product shelves is inside the low-temperature chamber with disposable food containers placed on; the object-moving system is inside the low-temperature chamber. This system has the air-circulating system, which can force the outer hot-and-humid air to come inside in one-way from a cold chamber, so as to isolate the hot-and-humid air. Further disclosed is a food-automatic-cook-and-processing system, which may be used in the automatic-cooking-and-processing vending system, comprising a series of auto piercing food-processing devices for disposable food containers and different foods, and with the working patterns of these devices.

Claims

1. An automatic-cooking-and-processing vending system for frozen-food, comprising:

the low-temperature chamber, the object-moving system, the product shelves, the low-temperature chamber equipment, the food container;

the storing temperature of the foods in the said low-temperature chamber is lower than the freezing temperature of the foods;

the said low-temperature chamber equipment is inside the low-temperature chamber, or connected to the casing of the low-temperature chamber;

the said low-temperature chamber equipment contains hot-air source and the humid-air source;

the said food container is on the product shelves;

the said food container is disposable food container;

the said product shelves is inside the low-temperature chamber;

the object-moving system is inside the low-temperature chamber, and able to move the food container.

2. A system according to claim 1, wherein,

there is the air-circulating system;

the said air-circulating system has inlet passage(s) for the external air, and inside the passage(s) there is the cold chamber, and the hot-and-humid air that flows from the outside here goes in, and after the hot-and-humid air goes through this passage, it is converted to dry-and-cold air, and the residual ice and frost is condensed inside the cold chamber, and will be melted and discharged inside the cold chamber;

the said air-circulating system has the air-pressure device, which makes that the dry-and-cold air produced by the cold chamber enter the low-temperature chamber, and also causes the interior of the low-temperature chamber to have a pressure higher than the outside, so that the internal dry-and-cold air will flow outwards or get discharged, and the external hot-and-humid air is forced to be isolated.

3. A system according to claim 2, wherein,

the refrigerating system of the air-circulating system has the dynamic-adjusting structure, which can continually conduct operations of refrigeration and frost-removing;

the said dynamic-adjusting structure have two independent cold chambers;

the two cold chambers are connected in series, the air goes through the two cold chambers above successively;

having the dynamic-adjust-routing valves and passages, which can adjust the priority sequence for passing through the cold chambers of the air.

4. A system according to claim 2, wherein,

the said air-circulating system has the air-discharging device, which is inside the said low-temperature chamber equipment, the dry-and-cold air in the low-temperature chamber is discharged via the valves or passages of the air-discharging device.

5. A system according to claim 2, wherein,

inside the low-temperature chamber equipment, there is at least one customer-fetching equipment;

inside the customer-fetching equipment there is the sensor, which can identify whether the food container is existing or not, moving in or out;

the customer-fetching equipment has the auto gate;

the object-moving system picks up or put down the food container inside the said customer-fetching equipment;

the food container goes in or goes out of the low-temperature chamber via the said customer-fetching equipment.

6. A system according to claim 5, wherein,

the said customer-fetching equipment has recognition device, which can recognize the label on the food container or the type of the food container.

7. A system according to claim 1, wherein,

having the thermal-evaporation-frost-removing system, and the thermal-evaporation-frost-removing system has the heating wires to heat the mechanical parts for a short period for evaporation to remove the frost,

and the heating wires of the thermal-evaporation-frost-removing system are in the interior, or on the casing of the mechanical parts.

8. A system according to claim 1, wherein, the structures of the object-moving system:

The said object-moving system has a form of exploring into the product shelves or the low-temperature chamber equipment;

the said product shelves and the said low-temperature equipment are open to the object-moving system;

the moving range of object-pick-up section of the said object-moving system matches the storing range of the food containers;

the left-right movement mechanism is based on the up-down movement mechanism;

the up-down movement mechanism can have balance-weight devices at the both sides;

the up-down movement mechanism can have synchronous devices at the both sides;

the object-moving system can have a axis-rotation mechanism, and the axis-rotation mechanism is vertical;

both the axis-rotation mechanism and the forth-back movement mechanism are based on the left-right movement mechanism;

the forth-back movement mechanism has at least one level of retractable structure.

9. A system according to claim 8, wherein,

Having the optical system, which moves along with the object-moving system;

and the optical system has multiple infrared sensors.

10. A system according to claim 8, wherein:

having the pit-groove plate, which is used on the product shelves to limit the food container, so that it can not make unexpected movement;

and there is at least one level of pit and groove on the pit-groove plate, matching at least one size of the food container.

11. A system according to claim 8, wherein:

The said object-moving system has a form of pincers manipulator,

And the pincers manipulator has up-and-down opening-closing pincers to catch the turnup of the food container,

and the pincers manipulator has a chamfer against &

to support the lower part of the food container,

and the optical system comprises a forward sensor and a turnup sensor.

12. A system according to claim 8, wherein:

the said object-moving system has a form of hook-push manipulator, comprising the hook-push manipulator, the retractable pallet, and the ridgy shelf board;

the hook-push manipulator has a ring, which pushes and pulls the food container forth and back, left and right,

and the retractable pallet is retractable, and the retractable pallet is a shovel to hold up the food container,

and the ridgy shelf board is located on the product shelves, and it has guiding and spacing ridges,

and the optical system comprises at least a forward sensor.

13. A system according to claim 8, wherein:

The said object-moving system has a form of the drawer-like storing-and-transporting receptacle, comprising the pickup device, the the pickup device, the drawer-like storing-and-transporting receptacle, the small food container, and the hook-fork manipulator;

and the drawer-like storing-and-transporting receptacle is movable, and the drawer-like storing-and-transporting receptacle is on the product shelves, and the drawer-like storing-and-transporting receptacle has a handle;

and the small food containers are arranged as array and stacked up inside the drawer-like storing-and-transporting receptacle;

and the hook-fork manipulator has the hook-fork that inserts into the handle of the drawer-like storing-and-transporting receptacle, and the hook-fork manipulator has a push-pull ring and plain shovel;

and both the pickup device and the optical system are fixed structures, and the optical system is in the same direction as the pickup device;

and the pickup device has a fixed long stem, and the pickup device explores inside the drawer-like storing-and-transporting receptacle to pick up the small food container.

14. A system according to claim 9, wherein:

the IR sensors of the optical system has a left-right-symmetrical &

slant layout,

comprising at least comprising at least two opposite slant-forward sensors.

15. A system according to claim 9, wherein:

the IR sensors of the optical system can be in an asymmetrical forward-and-sideward layout,

comprising at least a forward sensor and a sideward sensor.