Dispenser for ice cubes and the like

• US 3,929,256 A
• Filed: 03/13/1974
• Issued: 12/30/1975
• Est. Priority Date: 03/13/1973
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Arieh Solomon
• Original Assignee: Arieh Solomon
• Inventors: Solomon, Arieh
• Primary Examiner(s): Tollberg, Stanley H.
• Application Number:
  US05/451,004
• Time in Patent Office: 657 Days
• Field of Search: 221/79,80,81,64,87,88 62/353,345,341,72 425/439,440 249/66,67,69,74,76,127
• US Class Current: 221/81
• CPC Class Codes: F25C 5/20 Distributing ice

Abstract

A dispenser for ice cubes or other discrete articles includes a rotatable wheel on whose periphery is a detachable, normally flat but resiliently deformable magazine having a plurality of circumferentially spaced compartments adapted to hold the articles to be dispensed. The magazine is designed so that, upon its flexure into conformity with the curved periphery of the wheel, it ejects the articles in the compartments. A cover, operatively associated with the wheel, retains the contents of the magazine therein until rotation of the wheel places a compartment in alignment with an outlet opening in the cover at which time, an article in the last mentioned compartment is gravity dispensed through the outlet opening.

Claims

1. Dispensing apparatus for ice cubes or other discrete articles comprising:

a circular rotatable wheel;

a longitudinally extending flexible magazine insertable into engagement with the periphery of said rotatable wheel, said magazine being normally flat and having a bottom that fits and conforms to the curved periphery of said wheel when in engagement therewith and having a plurality of spaced compartments arranged longitudinally in parallel rows, such that the compartments in adjacent rows are in relatively staggered disposition to one another, said compartments being adapted to hold discrete articles, wherein adjacent compartments of said magazine are defined by spaced transverse walls interconnected by a longitudinal wall, whereby the discrete articles are ejected from the compartments in response to the flexure of said magazine in conformity with the periphery of said wheel;

a cover having an outlet opening operatively associated with said wheel for retaining the contents of said magazine therein until rotation of said wheel places a single compartment in alignment with said outlet opening in said cover at which time as article in the last mentioned compartment is gravity dispensed through said outpet opening; and

wherein the sides of said magazine and the sides of said cover have cooperating ridges and grooves for retaining the bottom of said magazine engaged with the wheel periphery during rotation of said wheel.

2. Dispensing apparatus for ice cubes or other discrete articles according to claim 1 wherein the sides of said magazine and the sides of said cover project radially from the axis of rotation of said wheel.

3. A dispenser according to claim 1 including cooperating ridges and grooves in the wheel periphery and bottom of the magazine so as to couple the magazine to the wheel for simultaneous rotation.

4. A dispenser according to claim 1 wherein the magazine has dividers which, when the magazine is fitted on the wheel, extend axially and radially with respect to the axis of rotation of the wheel to thereby increase the size of the compartment due to the curvature of the magazine on the wheel as compared to the size when the magazine is flat.

5. A dispenser according to claim 1 wherein the cover has an inlet opening that is tangent to the periphery of the wheel to effect the attachment to and removal from the wheel of a magazine.

6. A dispenser according to claim 4 wherein the magazine is adapted to contain frozen water which, by reason of the dividers and the curvature of the magazine on the wheel, is divided into pieces of ice separate from each other and from the magazine.

7. A dispenser according to claim 1 provided with opposed bearings on opposite sides of the cover to rotatably support a wheel, and also including a manually operable knob projecting through the cover for rotating the wheel, the cover overlying the outlet opening to permit a container to be placed under the outlet opening to collect an article dispensed from a compartment in the magazine by rotation of the wheel until the compartment is opposite the outlet opening.

8. A dispenser according to claim 1 wherein means are provided for locally deforming thE bottom of a compartment in the magazine at a position opposite the outlet opening for physically displacing the contents of the compartment therethrough.

9. An ice cube tray for use with the dispenser of claim 1 comprising a unitary body having a plurality of tapered compartments defined by interconnected inclined transverse and longitudinal walls of substantially uniform thickness, the bottom edges of transverse walls of adjacent compartments being spaced to allow longitudinal flexure of the magazine, and a longitudinal rib interconnecting the transverse walls of adjacent compartments.

10. Dispensing apparatus for ice cubes or other discrete articles comprising:

a circular rotatable wheel;

a longitudinally extending flexible magazine removably attached to the periphery of said wheel and having a plurality of circumferentially spaced compartments adapted to hold the discrete articles, said magazine being normally flat and having a bottom that fits and conforms to the curved periphery of said wheel;

a cover having an outlet opening operatively associated with said wheel for retaining the contents of said magazine therein until rotation of said wheel places a compartment in alignment with said outlet opening at which time an article in the last mentioned compartment is gravity dispensed through said outlet opening;

a star-shaped wheel operatively engaged with the rim of said rotatable wheel;

a ratchet wheel;

a shaft rigidly connecting said star-shaped wheel to said ratchet wheel through said cover; and

manually operable means for indexing said ratchet wheel, thereby indexing said rotatable wheel.

11. A dispenser according to claim 10 wherein the outlet opening has a cover normally closing the same but movable to an uncovering position in response to operation of the manually operable means that indexes the ratchet wheel.