DISPENSING APPARATUS

摘要

Individual portions of ice cream are dispensed from a bulk container. A motor drives a lead screw, to expand a scissor linkage and drive a dispensing head against the bulk container. Pressure applied to the container causes it to collapse and discharge ice cream from an outlet. The lead screw is orthogonal with the movement of the dispensing head and the axis of collapse of the container. The container, motor and lead screw are carried on a drawer which is slidably mounted in a refrigerated housing. Pressure is monitored to regulate operation of the motor. An encoder controls the motor for a specific portion size.

主权项

1. A dispensing apparatus for dispensing frozen or semi-frozen product such as ice cream and sorbet or the like, the dispensing apparatus comprising a bulk container for storing multiple portions of product to be dispensed, wherein the container has an outlet and is of deformable construction, for reducing the internal volume of the container and expressing product through the outlet, a dispensing mechanism for applying pressure to said container to cause frozen or semi-frozen confection to be dispensed from the container through the outlet, and a valve mechanism for controlling the volume of frozen or semi-frozen confection dispensed from the apparatus, wherein dispensing mechanism includes a dispensing head which is movable to apply a load to the container, and
wherein the apparatus includes a housing and said container is mounted in a drawer or cartridge which is movable on the housing between an open position for loading or unloading a bulk container and a stowed position for a dispensing operation.