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US 2021/0259279 A1Published application
System and Method for Automatically Cleaning and Washing Ice Cream or Yogurt Machine
OwnerLingyu DONGinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system for automatically cleaning and washing an ice cream machines includes a liquid container for storing raw materials; a freezing cylinder connected with the liquid container through a cleaning pathway; a water tank for storing rinse water to rinse the freezing cylinder and the cleaning pathway; a detergent tank for storing detergents to clean and wash the freezing cylinder and the cleaning pathway; a pump arranged on the cleaning pathway to selectively pump the raw material, the rinse water or the detergent; and a control panel adapted to control an on/off and cleaning.
Claims20
An ice cream or yogurt machine, comprising:
- a liquid container for storing at least one raw material for producing an ice cream or yogurt;
- a freezing cylinder;
- a dispensing device;
- a pipeline connecting the liquid container with the freezing cylinder and the freezing cylinder with the dispensing device;
- a thermal exchange arrangement is operated to produce refrigerant to the freezing cylinder for refrigeration to make the ice cream or yogurt from the at least one raw material in the freezing cylinder;
- and
- a system for automatically cleaning and washing the pipeline and the freezing cylinder, comprising:
- a rinse containing device arranged to store at least a rinse water and at least a detergent;
- and
- a control module adapted to control an on/off and a cleaning operation that, the rinse water and the detergent are selectively fed into the pipeline and the freezing cylinder to clean and wash the freezing cylinder and the pipeline, wherein the thermal exchange arrangement connected to the freezing cylinder is operated as a heating unit to melt and drain one or more residues in the freezing cylinder, wherein firstly, the rinse water is passing through the pipeline and the freezing cylinder while operating the thermal exchange arrangement to heat the rinse water feeding through the pipeline and the freezing cylinder to melt and absorb the residues in the pipeline and the freezing and drain the residues absorbed by the rinse water from the pipeline and the freezing cylinder, and secondly, the rinse water and the detergent are passing through the pipeline and the freezing cylinder to clean and wash the pipeline and the freezing cylinder while the thermal exchange arrangement is operated to heat the water feeding through the freezing cylinder, and finally, the rinse water is fed through the pipeline and the freezing cylinder in order to remove and drain out any remaining detergent residue in the pipeline and the freezing cylinder.
7 more elements
A method of cleaning and washing an ice cream or yogurt machine, comprising the steps of:
- (a) providing a liquid container storing raw materials for making ice cream or yogurt in a freezing cylinder and a water tank containing rinse water and a detergent tank containing one or more detergents, wherein during a normal operation of the freezing cylinder, a thermal exchange device which is thermally communicated with a feeding channel of the freezing cylinder for heat exchange is function for refrigeration and used to condense gaseous form refrigerant to liquid form refrigerant through an exchange channel of the freezing cylinder to produce the ice cream or yogurt product;
- (b) providing a pipeline selectively connecting the liquid container to the freezing cylinder for feeding the raw materials to the freezing cylinder, or connecting the water tank and the detergent tank for feeding the rinse water and the one or more detergents into the freezing cylinder;
- (c) turning off a normal operation of the freezing cylinder to stop feeding the raw materials from the liquid container to the freezing cylinder and to stop the thermal exchange device to function for refrigeration, and activating a cleaning operation module of the control panel to turn on a cleaning operation automatically;
- (d) activating the thermal exchange device to function as a heating unit to produce heat, heating the freezing cylinder through the thermal exchange device to warm up and melt ice cream or yogurt residue inside the freezing cylinder, and draining out the ice cream or yogurt product inside the freezing cylinder via a dispensing pipeline of the pipeline and the dispensing device;
- (e) feeding the water from the water tank by the pump into the feeding channel of the freezing cylinder through the feeding pipeline of the pipeline to absorb the ice cream or yogurt residue in the pipeline and the freezing cylinder, and draining the ice cream or yogurt residue absorbed by the water from the pipeline and the feeding channel of the freezing cylinder through the dispensing pipeline of the pipeline and the dispensing device, while the thermal exchange device continuously being operated as the heating unit to heat the water feeding through the feeding channel of the freezing cylinder;
- (f) passing the water from the water tank and the one or more detergents from the detergent tank by the pump through the feeding pipeline of the pipeline for being fed into and through the feeding channel of the freezing cylinder and dispensed through the dispensing pipeline of the pipeline so as to clean and wash the pipeline and the freezing cylinder, while the thermal exchange device being operated as the heating unit to heat the water feeding through the feeding channel of the freezing cylinder;
- (g) feeding the water from the water tank only by the pump through the pipeline and freezing cylinder to clean and drain out detergent residue in the feeding pipeline and dispensing pipeline of the pipeline and the feeding channel of the freezing cylinder by the water to prevent the one or more detergents remained inside the pipeline and the freezing cylinder;
- and
- (h) turning off the cleaning operation and turning on the normal operation of the freezing cylinder.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.