Sealed refrigeration immersion vessel

An apparatus for rapidly freezing solid materials by direct immersion into liquid refrigerants, said apparatus comprising in combination:

• a. a sealed elongated vessel of generally cross-sectional inverted "U" configuration, having a horizontally linear top, essentially vertical sides, entrance and exit ends, a bottom with inclined base rising diagonally towards its exit end, a plateau region of said entrance end;
• b. an entrance port in said plateau region through which solid materials enter said vessel by gravity;
• c. a reservoir located in the vessel's interior bottom beneath the entrance port for containing liquid refrigerant into which the solid materials fall;
• d. a linear auger, with auger blades, diagonally inclined upwardly parallel with the vessel's inclined base, the lower end of said auger positioned near the bottom of said reservoir within liquid refrigerant and beneath said entrance port;
• e. a shroud covering a top portion of said auger blades positioned in the reservoir to trap and immerse less dense solid materials between said blades which would otherwise float in the liquid refrigerant;
• f. a casing of cross-sectional "U" configuration but longitudinally linear surrounding but not in direct contact with linear sides and bottom of said auger blades, but not its linear top thereby allowing vaporization of refrigerant vapors into said vessel while partially enclosing and providing a channel for solid materials as they are advanced through the vessel by rotating auger blades while also providing a means for draining excess liquid refrigerant from the solid materials into the vessel's reservoir;
• g. condensers in the vessel's upper interior for recondensing refrigerant vapors in the vessel, said condensers having hollow interior structures being supplied by a source external from the vessel with a liquid refrigerant of lower boiling point than the liquid refrigerant in the vessel's reservoir;
• h. an exit port positioned in said inclined vessel bottom for discharging through which by gravity solid materials from said casing and auger blades into a rotary vane valve;
• i. rotary vane valves, one connected externally to the entrance port and one connected externally to the exit port, for respectively receiving into and discharging from said vessel solid materials, said valves employing a means for preventing escape of refrigerant vapors from the vessel nor allowing atmospheric air into the vessel;
• j. means in external communication with the reservoir of the vessel for filling, draining, storing and maintaining the temperature of the vessel's liquid refrigerant;
• k. means for maintaining the temperature of liquid refrigerant in the vessel's reservoir at approximate minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit.