Frosting cooler
AssigneeHussmann Corporation
InventorsJony M. Zangari, Eduardo Nicolai, Marco Antonio Tadeu Ribeiro, Graziela Bertoni, André Elio Rohloff
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A frosting cooler creates and maintains frost on cold products, such as bottles of a beverage stored in the cooler, thereby to provide a visual manifestation of the cold condition of the beverage. The cooler has the ability to deliver moisture to the products within the cooler so that frosting may be produced in environments where there is low humidity in the ambient air without freezing the liquid contained by the bottle. The cooler is operated to control to protect the frost on the products, once formed. In addition, the cooler is controlled to prevent frost build up on an evaporator and fan of the cooler in the presence of the additional moisture.
Claims27
A cooler for cooling articles and maintaining frost on the articles, the cooler comprising:
- an insulated cabinet defining a product zone for holding the articles to be cooled;
- a cooling coil constructed and arranged for receiving coolant therethrough to remove heat from the product zone in the cabinet;
- a fan for circulating air over the cooling coil and through the product zone in the cabinet;
- a water vapor source in fluid communication with the product zone for delivering water vapor to the product zone for condensing on the articles;
- a controller to control flow of coolant through the cooling coil, operation of the fan, and operation of the water vapor source to deliver water vapor into the product zone for condensing on the articles as frost, the controller being configured to automatically conduct a defrost of the cooling coil, in which the cooling coil temperature increases to melt any frost thereon, and to restart cooling of the cooling coil by flow of coolant therethrough after defrost, the controller delaying operation of the fan after restarting the cooling of the cooling coil following defrost until the cooling coil has reached a temperature so that circulation of air from the cooling coil though the product zone will not melt frost on the articles.
A cooler for cooling articles and maintaining frost on the articles, the cooler comprising:
- a cabinet defining a product zone for holding the articles to be cooled;
- a cooling coil constructed and arranged for receiving coolant therethrough to remove heat from the product zone in the cabinet;
- a fan for circulating air over the cooling coil and through the product zone in the cabinet;
- a water vapor source in fluid communication with the product zone for delivering water vapor to the product zone for condensing on the articles;
- a controller to control flow of coolant through the cooling coil, operation of the fan, and operation of the water vapor source to deliver water vapor into the cabinet for condensing on the articles as frost, the controller being configured to prevent operation of the water vapor source until after the product zone has been cooled to a pulldown temperature.
A cooler for cooling articles and maintaining frost on the articles, the cooler comprising:
- a cabinet having insulated walls defining a product zone for holding the articles to be cooled;
- a cooling coil constructed and arranged for receiving coolant therethrough to remove heat from the product zone in the cabinet;
- a fan for circulating air over the cooling coil and through the product zone in the cabinet;
- a water vapor source in fluid communication with the product zone for delivering water vapor to the product zone for condensing on the articles, the water vapor source comprising a heater for heating water to form a vapor, and piping extending from the heater at least partially within the insulated wall of the cabinet and having an outlet opening inside the cabinet;
- a controller to control flow of coolant through the cooling coil, operation of the fan, and operation of the water vapor source to deliver water vapor into the cabinet for condensing on the articles as frost.
A cooler for cooling articles and maintaining frost on the articles, the cooler comprising:
- a cabinet having insulated walls defining a product zone for holding the articles to be cooled;
- a cooling coil constructed and arranged for receiving coolant therethrough to remove heat from the product zone in the cabinet;
- a fan for circulating air over the cooling coil and through the product zone in the cabinet;
- a water vapor source in fluid communication with the product zone for delivering water vapor to the product zone for condensing on the articles, the water vapor source comprising a heater for heating water to form a vapor, and piping extending from the heater and having an outlet opening inside the cabinet, the outlet being located downstream from the cooling coil and fan within the flow of air circulated by the fan.
A cooler for holding and cooling articles comprising a cabinet defining a cooled area in which articles can be held, a cooling coil disposed for cooling the cooled area, a fan for circulating air over the cooling coil and through the cooled area, a compressor for compressing refrigerant, a condenser for removing heat from compressed refrigerant, a control for controlling operation of the compressor, a temperature sensor for detecting the temperature of the cooled area of the cabinet, a voltage sensor for detecting voltage of a power source to which the merchandiser can be connected, the control being configured to operate in a normal mode to turn on and off the compressor in response to the temperature of the cooled area detected by the temperature sensor and to operate in an override mode to prevent the compressor from being turned on when the voltage sensor detects that the voltage of the power source is below a predetermined minimum start voltage.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.