Antibridging Patents (Class 159/4.03)
  • Patent number: 10288336
    Abstract: An ice delivery device includes a bin for storing ice, a rotatable helical auger for delivering ice, and a rotatable agitator wheel with multiple flexible arms to help break up agglomerations of ice. The agitator wheel is mounted such that as the auger is rotated the auger successively engages arms of the agitator wheel to rotate the agitator wheel. If the agitator wheel encounters an obstruction, such as a mass of agglomerated ice, the auger displaces the flexible arm out of the plane of the agitator wheel thus permitting the auger to continue rotate to deliver ice. The agitator wheel is mounted on a pair of flexible liners, which are displaceable by agglomerated ice.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 14, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 14, 2019
    Assignee: FOLLETT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Matthew James Kessler, Stephen Eugene Rottloff