Abstract: A dispensing machine mixing device has a base fastenable to the chassis of a dispensing machine, a bearing in the base, a shaft rotatably mounted in the bearing, a shaft seal on the front of the base, a mixing impeller on the front of the shaft and to the front of the seal, and a reduced size housing secured to the base; the housing has an integral tubular wall holding the seal to the base and defining the circumference of a mixing chamber within which is the impeller, a front end wall, a mixed fluid outlet from the bottom of and to the front of the mixing chamber, a fluid inlet conduit generally on the axis of rotation of the impeller, and a funnel to the front of the mixing chamber and above the inlet conduit; a common wall portion forms part of both the funnel and the mixing chamber wall, and part of a lower funnel wall forms part of the inlet conduit and is exposed to the mixing chamber; the inlet conduit to the mixing chamber expands in cross-section toward the mixing chamber.

Abstract: A mixing and dispensing machine for combining fluid diluent and concentrate has a concentrate dispenser, a diluent line, a mixing device having a rotatable mixing impeller and into which the dispenser and diluent line direct ingredients, a single electric motor for driving both of the concentrate dispenser and the mixing device, a reduction gear box connecting the motor to the concentrate dispenser with a slip coupling, and a coupling connecting the motor directly to the mixing device; the coupling is an elongate tube of elastomeric material having a mass greater than the combined mass of the mixing impeller and its shaft and serves as a flywheel, dampener, thermal isolator and electrical isolator between the motor and the mixing device.