Blast Chiller For Rapidly Cooling and/or Rapidly Freezing Food, With Improved Probe For Detecting the Temperature Thereof

Abstract

Blast chiller for rapidly cooling and/or rapidly freezing food, which is equipped with a door for closing the opening of an insulated chamber and a probe for detecting the temperature of the food being processed inside the chamber. At least two magnets are envisaged, one being associated with the probe and the other with the inner wall of the door so as to allow the probe to be removably attached to the abovementioned wall of the door.

Description

The present invention relates to a blast chiller for rapidly cooling and/or rapidly freezing food with an improved probe for detecting the temperature thereof.

The blast chiller in question is equipped with a powerful refrigerating system able to produce the rapid freezing or cooling, down to the core, of the food products introduced into its insulated chamber.

In order to check the temperature reached by the food placed inside, modern blast chillers are provided with a temperature detection probe.

This probe is usually composed of a metal rod with a pointed end, for easy insertion into the food when the latter is introduced into the chamber, and a handle made of silicone or other plastic material, so as to allow easy gripping of the probe by the user.

A cable is connected to the handle and is designed to convey the data from the probe to the control unit of the blast chiller.

The probe is supported, when it is not inserted inside the food, by special securing means which are preferably provided on the inner wall of the blast chiller door.

At present, these securing means usually consist of a shaped metal plate which is fixed in a projecting manner onto the inner wall of the door by means of spot welds and provided with holes or seats for removable engagement of the probe.

The securing means which are currently used have in practice proved to be impractical in that they do not allow easy removal and easily positioning of the probe from/onto the wall of the door.

A further drawback arises from the fact that the shaped metal plate fixed to the wall of the blast chiller in order to form the securing means necessarily has several sharp edges and corners which do not allow easy cleaning to be performed and which therefore constitute zones which are difficult to reach and where bacteria may form.

At present, moreover, the blast chillers of the known type envisage that the cable for connecting the probe to the control unit passes through an opening formed in the end wall of the blast chiller. Operationally speaking, this results in the cable interfering frequently with the pans when they are introduced into or removed from the chamber, thus hampering loading or unloading of the food to be processed.

In this situation, the main object of the present invention is to overcome the drawbacks of the art known hitherto by providing a blast chiller for rapidly freezing and/or cooling food, which has an improved temperature detection probe able to be removably positioned on securing means associated with the blast chiller door in an easy and simple manner.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a blast chiller, the probe of which does not hamper the chamber loading and unloading operations.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a blast chiller with an improved probe which is constructionally simple and inexpensive to produce and operationally entirely reliable.

Finally, a further object of the present invention is to provide a blast chiller equipped with a probe which can be mechanically and operationally associated with securing means able to satisfy the most demanding aesthetic requirements.

The technical features of the invention, in accordance with the abovementioned objects, may be clearly determined from the contents of the claims indicated below and the advantages thereof will emerge more clearly from the detailed description which follows, with reference to the accompanying drawings, which show a purely exemplary and non-limiting embodiment thereof and where:

FIG. 1 shows a schematic view of a blast chiller with a probe according to the present invention positioned on the door;

FIG. 2 shows a perspective view of an enlarged detail of the blast chiller, relating to the probe;

FIG. 3 shows a side view of the probe;

FIG. 4 shows a plan view of the probe;

FIGS. 5 and 6 show two cross-sections along the lines V-V and VI-VI in FIG. 4, relating solely to the seat housing the probe.

With reference to the accompanying drawings, 1 denotes in its entirety the blast chiller according to the present invention.

The blast chiller 1 has a supporting structure 2 having a substantially box-like shape with facing side walls L, L′, a front wall A and rear wall P facing each other and a top wall S and bottom wall I facing each other. This latter wall may have support feet.

The supporting structure 2 has, internally, an insulated chamber 4 inside which an access opening removably closed by a door 6 is defined.

The chamber 4 is also defined in a traditional manner by an end wall 5, by a pair of side walls 8, by a ceiling 9 and by a base 10.

The door 6 consists of a panel with a substantially rectangular shape, defined by two walls, i.e. an inner wall 7 which faces, when the door 6 is closed, the end wall 5, and an outer wall 7′, said walls being separated by insulating material 30 for technical insulation of the chamber.

The side surfaces 8 have, formed in them, in an entirely conventional manner, guides for supporting one or more grilles intended to support trays, pans or other containers for the food to be chilled.

The blast chiller 1 also comprises a ventilation unit and a cooling system, which are known per se and do not form the subject of a specific claim and therefore are not described in detail.

The blast chiller 1 is also equipped with a probe 11 for detecting the temperature of the food, comprising a metal rod 12 with a pointed end 13 for easy insertion into the food when the latter is placed inside the chamber 4 of the blast chiller 1, and a handle 14 for easy gripping of the probe 11 by a user, preferably made of silicone or other material suitable for contact with food.

Preferably, the probe has the shape of an L with the rod connected to the handle at an angle designed to allow practical use thereof.

A cable 15 is connected to the handle 14 so as to convey the data detected by the probe 11 to a control unit of the blast chiller 1.

Advantageously the metal rod 12 of the probe 11 has internally an electric resistance operating at low voltage which, in given conditions controlled electronically by the operating logic of the blast chiller, causes heating of the rod 12. In this way, once the food has been frozen, it is possible to extract the probe rod easily without any effort.

The inner wall 7 of the door 6 is provided with securing means 16 for removably supporting the probe 11 when it is not inserted in a food product.

According to the idea forming the basis of the present invention, these securing means 16 comprise a first and a second connecting element which are respectively indicated by M and M′ and are able to be magnetically attracted together.

These elements M, M′ advantageously both consist of magnets, one M of which is associated with the probe 11 while the other one M′ is associated with the inner wall 7 of the door 6.

In more detail, in accordance with the example shown in FIG. 3, the connecting element M′ is fixed to the inner wall 7 of the door on its inner side, thus remaining embedded and immobilized within the insulating material 30.

The magnet M (see FIG. 2) is in turn embedded in plastic material, preferably silicone, which forms the handle 14.

Operationally speaking, the probe 11 is attracted and is easily attached to the door 6 as soon as it is moved towards the wall 7, while it is possible to remove it from its non-operating position by exerting a slight force away from the said part 7.

As a result the probe 11 is able to be taken hold of and repositioned in a particularly quick and easy manner on the wall 7 of the door 6.

Obviously, and without thereby departing from the scope of protection of the present patent, the number of magnets and their arrangement may be of any nature according to requirements (for example two magnets M are envisaged in the probe shown in FIG. 4) and in particular it may be envisaged that the magnet of one connecting element exerts its attractive force both in respect of another magnet and in respect of a ferromagnetic part, whereby the latter may also consist of the same wall or a portion of the same probe.

As can be seen in FIG. 4, the securing means 16 comprise a shaped seat 17 which is formed on the inner wall 7 of the door 6 and obtained by means of a depression or recess in the said wall 7 and which has preferably a portion shaped so as to match a corresponding portion of the probe 11.

For example, the seat 17 may be shaped so as to match the handle 14 and therefore have a wavy form set inside the sheet metal of the wall 7.

Advantageously the abovementioned depression will allow a reduction in the overall dimensions of the probe 11, limiting wholly or partly projection thereof inside the chamber 4 of the blast chiller 1.

In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the connecting cable 15 which conveys the signals detected by the probe to the control unit (the latter is not shown in the accompanying drawings since it is entirely conventional and well-known to a person skilled in the art) passes through a hole 20 formed in the inner wall 7 of the door and therefore is confined between the inner wall 7 and the outer wall 7′ until it enters into the supporting structure 2 of the blast chiller 1 in order to reach the control unit passing inside the bottom pin for supporting and rotating the door 6, inside which a hole is duly formed.

The invention thus conceived therefore achieves the predefined objects.

Obviously, it may also assume in its practical embodiment forms and configurations different from that illustrated above, without thereby departing from the present scope of protection.

Moreover, all the details may be replaced by technically equivalent elements and the forms and the materials used may be of any nature as required.

Claims

1-8. (canceled)

9. Blast chiller for rapidly cooling and/or rapidly freezing food, which comprises:

a supporting structure having internally an insulated chamber provided with an access opening which can be removably closed by means of a door having an outer wall and an inner wall;

a probe for detecting the temperature of food;

securing means provided on the inner wall of the door and able to support removably the probe when it is not inserted in a food product;

wherein the securing means comprise at least one first and one second connecting element capable of magnetically attracting each other, one being associated with the probe and the other one with the inner wall of the door so as to allow the probe to be removably attached to the aforementioned wall of the door.

10. Blast chiller according to claim 9, wherein at least one of the first and second securing elements consists of a magnet.

11. Blast chiller according to claim 9, wherein the securing means comprise a shaped seat formed on the inner wall of the door.

12. Blast chiller according to claim 11, wherein the shaped seat is obtained by means of a depression formed in the inner wall of the door.

13. Blast chiller according to claim 12, wherein the depression has at least one portion substantially shaped so as to match a corresponding portion of the probe.

14. Blast chiller according to claim 9, wherein the first securing element consists of a first magnet embedded within the handle of the probe.

15. Blast chiller according to claim 9, wherein the first securing element consists of a second magnet fixed to the door behind the inner wall.

16. Blast chiller according to claim 9, wherein the probe is connected to a control unit by means of a cable which passes through a hole formed in the inner wall of the door and a pin for supporting and rotating the door with respect to the supporting structure.