Patent ID: 6626085
Filing Date: 2003-09-30
Classification: A47J

Abstract:
In a grinder assembly for grinding a food ingredient and having a frame, a protective housing mounted to the frame, a grinding chamber containing at least one powered grinding member mounted to the frame within the housing, the improvement being a removable hopper assembly, comprising:a removable ingredient hopper for holding ingredient to be ground, said ingredient hopper having an open top for receipt of ingredient to be ground, a bottom with an electronically controllable hopper outlet opening for controlled passage of the ingredient into the grinding chamber, and opposite hopper sides extending between the open top and the outlet opening; an electronic hopper outlet control assembly for selectively controlling closure of the hopper outlet; and a tool-less removable mounting assembly for releasably mounting the hopper to the frame and within the housing and in tool-less releasable operative engagement with the electronic control assembly to enable manual, tool-less removal of the hopper from the frame to without the housing, whereby the controlled hopper is readily manually removable from the housing for hopper replacement, ingredient reloading or cleaning without the need for tools to disconnect the hopper from the electronic control assembly.