Patent ID: 6453803
Filing Date: 2002-09-24
Classification: A23G

Abstract:
A soft ice cream manufacture and dispensing apparatus for charging a flow of a cooled and semi-hardened soft fluid ice cream mix discharged from a discharge nozzle into a cup together with another fluid material so that the discharge shape is maintained as much as possible, the apparatus comprising:a plunger disposed in a passage provided with a discharge nozzle in one end and through which the semi-hardened soft ice cream mix passes, said plunger including a tip end surface for engagement/disengagement with respect to said discharge nozzle to open/close said passage; and an adding device for one of continuously or intermittently adding a fluid material substantially not containing said soft ice cream mix and having a fluidity of substantially the same degree as that of said semi-hardened soft ice cream mix to the soft ice cream flow passing immediately before said discharge nozzle or through the discharge nozzle, said adding device comprising: an addition nozzle for adding the fluid material in the vicinity of the inner wall surface of the discharge nozzle through which the semi-hardened soft ice cream mix flow passes; a deformable container for containing said fluid material connected to said addition nozzle by a tube; and a pressing member for pressing said container to directly maintain the fluid material in said tube under pressure at all times so as to push out a predetermined amount of said fluid material through the tube to the addition nozzle during all of the time that said discharge nozzle is open.