Rotating chamber for food freezer

Disclosed is an assembly which can be inserted into an existing food freezer or which can be built into the freezer. It includes upper and lower supporting jackets which enclose a cylindrical stainless steel basket journalled to rotate on a horizontal axis. Spaced curved walls within the cylindrical basket divide its interior into a plurality of curved, cylindrical segment-shaped chambers. Each chamber has an individual lid or closure and the basket may be rotated to place the selected chamber uppermost and its interior accessible. The curved sidewalls of the chambers permit the closures to be lowered into and fastened within the chambers to prevent articles in a partially filled chamber from tumbling as the basket is rotated.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
In domestic food freezers, particularly chest-type freezers, a persistent 
problem has been the difficulty in locating a specific package of frozen 
food (a particular cut or variety of wrapped meat, for example) in a full 
or semifull freezer. If the desired package is deep within the freezer, 
overlying packages must be removed by hand, a distinctly uncomfortable 
exercise, until the desired article is accessible. Cooling loss, and hence 
energy loss, is inherent in this method of retrieving particular articles 
from the freezer since the freezer closure must be kept open during the 
hand sorting of the articles. 
Prior art attempts at solution to this problem have included use of 
circular racks rotatable upon a vertical axis, in lazy-susan fashion, 
within a refrigerator (U.S. Pat. No. 2,680,668). A cylindrical basket, 
divided into cylindrical segments, rotated on a horizontal axis has been 
used in wine cooling (U.S. Pat. No. 2,447,602), however, in thses prior 
art structures, no provision is made for arresting the tumbling of 
articles in a partially full segment or chamber as horizontal axis 
rotation proceeds. 
The present invention utilizes a horizontal, cylindrical basket, divided by 
curving walls into segmental chambers, and utilizes hinged closures for 
each chamber. The curved configuration of the chamber sidewalls permits 
the closures to swing inwardly and be fastened in their chambers to thus 
hold articles from tumbling within a partially filled chamber during 
rotation of the basket. The assembly of the present invention may be 
inserted into an existing freezer or can be incorporated into a freezer 
designed specifically to receive the assembly.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
Referring initially to FIG. 1, there is shown schematically at 10 a 
conventional chest-type food freezer (the lid having been omitted for 
clarity) having a rectangular food storage compartment 11 and a 
fast-freeze compartment 12. 
The apparatus of the present invention comprises an upper mounting jacket 
13, a lower mounting jacket 14 and a cylindrical housing or drum 16. The 
jackets 13 and 14 are rectangular in configuration, have cut-out end 
portions, and are sized to fit within the food storage compartment 11. The 
housing 16 fits within the mounting jackets and is formed by circular end 
plates 17 and 18 between which extend stainless steel rods 19. 
As will be evident from FIGS. 2 and 5, the rods 19 are parallel and are 
grouped so as to divide the cylindrical housing into a plurality of 
chambers 21 (FIG. 2) of generally cylindrical segmental configuration. The 
lines of intersection of the groups of rods 19 with the end plates 17 and 
18 are uniformly curved for a purpose which will be explained subsequently 
with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5. While circular end plates 17 and 18 are 
shown as solid discs, it will be understood that areas between the 
groupings of rods 19 (defining the ends of chambers 21) might be provided 
with cut-out areas closed by mesh screening to facilitate air circulation 
through the cylindrical housing. 
Each of the end plates 17 and 18 is provided with a series of apertures 22 
adjacent its periphery, each aperture being generally centered over one of 
the segmental chambers 21. The cylindrical housing 16 is adapted to turn 
on a horizontal axis and to accomplish this, each of the end plates has a 
stub shaft 23 extending outwardly from its surface. The shafts 23 are 
journalled in cut-out bearing areas 24 (FIG. 1) in the opposite ends of 
the lower supporting jacket 14, the shafts being locked in the bearing 
areas by the overlying upper support jacket 13. 
On the inner surface of one end of the support jacket 13 there is mounted 
an upwardly extending resilient blade 26, the upper, free end of the blade 
being visible in FIG. 1 and shown in detail in FIG. 3. Intermediate its 
ends the blade carries a pin 26a which fits within the registering one of 
the apertures 22, latching the cylindrical housing against rotation. The 
blade is inset in the jacket 16 so that the pin may be removed from 
aperture 22 by finger pressing the free end of the blade leftwardly, as 
viewed in FIG. 3, thereby releasing the housing 16 for incremental 
rotation. 
Each of the segmental chambers is closed by a lid or closure hinged to the 
cylindrical housing. As may best be seen in FIG. 4, each closure is formed 
of longitudinal wires or rods 27 and spaced transverse wires 28. One end, 
27a, of each of the wires 27 is looped loosely around the upper wire 19 of 
the group forming the left side, as viewed in FIG. 4, of the indicated 
segmental chamber 21. This forms a hinge for the closure. The other ends 
27b of the wires 27 are looped around a transverse wire 31 which is 
provided with an offset portion 31a intermediate its ends. A torsion 
spring 32 is anchored at one end to the wire 31, encircles a portion of 
the wire, and is anchored at its other end on the adjacent wire 27. The 
torsional force exerted by spring 32 urges the offset portion 31a 
downwardly, as viewed in FIG. 4, against the underlying transverse member 
28. 
The ends of the wire 31 are bent forwardly, at 31b, and upwardly, as 
indicated at 31c, adjacent the uppermost member 19 of the group forming 
the right side (as viewed in FIGS. 4 and 5) of the indicated segmental 
chamber 21. 
As will be evident from FIGS. 4 and 5, the chamber 21 may be opened, at its 
top, by lifting the offset portion 31a against the bias of spring 32. This 
rotates wire 31 to lower its portion 31c to its broken line position of 
FIG. 5 so that the closure may clear the adjacent wire 19 and swing 
upwardly about the hinge formed at its opposite end. With the offset 
portion 31a in raised position, the closure may be lowered into the 
chamber 21 and locked on the appropriate wire 19, alternate, lowered 
positions of the closure being indicated by broken lines 41 and 42 in FIG. 
5. It will be noted that in these lowered positions of the closure, it may 
be made to rest against the articles in a partially filled segmental 
chamber. Fastening the closure in the selected one of these inward 
positions holds the freezer contents against tumbling in the chambers as 
the cylindrical housing is rotated about its horizontal axis. 
The ability of the chamber closures to swing inwardly to selected, inward 
positions results from the curved arrangement of the groups of transverse 
wires 19 making up the sidewalls of the segmental chambers 21. The wires 
19, in each group, present a curved contour which corresponds generally to 
the arc through which the free ends of wires 27 pass as the closure is 
pivoted at the wire ends 27a about appropriate uppermost wire 19 to move 
the closure through positions 41 and 42 of FIG. 5. The closure can thus be 
lowered into chamber 21 as required, a closure motion not possible if the 
groups of wires 19 extended in radial, rectilinear contour. This curved 
contour of the chamber walls is thus an important feature of the present 
invention. The upper support jacket 13 (FIG. 1) may, if desired, be 
provided with members 29 which extend parallel to the cylindrical housing 
16 just above the curved surface of the housing. These provide additional 
shelf or bin space for articles which are not placed in the housing 16. 
In operation, articles in the segmental chambers 21 may be individually 
removed by releasing the catch 26 and rotating cylinder 16 until the 
selected chamber is uppermost. The closure for this chamber may then be 
loosened, by manipulation of the element 31a on the closure, and the 
closure pivoted upwardly to give access to the chamber. After removal of 
the desired articles, the closure may be moved downwardly until it engages 
the uppermost of the articles remaining in the chamber and refastened. The 
cylinder 16 may then be rotated to advance a further selected one of the 
chambers 21 into uppermost, accessible position if further withdrawal of 
articles from the housing 16 is to occur. 
FIG. 6 schematically shown the apparatus in place in a freezer designed 
particularly to accommodate it. Here the cylindrical housing 36 may be 
journalled in the freezer sidewalls and a motor drive 37 may be provided 
for the housing. 
While the invention has been illustrated and described in detail in the 
drawings and foregoing description, the same is to be considered as 
illustrative and not restrictive in character, it being understood that 
only the preferred embodiments have been shown and described and that all 
changes and modifications that come within the spirit of the invention are 
desired to be protected.