Abstract:
An extrusion head where continuous formation of crushed ice has uniquely shaped externally protruding bosses that break ice into uniformly shaped pieces. The extrusion head has no moving parts and is easily retrofitted onto existing screw-type continuous crushed ice making machines.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates to a modified extrusion head for use in a crushed ice machine. It includes modified bosses that break rods of ice into smaller pieces of a pre-determined size. Large and small bosses are shaped differently so as to break ice rods up into chunks. The larger bosses flange outward at the top of the extrusion head while the smaller bosses do not extend to the top of the head. 
     2. Prior Art 
     Crushed ice is a highly desired commodity especially in the restaurant and convenient store businesses. Large volumes of ice are used daily by both of these industries as well as others. As a result, many different designs have been developed for crushed ice making machines capable of forming crushed ice rapidly and continuously. 
     U.S. Pat. No. 4,429,551, issued on Feb. 7, 1984 to Hizume discloses an extrusion head for an auger type icemaker whose bosses extend downward over the topmost portion of the auger. The design is intended to prevent choking of crushed ice that is pushed up over the top of the extrusion head. It contemplates the use of standard methods for breaking the ice down into smaller pieces. It does not contemplate modifying the upper end of the bosses to break up the ice without use of additional structural features. 
     U.S. Pat. No. 4,467,622, issued on Aug. 28, 1984 to Takahashi et al. discloses an extrusion head specifically designed to form shaved ice of superior quality. The channels of the extrusion head formed by its bosses each contain a small slit or channel that allows air to escape from the ice. This prevents excessive cooling of the ice and forms harder shaved ice particles. This patent also contemplates the use of a standard method of breaking the ice bars into shaved ice chips. It does not suggest that changing the shape of the upward end of the bosses may improve the breaking of the ice bars into crushed ice. 
     U.S. Pat. No. 4,741,173, issued on May 3, 1988 to Neumann discloses an extrusion head having modified fins or bosses designed to prevent the ice column from rotating within the extrusion apparatus. As with the above two patents, it contemplates the use of an angled surface to impinge upon emerging ice bars to break up the ice. While the angled surface shown in this patent is intended to rotate, the mechanism operates in the same manner. It does not suggest the modifications made in the present invention. 
     U.S. Pat. No. 5,109,679 issued on May 5, 1992 to Hida discloses an auger type ice making machine having multiple blades above the extrusion head for breaking the ice rods into shaved ice pieces. The blades are adjustable so that the size of the shaved ice pieces may be readily adjusted. While this patent does illustrate a new, alternative method of breaking the ice rods into pieces of ice, its method is vastly different than that of the present invention. As with other ice breaking devices, the blades rotate at the same speed as the auger and the size of the ice pieces is adjusted by adjusting the distance between the blades. It does not suggest that modifying the bosses about the extrusion head could create an alternative method of breaking the ice rods. 
     U.S. Pat. No. 5,197,300 issued on Mar. 30, 1993 to Sakamoto et al. discloses an auger type ice making machine. The patent is apparently developed by Hoshizaki, one of the manufacturers you named for us. The device disclosed in this patent has an extrusion head that bobs, or oscillates, in an up and down motion. It is intended to convey some of the load applied to the extrusion head by the auger to a cam device located above the extrusion head. As with much of the prior art, it contemplates only the use of an annular flange to break the ice rods into smaller pieces of ice. 
     U.S. Pat. No. 5,460,014 issued on Oct. 24, 1995 to Wang discloses an auger type ice making machine that has a unique auger-within-an-auger design. As with the other patents uncovered in the search, this patent only contemplates the use of an annular flange to break apart the ice rods. The novelty of this patent lies in increasing the efficiency of heat transfer from the water to the FREON coolant. 
     U.S. Pat. No. 5,911,749 issued on Jun. 15, 1999 to Sugie discloses an auger-type ice maker. This patent is also owned by the Hoshizaki company. The patent discloses a specially designed boss for the formation of ice forming channels about the extrusion head. The lower end of the boss is curved in such a way as to prevent over compression of the ice. This reduces the back load on the auger, thereby increasing efficiency of the machine. It does not disclose any novel methods of breaking the ice rods or ice bars into smaller pieces of ice. 
     The extrusion head shown in the above patents all divide a tubular sheet of ice into a series of ice rods that are then broken up into smaller pieces of ice by various devices above the extrusion head. Some of these devices are complicated and require multiple moving parts. Other devices are stationary but do not break the ice rods into uniform pieces of crushed ice. Relatively long pieces of the ice rods may remain in tact. This results in an inferior crushed ice product. 
     It is therefore desirable to provide means of continuously producing crushed ice having a minimum number of moving parts. 
     It is also desirable to provide a method of continuously producing crushed ice in which the crushed ice pieces are uniform in size. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention provides a modified crushed ice extrusion head for a screw-type crushed ice machine. Existing ice machines may be easily retrofitted with the improved extrusion head. The extrusion head is cylindrical and has a series of externally protruding longitudinal bosses. The bosses alternate between wide bosses and narrow bosses. The wide bosses flange out to each side at the top portion of the extrusion head. The narrower bosses do not extend the entire length of the extrusion head cylinder. The short and narrow bosses work with the flanged portion of the wide bosses to bend the ice rods such that the break into pieces of a uniform size. 
     It is also possible for the bosses to all be of equal size so long as the upward ends have the proper configuration. The channels through which the ice rods are pushed has a bottom created by a cylindrical body of the extrusion head. Two walls are created by the bosses on either side of the channels. On one side of the upper end of the channel, the boss does not extend all the way to the top of the cylindrical body of the extrusion head. On the other side of the channel, the boss flanges slightly inward into the channel. It is the flange on one side of the channel combined with a shortened wall on the other side of the channel that causes the ice rod to break. The resulting ice pieces have a width equivalent to the width of the channel, a depth equivalent to the depth of the channel which is equivalent to the distance the bosses protrude from the cylindrical body of the extrusion head and have a length equivalent to the distance from the top of the extrusion head to the end of the shortened boss. 
     It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a crushed ice extrusion head that does not have any moving parts and separates ice rods into uniformly shaped pieces of crushed ice. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  shows a perspective view of the preferred embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 2  shows a side view of the preferred embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 3  shows a top plan view of the embodiment of  FIG. 1 . 
         FIG. 4  shows a bottom plan view of the embodiment of  FIG. 1 . 
         FIG. 5  shows an environmental view of the embodiment of  FIG. 1 . 
         FIG. 6  shows an alternative embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 7  shows an alternative embodiment of the present invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     The embodiments discussed herein are merely illustrative of specific manners in which to make and use the invention and are not to be interpreted as limiting the scope of the instant invention. 
     While the invention has been described with a certain degree of particularity, it is to be noted that many modifications may be made in the details of the invention&#39;s construction and the arrangement of its components without departing from the spirit and scope of this disclosure. It is understood that the invention is not limited to the embodiments set forth herein for purposes of exemplification. 
     The extrusion head of the present invention is very similar to those of the prior art. Some of the significant differences lie in the design of the bosses that form the channels through which ice is forced by the auger below the extrusion head. These modified bosses automatically break up the ice rods formed in the channels. While the prior art produces crushed or flake ice of various sizes, the present invention efficiently breaks the ice rods into uniformly shaped pieces that are the same size. No moving parts are required to accomplish this. In addition, the preferred embodiment creates only a minimal and insubstantial amount of back pressure. 
     In one embodiment alternating wide and narrow bosses protrude from the cylindrical body of the extrusion head. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that this is a common design among crushed and flaked ice extrusion heads. The larger bosses extend the entire length of the cylinder while the smaller bosses extend up to the top of the cylinder but begin with a pointed edge slightly above the bottom of the cylinder. In the present invention the smaller bosses do not extend to the top of the cylinder. In addition, the wide bosses flange outwardly at the top most end. 
       FIG. 1  shows a preferred embodiment of the present invention. Extrusion head  10  is comprised of a cylinder  14  that has a bottom  15  and a top  17 . Running longitudinally along the cylinder are wide bosses  12  and narrow bosses  16 . These form channels  18  and  19  through which rods of ice pass. The ends  24  of narrow bosses  16  do not extend to the top of the cylinder  17 . The ends  22  of wide bosses  12  flange outward slightly. Wide bosses  12  also have attachment hole  20  into which a bolt is inserted to hold the extrusion head in place in the crushed ice making machine. In this embodiment, ends  22  of bosses  12  flange outwardly in a gentle, curved manner. This slight curving prevents any significant back pressure on ice rods as they move through channels  18  and  19 . 
     Channels  18  and  19  are mirror images of one another. As can be seen, the boss  12  on the left side of channel  19  flanges in a manner such that it protrudes slightly into the left side of the top of channel  19 . Because it is shortened, the right wall formed by boss  16  of channel  19  comes to an end before the left side formed by boss  12 . Channel  18  has a symmetric, mirror image design of channel  19 . In channel  18 , the right side of the channel is formed by boss  12  that encroaches slightly upon channel  18  at the top of the extrusion head. Similarly, shortened boss  16  means that the left wall of channel  18  ends prematurely. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that regardless of which side of the channel encroaches slightly into the channel at the top of the extrusion head and which side of the channel ends prematurely is immaterial so long as there is one of each. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the invention will not work if both sides of the channel encroach upon the inside of the channel, such as top end  22  of boss  12 . In fact, such a design would cause back pressure and would be ineffective and undesirable. If both sides of the channel are shortened such as bosses  16 , they will have substantially no effect on the ice rods and they will extend out of the extrusion head without having been broken into smaller pieces. Those skilled in the art will also appreciate that it makes no difference whether it is wide or narrow bosses that make up the various sides of the channels. For example, it is equally effective to have the wide bosses shortened so that they do not extend to the top end of the cylindrical body of the extrusion head while the narrow bosses extend all the way to the top of the extrusion head and flange outwardly so that they encroach upon the respective channels. 
       FIG. 2  shows a side view of extrusion head  10 . The outwardly flanging end of wide bosses  12  can be seen. Ends  24  of narrow bosses  16  can also be seen to not extend to the top  17  of cylinder  14 . The distance  25  between the ends  24  of narrow boss  16  and the top of cylinder  17  determines the size of the crushed or flaked ice pieces. 
       FIGS. 3 and 4  show a top down and bottom up view of the extrusion head respectively. In this particular embodiment, there are four wide bosses  12  and four narrow bosses  16  that alternate around the exterior cylinder  14 . This results in eight channels  18  and  19 . Those skilled in the art will appreciate that more or less channels may be formed by changing the number of bosses. With the design of this embodiment, any number of channels may be formed so long as narrow bosses  16  and wide bosses  12  alternate. 
       FIG. 5  shows the extrusion head of the present invention in use in a crushed or flaked ice making machine. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that this is a typical screw or auger-type ice making machine. Extrusion head  10  rests above and on top of auger  32 . Sleeve  28  fits snugly around extrusion head  10  and auger  32 . Water is fed into ice making chamber  33 . Sleeve  28  is surrounded by a cooling device (not shown). Auger  32  turns, and as ice is formed within chamber  33 , thread  34  pushes it upward into the channels of the extrusion head. The ice forms ice rods  36 . As the top of ice rods  40  come into contact with the flanged tops  22  of wide bosses  12 , they are broken up into crushed or flaked ice pieces  38 . Ice pieces  38  are approximately as wide as the channels  18  and  19  and as long as the distance between the end  24  of narrow bosses  16  and the top of the extrusion head  17 . No substantial back pressure is created by this design. Furthermore, extended rods of ice do not escape from the extrusion head and all are divided up into crushed ice of a uniform size. The size of the crushed or flaked ice pieces can be changed by changing the distance between end  24  of narrow bosses  16  and the top of the extrusion head  17 . As will be understood by those skilled in the art, the extrusion head of the present invention may readily be inserted into existing crushed ice machines. Such retrofitted machines will have fewer parts that must be maintained, cleaned and replaced. 
       FIG. 6  is an alternative embodiment of the present invention. Extrusion head  50  is comprised of a cylinder  52  having wide bosses  54  and narrow bosses  58 . Narrow bosses  58  are substantially similar to those of the embodiment described in  FIGS. 1 through 5 . End  60  does not go all the way to the top of the cylinder  52 . Extrusion head  50  differs from that disclosed in  FIGS. 1 through 5  having tops  56  of wide bosses  54 . Tops  56  flange outwardly but in an angular, rather than curved fashion. This achieves the same effect as the design disclosed in  FIGS. 1 through 5 . 
     Generally, however, extrusion head  10  is preferred over extrusion head  50 . The angular nature of the ends  56  of bosses  54  tends to create slightly more back pressure than the curved flanged ends of extrusion head  10 . Furthermore, ends  56  have more pressure exerted upon them by emerging ice rods and are therefore subject to more and faster wear. Extrusion head  50  is intended to show that the flanging portion of the wide bosses does not specifically have to be curved. As long as the tops of the wide bosses encroach or extend into the channels to an extent and the narrow bosses do not extend all the way to the top of the extrusion head, crushed ice is sufficiently and uniformly formed. 
       FIG. 7  shows another alternative embodiment of the present invention. Extrusion head  70  consists of a cylindrical extrusion head body  72  having a top  74  and a bottom  76 . In this embodiment, bosses  78  have an asymmetric design. In the embodiment shown in  FIGS. 1 through 6 , the bosses are designed to create symmetric, mirror image channels. An even number of bosses are required for this design. The design of  FIG. 7  allows either an odd or even number of bosses to be utilized. This increases the number of types of crushed or flaked ice machines that may be retrofitted with the present invention. 
     Bosses  78  have a modified top end  86 . Top ends  86  are comprised of two parts, flanged portion  82  and shortened portion  84 . The bosses form several channels  80 . There are as many channels  80  as there are bosses  78 . At the top end of channels  80 , the right side of the channel ends early as shortened end  84  of the boss does not extend all the way to the top  74  of the extrusion head. On the other side of the channel, flanged portion  82  partially encroaches into channel  80 . Those skilled in the art will appreciate that this has the same effect as the alternating bosses shown in  FIGS. 1 through 6 . This embodiment illustrates how one of the key aspects of the invention is the asymmetry of the channels. At the upper portion of the extrusion head, one side of the channel ends before reaching the top of the extrusion head while the other side of the channel encroaches slightly at the top of the extrusion head. The pieces of ice formed have a depth equal to the distance which the bosses extend from the cylinder  72 , a width equal to the width of the channels  80  and a length equal to the distance between the point at which boss end portion  84  ends and the end of the extrusion head  74 . The latter distance is shown as distance  88 . 
     Whereas, the present invention has been described in relation to the drawings attached hereto, it should be understood that other and further modifications, apart from those shown or suggested herein, may be made within the spirit and scope of this invention.