Abstract:
A series of regularly spaced cylindrical paddles are affixed to a steel strand cable. Each end of the cable is provided with a swaged ball shank which is pivotably received within a nut. The threaded nuts are connected by a threaded screw. The paddles are advanced on the cable through a conduit by a rotatable drive wheel. The system is thus adapted for moving ice cubes and chips. The drive wheel has eight teeth, each of which has a connector trough dimensioned to receive the connector assembly. Each tooth has a leading finger with a drive face which engages a paddle when it is received within a paddle trough defined between neighboring teeth. The drive face has a radially extending wall which engages the disk of the paddle, and a second radially extending wall spaced outwardly from the first which engages the protruding shoulder of the disk, such that the disks are always driven at two spaced locations. Each of the tooth fingers has a peripheral groove which is curved to receive the cable as it extends between paddles. Because the teeth do not drive against the connector, and because the paddles are engaged repeatedly at multiple locations, the wear on the system is minimized.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     STATEMENT AS TO RIGHTS TO INVENTIONS MADE UNDER FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates to conveyors in general, and to devices for advancing fragments of water ice in particular. 
     Wherever meals are served, diners will naturally choose a beverage to accompany their entree. Where the beverage is a carbonated drink, a fruit juice, an ice tea, or other water-based drink, the coolness of the drink increases the satisfaction of the consumer. No matter how cool the drink is at time of dispensing—and most drinks cannot be chilled below 32 degrees Fahrenheit—a few minutes in a room temperature receptacle will cause the liquid to warm noticeably. The answer to maintaining drinks at near-freezing temperatures has been known for centuries—chips or cubes of water ice suspended in the drink will depress the liquid temperature until all the ice is melted. 
     Twentieth century developments in refrigeration have made high-quality, high purity ice chips and ice cubes available year-round in all climates. A highly competitive business environment and an ever-increasing demand for quality service at a reasonable cost has seen the restaurant and food service industry work to deliver cool drinks to customers rapidly and with a minimum of labor. 
     One approach to satisfying this need is to make fountain beverages, fruit juices, and other drinks available to customers at self-service dispensing stations. These stations also provide a customer-operated source of ice chips or cubes. The self-service beverage stations relieve congestion at the cash register, speed up the delivery of beverages to the customer, and allow each consumer to select the ratio of ice to beverage desired. To assist with traffic flows, it would be desirable to place beverage stations in locations remote from the teller or order taker. On the other hand, from a service standpoint, if frequent trips to the beverage station for ice replenishment are required by the restaurant personnel, the beverage station should be located close at hand. 
     By positioning the ice reservoir or ice maker at a location remote from the beverage dispensing stations, both the needs of customer convenience and ease of stocking can be satisfied. The ice dispenser and display disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,267,672, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein, provided a conveyor system using a single looped wire or cable having evenly spaced paddles which advanced ice chips through a cylindrical conduit This system allowed a stockpile of ice to be positioned below the counterfor advancement to and dispensing from above-counter outlets. The conveying chain was driven by a single cog wheel which engaged several paddles at a time and thereby advanced the entire looped chain of paddles as well as the ice engaged by the paddles. However, this system, through many hours of reliable dispensing of ice, induced wear on the cog, the paddles, and the connecting hardware. 
     In addition to requiring ice in beverages procured at a dining facility, consumers may purchase bags of ready-made ice cubes or chips, especially when quantities of ice are required that are not conveniently prepared in a home freezer. Hence many retail outlets will sell bagged ice, either prepared on the premises, or purchased from suppliers. In order to conveniently dispense ice downwardly into containers, the ice must first be elevated above the level of the bags. If the ice is to be elevated by a conveyor, compactness and long-term operation of the conveying system is highly desirable. 
     What is needed is an effective ice conveyor system having extended wear life. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The ice conveyor of this invention has a series of regularly spaced cylindrical paddles which are affixed to a steel strand cable. Each end of the cable is provided with a swaged ball shank which is pivotably received within a nut. The threaded nuts are connected by a threaded screw. The paddles are advanced on the cable through conduit by a rotatable drive wheel. The drive wheel has eight teeth, each of which has a connector trough dimensioned to receive the connector assembly. Each tooth has a leading finger with a drive face which engages a paddle when it is received within a paddle trough defined between neighboring teeth. The drive face has a radially extending wall which engages the disk of the paddle, and a second radially extending wall spaced outwardly from the first which engages the protruding shoulder of the disk, such that the disks are always driven at two spaced locations. Each of the tooth fingers has a peripheral groove which is curved to receive the cable as it extends between paddles. Because the teeth do not drive against the connector, and because the paddles are engaged repeatedly at multiple locations, the wear on the system is minimized. 
     It is an object of the present invention to provide a conveyor for ice chips and cubes which advances ice to a dispensing outlet from an ice reservoir. 
     It is another object of the present invention to provide an ice conveyor of extended wear life. 
     It is a further object of the present invention to provide a drive wheel for an ice conveyor which makes contact with the individual paddles of the conveyor cable with low impact. 
     Further objects, features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 is a fragmentary cross-sectional view of a prior art ice conveying apparatus. 
     FIG. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary cross-sectional view of a drive wheel and cable connector and paddle cable assembly of the apparatus of FIG.  1 . 
     FIG. 3 is a front elevational view of the ice conveying apparatus drive wheel and cable connector and paddle cable assembly of this invention. 
     FIG. 4 is an enlarged fragmentary side elevational view of the apparatus of FIG.  3 . 
     FIG. 5 is an exploded fragmentary isometric view of the cable assembly of FIG. 1 in relationship to the drive wheel. 
     FIG. 6 is a fragmentary side elevational view of an alternative embodiment drive wheel of this invention. 
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     Referring more particularly to FIGS. 1-6, wherein like numbers refer to similar parts, a prior art ice dispensing apparatus  20  is shown in FIGS. 1-2. The apparatus  20  is of the type disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,267,672. The apparatus has a housing  22  which contains an ice chest  24  which is supplied with cube or chip ice  26 . The ice chest  24  is provided with an auger  28  and agitator shaft  30  which advance ice from within the chest to the inlet, not shown, of an ice conduit  32  which extends beneath the chest  24 . The ice conduit  32  describes a loop that extends upwardly from the chest  24  to an overhead run  36  which discharges to one or more gate valve controlled outlets  38 . The overhead run  36  of the conduit  32  loops downwardly to a down run  40  which discharges into a drive wheel box  42 . A return shaft  44  extends between the overhead run  36  of the conduit  32  and the ice chest  26 , at a position ahead of the down run  40 . 
     A rotatable drive wheel  46  is mounted within the drive wheel box  42  and is driven by an electric motor, not shown. The drive wheel  46  is a solid plastic part, fabricated, for example, of HDPE. The drive wheel  46  drives a flexible cable paddle assembly  48  which is disposed in a continuous loop within the conduit  32 . The cable paddle assembly  48  of the prior art apparatus  20  is comprised of a flexible wire strand cable  50  to which plastic paddles  52  have been fixed at regular intervals. The paddles  52  are generally disk shaped having a central generally cylindrical disk  54 , with leading and trailing protruding shoulders  56 . The disk  54  of the prior art paddle  52  has a radiused outer periphery, as shown in FIG.  2 . The two ends  58  of the cable  50  are joined together within a single master paddle  60 . As shown in FIG. 2, the master paddle  60  has two holes  62  extending through the disk, each hole receiving one end of the cable  50 . The cable ends  58  are fixed within the master paddle  60  by screws  64 . This prior art connection can cause the cables to flex near their attachment to the master paddle, causing cold working and possible fatigue fracture of cables. The drive wheel  46  has regularly spaced protruding teeth  66  divided by semicircular U-shaped valleys  68 . Each tooth  66  has a curved groove  70  recessed therein, through which the cable  50  extends as the assembly  48  is turned about the drive wheel  46 . 
     As the drive wheel  46  is rotated, the teeth  66  sequentially engage the paddles  60  at leading tooth bearing faces  72 , thereby advancing the entire cable paddle assembly  48  through the conduit  32 . Ice which falls into the conduit from the ice chest is then engaged by the paddles and driven along the path of the conduit  32  to be either dispensed at an outlet, or returned through the return shaft  44 . Because of the position of the return shaft  44 , no ice is allowed to enter the drive wheel box  42 . 
     In optimal operation, the bearing faces  72  engage only the shoulders  56  of the paddles  52 . Nevertheless, from time to time the paddles may become tilted or canted within the valleys  68 , with the result that the bearing faces engage the disks  54  of the paddles instead of the shoulders. This variation in engagement point can, over time, place undesirable stresses upon the conveying system, tending toward early wear. Moreover, as shown in FIG. 2, the drive wheel drives directly on the master paddle  60  as it cycles through the drive wheel once each revolution of the cable paddle assembly  48 . 
     The ice conveying apparatus  74  of this invention also has an ice chest, a conduit, a return shaft, and ice outlets as in the apparatus of FIG. 1, although in a preferred embodiment, the ice chest does not have an auger  28 , but relies on the agitator shaft  30  alone. However, the apparatus of this invention differs from the device of FIG. 1 in the provision of the cable paddle assembly  76  and the drive wheel  78 . The drive wheel is a single integral piece formed from HDPE plastic. As shown in FIG. 3, the drive wheel  78  has eight complex teeth  80  which protrude radially outwardly from a drive wheel body  82  which is fixed to the drive motor, not shown, to rotate about an axis  84 . 
     Stresses on the cable  86  and individual paddles  88  of the cable paddle assembly  76  are reduced by configuring the teeth  80  to consistently engage both the shoulder  90  and the disk  92  of each paddle. Furthermore, the first end  94  of the cable  86  is connected to the second end  96  of the cable by a cable connector assembly  98  which does not reside within any paddle. Hence, the master paddle is eliminated. All the individual paddles  88  may be identical, and are fixed at regular intervals to the cable  86  by a single set screw  100  per paddle which extends through a threaded opening  102  in the plane of the paddle disk  92 . To better control the position of the paddles  88  as they travel over the teeth of the drive wheel  78 , the outer periphery of each paddle disk  92  is defined by a cylindrical surface  99 , shown in FIG. 4, which extends axially about 0.146 inches of the total disk thickness of about 0.438 inches. The cable  86  may be a conventional stainless-steel strand cable, having a nylon outer covering. For example a ⅛ inch diameter stainless steel cable with 7 bundles of 19 strands, with a nylon sheath having an outer diameter of about {fraction (3/16)} inches. The cable connector assembly  98  engages the two ends  94 ,  96  of the cable  86  to form the cable paddle assembly  76  into a single continuous loop. Moreover, the cable connector assembly retains the flexibility of the cable and minimizes repeated bending forces applied to the cable at the connector. 
     As best shown in FIGS. 3-5, the cable connector assembly has two threaded nuts  104 , which are connected to one another by a threaded screw  106 . The threaded nuts  104  have a cable opening  108  at one end, with the other end opening toward the other nut. The nuts  104  may be machined from conventional acorn nuts, for example {fraction (7/16)} hex nut acorn nuts. The cable opening  108  is machined in the end of the acorn nut, with for example, a countersunk 0.266 diameter hole. The acorn nuts may be of 18-8 stainless steel. The connecting screw  106  may be a conventional socket set screw, 0.750 inches long, {fraction (7/16)} inches in diameter with 20 threads. 
     As shown in FIG. 5, each end of the cable  86  is terminated with a single ball shank swage fitting  110 , which is swaged to the cable end. The fitting  110  has a semi-spherical ball end  112  which permits the fitted cable end to be received within the nut  104 , and allows the end to pivot and rotate in that connection without substantially bending the cable  86  itself. This “ball and socket” type connection reduces the tendency of the cable to fatigue at the end connection. The set screw  106  does not touch the ball ends  112 , and does not interfere with the rotation of the connection. The swage fittings  110  are positioned on the cable ends  58  such that the cable connector assembly  98  is centered between two regularly spaced paddles  88 . For accurate placement of the paddles and the cable connector assembly, the cable paddle assembly  76  is preferably assembled on a fixture. Any slack in the system may be adjusted by moving the drive wheel and attached drive motor within slots on a housing plate. 
     As shown in FIGS. 3-4, the drive wheel  78  is configured to advance the cable paddle assembly  76  by engaging individual paddles  88  while at the same time providing clearance for the connector assembly  98  to avoid direct engagement between the connector assembly and the drive wheel teeth  80 . Each tooth  80  has a leading finger  114  and a trailing finger  116 , with a connector trough  118  defined between the leading finger and the trailing finger. In the illustrated apparatus, the paddles  88  have a diameter of about four inches and a disk thickness of about 0.44 inches, with shoulders  90  which protrude about 0.44 inches from the disk on either side. The paddles  88  are spaced along the cable  86  about 5.5 inches from center to center. The distance from the drive wheel  78  axis  84  to the cable  86  when it is engaged on the drive wheel  78  is about seven inches. The connector trough  118  has a floor  120  which is about 1.4 inches extending circumferentially, and is spaced about 6.5 inches from the axis  84 . As shown in FIG. 5, the leading finger  114  has a curved U-shaped groove  122 , with a floor at a distance of about seven inches from the axis  84 . The trailing finger  116  has a U-shaped groove  124  spaced the same distance from the axis  84 . However, the trailing finger protrudes to a distance of about 7.63 inches from the axis  84 , while the leading finger protrudes to a distance of about 7.38 inches from the axis. The trailing finger  116  has beveled inlet walls  126  which assist in directing the cable  86  into the groove  124 . 
     A paddle trough  128  is defined between the trailing finger  116  of each tooth  80  and the leading finger  114  of a neighboring tooth. The paddle trough  128  has a floor  130  which is spaced approximately 5.3 inches from the axis  84 . The leading finger  114  has a bearing face  132  which faces the paddle trough  128  and which has surfaces which engage a paddle  88  to advance the paddle cable assembly through the conduit. A disk engagement wall  134  extends approximately radially from the paddle trough floor  130 , and is positioned to engage against the disk  92  of a paddle. A first inclined wall  136  extends radially outwardly and away from the disk engagement wall  134 . A radial wall  138  extends radially outwardly from the first inclined wall  136 , and a second inclined wall  140  extends radially outwardly and away from the radial wall  138 . A shoulder engagement wall  142  extends radially outwardly from the second inclined wall  140 . The U-shaped groove  122  extends through the shoulder engagement wall  142 . The shoulder engagement wall  142  is positioned to engage the shoulder  90  of a paddle  88 . The inclined walls  136 ,  140  help to position the paddle  88  within the paddle trough  128  with the disk optimally positioned adjacent the trough floor  130 . 
     In operation, as shown in FIG. 3, the cable paddle assembly  76  turns around about  90  degrees of the drive wheel  78 . At any time, as many as three paddles  88  are in position to be engaged by the leading fingers  114  of the teeth  80 . As the downwardly extending cable paddle assembly  76  approaches the drive wheel, the leading finger of a tooth  80  first engages the paddle  88 . As the drive wheel  78  rotates, the surfaces of the leading finger  114  bearing face  132  engage the beveled edges of the paddle disk  92  and assist the entry of the paddle into the paddle trough  128 , moving from a position in which the cable  86  is tangent to the drive wheel, to a position in which the paddle disk  92  extends along a radial plane which intersects the axis  84 . The greater extension of the trailing finger  116  permits the drive wheel  78  to make contact with the cable  86  sooner, and thereby help to restrict flexing or other misalignment of the cable with respect to the drive wheel. When fully engaged by the wheel  78 , the trailing finger  116  is positioned just ahead of the next paddle  88 . The engagement ef the cable in the grooves of the leading and trailing fingers preferably minimizes the amount and angle of flexing of the cable where it is connected to the paddles, to reduce fatigue to the cable. 
     It will be noted that once in a revolution of the cable paddle assembly  76 , the connector assembly  98  will pass around the drive wheel  78 . When this occurs, the cable connector assembly  98  is received within the cable connector trough  118 . Hence, the drive wheel does not drive directly on the cable connector assembly  98 . 
     An alternative embodiment drive wheel  150  for use with a smaller diameter paddle  152  is shown in FIG.  6 . The paddle  152  may be about 3 inches in diameter. The drive wheel  150  has eight teeth  154  with a leading finger  156  spaced across a connector trough  158  from a trailing finger  160 . The leading finger has an engagement face  162  with a first radially extending wall  164  which extends from the floor  166  of a paddle trough  168 , and which is positioned to engage the disk  170  of the paddle  152 . The disk  170  has a cylindrical peripheral wall  171 . A first inclined wall  172  extends radially and outwardly from the wall  164 , and a second inclined wall  174  extends radially and outwardly from the first inclined wall, and intersects a shoulder engagement wall  176  which extends substantially radially and which serves to drive against the shoulder  178  of the paddle  152 . 
     It is understood that the invention is not limited to the particular construction and arrangement of parts herein illustrated and described, but embraces such modified forms thereof as come within the scope of the following claims.