US3825158A

US3825158A - Cube ice storage bin with disturber bars

Info

Publication number: US3825158A
Application number: US00360951A
Authority: US
Inventors: W Morris
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1973-05-16
Filing date: 1973-05-16
Publication date: 1974-07-23
Anticipated expiration: 1991-07-23
Also published as: CA987276A

Abstract

Ice cube storage apparatus in the form of a storage bin having a feed screw conveyor near the top thereof for delivering ice cubes into the bin, an inclined bottom wall, a discharge conveyor screw and trough adjacent the lowermost part of the inclined bottom for withdrawing the cube ice from the bin, and a plurality of rotatable disturber bars at plural vertically spaced levels above the discharge conveyor to prevent formation of ice bridges above the discharge conveyor and assist in proper delivery of ice cubes from the bin without damaging their cube form.

Description

CUBE ICE STORAGE BEN WITH July 23, 1974 [54] 3,139,222 6/1964 Tihtes 222/330 X DISTURBER BARS 3,187,958 6/1965 Swart 222/238 X [76] Inventor: William Morris 801 Primary ExaminerRobert B. Reeves gfg Ralelgh Assistant Examiner-Larry H. Martin Attorney, Agent, or FirmMason, Fenwick & [22] Filed: May 16, 1973 Lawrence [21] Appl. No.: 360,951

[57] ABSTRACT 52 us. c1. 222/238, 222/413 Ice F apparatus in a wage bin [51] lint. C1 F25c 5/18 havmg a feed screw conveyor near the top thereof for [58] Field 01 Search 222/176, 177, 227, 233, 'gg fi cubes the f 29 222/235, 236, 237, 238, 240, 241, 330, 410, L arge f g F; 411, 412, 413;259/6;198/54 64 t e owermost part 0 t e 11101116 otom or wlt drawlng the cube ice from the bm, and a plurality of [561 21:32::31232213235332:12353111122152; UNITED STATES PATENTS of ice bridges above the discharge conveyor and assist 1,712,235 5/1929 Small 222/227 in o r d liv ry of ice cubes from the bin without 1,745,938 2/1930 Lander 1 222/238 damaging their cube form 3,035,740 5/1962 Burch 222/177 X 3,074,534 1/1963 Thiele 198/64 X 9 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures 11312 ne H 1 1 A w 31 1 3. 3\' x', I 8a 151; a ZGCS 3 C27 2&1 i 2611 ISQ Z26 =1 42 y 22, 2Q

42 K 441 2 f I 4301 1 441, I I I 4210 45 41 1 42 2: '55 4e PATENTEU JUL231974 3,825,188

' SHEEI 1 BF 4 p m mm PATENTEDJUL23I974 3.835.158

sum 3 0r 4 BACKGROUND AND OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates in general to ice cube storage apparatus, and more particularly to storage bin apparatus for use with automatic ice making equipment for receiving cube ice and storing large quantities of the same in an insulated unrefrigerated storage bin to make large stored quantities of ice cubes available for discharge into bags, receptacles, or ice utilizing food processing equipment and the like.

Automatic ice making equipment involving reversible cycle refrigeration systems have gone into wide commercial use. In such systems, ice is produced, usually in the form of an elongated tube or annular cylinder, during the normal refrigeration or freezing phase of the apparatus when condensed liquid refrigerant is evaporated from the evaporator, and the ice is discharged from the evaporator during the defrosting or harvesting phase when hot gaseous refrigerant is delivered directly from the compressor to the evaporator. The elongated tubular or annular cylindrical ice discharged from the evaporator during the harvesting phase is broken up, in part by impact in the trough portion of the ice making apparatus below the evaporators and also by the transporting screw auger which conveys the ice to a discharge location, and may be further broken into desirable sizes by ice breaking and separating machinery of known form. Also, automatic ice making machines have been available which form large sheets of many interconnected ice cubes on approximately vertical mold surfaces of a bank of evaporators. At the conclusion of the freezing cycle of the machine, when the sheets of cube ice have been formed on the evaporator mold surfaces, the machine switches to a harvesting cycle wherein hot gaseous refrigerant is admitted to the evaporators to thaw the forst bond holding the ice sheets to the evaporators, allowing the ice sheets to fall by gravity into a screw conveyor trough where the ice is transported to a discharge outlet. During the free fall of the ice sheets down the rather narrow passages into the trough, impact of portions of the sheets on parts of the machine and impact of the lower portions of the sheets on the trough and on ice already in the trough causes the ice sheet to break up into random size segments of small numbers of ice cubes in each segment. These small random size segments of small numbers of ice cubes are then further broken up into individual plural ice cubes during transportation of the same to a subsequent processing stage or by passing them through a special separating device which subdivide the small sheets into the individual ice cubes.

In both types of devices, the ice making machines have the capacity of producing large quantities of ice rapidly, and it becomes desirable or necessary in many installations to provide for storage of the ice in some kind of storage receptacle or bin, wherein a large mass of the ice cubes or fragments can be maintained in their separate cube or fragment form during storage and can be withdrawn from the storage facility as desired for packaging or for use. One of the particular problems in storing ice cubes or small ice fragments formed by such automatic ice making machines is their tendency to form ice bridges above the ice discharge path along the bottom of the storage facility, and the tendency when conventional conveying devices such as screw conveyors are used for the weight of the mass of ice in the upper portions of the storage chamber above the screw conveyor to bear down on the ice in the conveyor screw and cause grinding of the ice cubes or fragments into still smaller fragments or broken cubes.

It is also desirable in installations where ice cubes or fragment ice are needed in processing of foods, such as for example in poultry processing lines and the like, to have available a unitary installation capable of producing large quantities of cube ice or fragment ice automatically and storing the ice when it is automatically produced so that it is readily available at all times to supply to the food processing lines. It is therefor desirable to have a convenient large storage bin available for cube ice, on which automatic ice making machines can be mounted or adjacent which automatic ice making machines can be stationed to automatically transport the ice cubes being made by the automatic ice making machines to the storage bin so that a substantial quantity of cube ice is immediately available for use in the food processing line.

An object of the present invention, therefore, is the provision of an improved storage bin for cube ice, designed to receive and store cube ice or the like produced by automatic ice making machines during the period following production by and discharge of the ice from the ice making machine until its use or packaging is required, which includes disturber bars within the storage chamber to effect gentle disturbing of the ice cubes so they will not form a bridge blocking descent of cubes into a discharge conveyor zone at the bottom of the storage chamber, while avoiding crushing of the ice cubes to destroy their cube nature.

Another object of the present invention is the provision of an improved storage bin for cube ice, having a discharge screw conveyor in a trough located at the bottom of the storage chamber and an inclined bottom wall declining downwardly to join the discharge conveyor'trough at substantially the level of the top of the screw conveyor flite, together with a plurality of vertically spaced disturber bars which are rotated in the zone above the discharge conveyor trough to prevent the ice cubes from bridging up and forming a solid block or bridge which would disrupt normal migration of the ice cubes downwardly toward the bottom of the storage chamber during operation of the discharge screw conveyor, and wherein the disturber bars are positioned and operated in a manner to create an open area between the disturber bars and bin wall to allow ice cubes to fall freely into the screw conveyor and to shield the ice in the zone immediately above the screw conveyor from some of the weight of the mass of ice above and thereby avoid grinding of the ice cubes as they enter the operating zone of the screw conveyor.

Other objects, advantages and capabilities of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings illustrating a preferred embodiment of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES FIG. 1 is a side elevation view of a cube ice storage bin embodying the present invention, illustrated with a pair of automatic ice making machines surmounted on the top thereof and a cube ice separator and screening apparatus associated therewith;

FIG. 2 is an end elevation view of the cube ice storage bin and associated automatic ice making machines;

FIG. 3 is a vertical transverse section view through the cube ice making machine, taken along the line 33 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is an interrupted longitudinal section view thereof, taken along the line 44 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a detailed section view, to enlarged scale, through one of the disturber bar members, taken along the section line 55 of FIG. 4; and

FIG. 6 is a vertical transverse section view of a modified form of cube ice storage compartment embodying the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring to the drawings, wherein like reference characters designate corresponding parts throughout the several figures, the improved cube ice storage bin of the present invention is indicated generally by the reference character 10 and comprises a large housing 11, which is of rectangular configuration in the illustrated embodiment, for example about 38 feet long by 10 feet wide by 10 feet high, forming a bin having a storage capacity of about 25,00030,000 pounds. The housing 11 includes upper and lower horizontal angle iron frame members 12a and 12b, and horizontal and vertical angle iron

end frame members

13a and 13b at the corners of the rectangular housing, forming a rigid reinforcing frame work for side panels 14a and 14b,

end panels

15a and 15b, and top and

bottom panels

16 and 17. The side and end panels and top and bottom panels preferably have stainless steel sheet innerlinings or skins, as indicated at' 18 in FIG. 3, so that all surfaces which may come in contact with the ice are of stainless steel meeting the sanitary requirements of US. Department of Agriculture. The outer surfaces of the panels at the sides, ends, top and bottom of the housing 11 may be of any material, but also are of stainless steel sheet material in the preferred embodiment, and the inner and outer sheet material liners may be supported in any conventional manner, as by providing wooden studs, foamed urethane or similar spacing and structural supporting materials, providing an insulating space between the inner and outer surface sheets, which may be either air filled or filled with other insulation material. Hinged access doors 19 may be provided at any desired locations along the side and end wall panels to permit access to upper and lower portions of the interior of the housing 11. In the example shown, a pair of access doors 19 are provided in the lower region of the panel 14b in the half of the housing nearest the end panel 15b, and a pair of access doors are provided in the upper region of the panel 14b near the opposite ends of the housing. Also, a hinged access door 19 is provided in the end wall 15a near the lower left hand corner thereof as viewed in FIG. 2, for a purpose to be later described, and an access door may be alined therewith in the opposite end panel 15b. Also, a plurality of access doors may be provided at any desired location in the side panel 14a.

In the installation illustrated in the drawings, the storage bin 10 is supported on vertical supporting columns 20 to space the bottom panel 17 at a selected height above the level of the floor of the building in which the storage bin is located, and a unitary ice making and storage installation is provided by supporting a pair of automatic cube ice making machines 21a and 21h on top of the housing 11, preferably as a side-by-side pair located, for example, over the approximately twothirds of the width of the housing 11 nearest the panel 14a, or to the left as viewed in FIG. 2, with the discharge ends of the cube ice making machines, preferably defined by the outlet end of a screw conveyor trough 22 incorporated in each of the ice making machines, projecting slightly outwardly from the end panel 15a of the housing. The cube ice making machines 2la and 21b employed in the illustrated embodiment may be of the type disclosed in my earlier patent application Ser. No. 303,037 filed Nov. 2, 1972, now US. Pat. No. 3,766,744 entitled CUBE ICE MAKING MACHINE AND METHOD, or of the type disclosed in earlier US. Pat. No. 3,280,585 granted to C. E. Lowe and entitled ICE MAKING REFRIGERATION APPARATUS, although it will be understood that other types of automatic cube ice making machines, or known types of refrigeration machines for making fragmented ice may be employed, or the ice making equipment may be entirely separated physically from the ice storage bin and the ice transported or conveyed to the bin in any desired manner for storage in the bin. In the illustrated embodiment, the two automatic

cube ice machines

21a and 21b are supported on transversely extending I-beams 23 extending across the top of the housing 11, supporting the cube ice machines and also supporting suitable decking 24 flanking both sides of the ice making machines and one end of the machines to permit servicing, maintenance and ready access to the machines. The discharge ends of the screw conveyor troughs 22 of the cube ice making machines, in the preferred embodiment, both open into a common hopper 25, which is of generally V-shaped configuration having downwardly converging sides 25a narrowing the width of the hopper down to a narrow bottom discharge opening 25b which opens into the top of a feed screw conveyor trough 26 of generally U- shaped vertical cross-section. The feed conveyor trough 26 in the illustrated embodiment projects about 3 /2 feet outwardly beyond the end of the housing 11 and opens through the upper portion of the end panel 15a generally in the rear half of the interior of the housing nearest the side wall 14a. The feed conveyor trough 26 is preferably of stainless steel sheet metal construction, having a semi-cylindrical lower wall portion concentric with the axis of a screw conveyor 27 rotatable within the trough and driven by an electric motor 28 mounted, for example, on the top wall portion of the feed conveyor trough near its outermost end. In the preferred embodiment, the semi-cylindrical bottom wall portion of the feed conveyor trough midway along its exposed portion is provided with small sized openings, or a large opening covered by a screen or cage having small sized openings therein, appropriate to pass any small fragments of ice of predetermined smaller size than cube size, generally referred to as fines into a fine ice chute 29 for packaging of the fines or conveyance of the fines to another processing location.

The interior of the housing 11 is formed into an ice storage chamber 30 having an inclined bottom wall, indicated at 31 spanning the full length of the housing 11 between the

end walls

15a and 15b and extending from the rear wall 14a from an intermediate location along the height of the wall, and extending in an inclined plane directed downwardly approximately to the lower edge of the front side wall 14b and joining an upwardly opening discharge conveyor trough 32 of upwardly opening U-shaped configuration immediately adjacent the lower end portion of the front wall 14b. The inclined bottom wall 31 also preferably has its inner surface formed of stainless steel sheet metal 31a supported, for example, on plywood panels 33a which are in turn supported on longitudinal inclined wooden joist members 33b and vertical bracing timbers 330. The inclined bottom wall 31 may typically be disposed at an angle of about 22 to 25 to the horizontal.

The discharge conveyor trough 32 is also formed of sheet metal, preferably stainless steel, formed in an upwardly opening U-shaped cross-section providing a semi-cylindrical curved lower wall portion which is concentric with the axis of the conveyor screw 34 of conventional construction having its end portions journaled in conventional bearings, one of which may be mounted in the end panel b and the other in the end wall of the end portion of the discharge conveyor trough 32 which projects outwardly from the housing end panel 15a in a manner similar to the projecting end portion of the feed conveyor trough 26. The discharge conveyor screw 34, in the preferred embodiment, is driven by an electric motor 35 mounted on the projecting end portion of the screw conveyor trough 22 and coupled to an end of the conveyor screw 34 by a belt and pulley drive 35a. It will be noted from FIGS. 3 and 4 that the uppermost level of the helical flites 34a of the screw conveyor 34 is immediately at or just below the horizontal plane of the top of the screw conveyor trough 32 at the line of transition between the bottom of the inclined lower wall 31 of the storage chamber and the U-shaped screw conveyor trough 22.

it is recognized that difficulties are presented by a storage unit for cube ice or like material where a screw conveyor may be provided in the bottom in order to avoid grinding up or damaging the ice cubes from their cube form, since the screw conveyor is working in a zone where the weight of the mass of ice stored in the storage chamber 30 is bearing down on the rotating upper portions of the screw conveyor flites tending to crush the ice cubes in the zone at the upper portions of the discharge conveyor trough against the surfaces of the screw conveyor flites. Also problems are presented when the ice cubes tend to form bridges of ice between the vertical wall 14b and the confronting lower portions of the inclined bottom wall 31 in the zone just above the open top of the screw conveyor trough 22, disrupting or disturbing uniform feed of the ice cubes into the discharge conveyor trough 32 and sometimes preventing discharge of ice into the discharge conveyor. To alleviate this problem, a series of vertically alined,'driven disturber bars which span the entire length of the housing between the

opposite end panels

15a and 15b are journaled in suitable bearings 41 in the end panels. In the illustrated embodiment, four of such disturber bars 40 are shown, each of which includes a central shaft 42 journaled in the bearings 41, with one end of each of the disturber bar shafts 42 projecting through a corresponding one of the end panels, for example the end panel 15a. Each of the projecting end portions of the disturber bar shafts 42, except for the shaft for the bottommost disturber bar, havea pair of

sprockets

43a and 43b fixed thereon and the lowermost disturber bar being rotated in the same direction and at the same time. The sprocket 43a of the uppermost disturber bar shaft is of larger diameter than the remaining sprockets 43a and is coupled by a drive chain 45a with a sprocket on the end of drive motor 45 mounted on the top of the housing or on a platform supported from the housing.

Hoods

46, 47 and 48 may be provided to cover the chain 45a and sprockets coupled therewith, and to cover the belt and

pulley drives

28a and 35a, and spaced vertical shields 49 may be provided to cover the vertical runs of the

drive chains

44a and 44b to protect personnel against injury.

The disturber bars 40, in the preferred example, are

formed simply of a pair of U-shaped channel members 50, formed for example from extruded channel members having a web which is 6 inches wide between the opposite outer corners and about 2 inch flanges, with the channels being about one-half inch thick and being welded in confronting relation about a 5 inch diameter center shaft to define a substantially square crosssection disturber bar having sides each of which are about 6 inches wide. Alternatively, the disturber bars can each be formed of a pair of angle iron members having flanges which are, for example, 6 inches wide and one-half inch thick, welded against opposite sides of a center shaft which is about 5 inches in diameter to provide the square cross-section disturber bar configuration. In one satisfactoryexample, the disturber bars are driven at a speed of about 2 to 3 rpm.

It will be observed from FIG. 4 that the conveyor screw for the feed conveyor trough 26 extends the full length of the storage bin, and is supported, for example, at a plurality of locations along the axial length thereof by hanger bearings depending from the top wall of the housing 11 and journalling the shaft of the feed screw conveyor, with the helical flites being interrupted in the immediate region of the hanger bearings. The conveyor trough walls for the feed conveyor 26, is interrupted at a plurality of locations along the length of the conveyor screw, for example at the locations of the hanger bearings,to provide interrupted sections 26a, 26b and 26c in the illustrated example, with the section 26c terminating a selected distance from the opposite end panel 15b, to facilitate distribution of the ice cubes throughout the length of the storage bin. If desired, additional cutouts or discharge openings may be formed in the feed trough sections, at spaced intervals along the length of each section, to provide additional discharge openings for the ice. Also, a bin level control sensor 51 of conventional construction may be provided at appropriate height in one of the end panels, for example the end panel 15b, to operate an electrical circuit for automatically terminating operation of the feed conveyor screw 27 when the level of ice in the storage compartment reaches a preselected level at that end of bin and to prevent further production and conveyance of ice to the storage compartment until the ice level is lowered above the location of the bin level control. Al-

ternatively, the bin level control may be located a selected distance below the level of the feed conveyor 26, and may operate circuitry to activate the ice making machines to produce ice and activate the feed conveyor mechanism to supply further cube ice to the storage compartment whenever the ice level drops to a preselected level immediately below the bin level controls so as to automatically reinstitute the ice producing cycles to maintain a suitable quantity of ice stored in the bin. The ice level sensor forming the active component of the bin level control 51 may be a rod journaled in the end wall of the housing having a vane or contact member which is gravity urged to a normal position and which is displaced by contact with ice in the storage compartment to a second position, together with electrical contacts for opening and closing selected circuits depending upon the position of the rod, or the rod may take the form of a simple gravity switch which is normally urged to one position when not in contact with ice and which is displaced by contact with ice in the storage compartment to a displaced position, together with associated electrical contacts.

The cube ice withdrawn from the storage compartment 30 through the discharge conveyor trough 32 to its discharge outlet 32a may be collected and used in any desired manner. One example of the use thereof is to dispose a cube ice separating and screening device, indicated generally by the reference character 53 such as is disclosed in my co-pending patent application Ser. No. 360,613, now US. Pat. No. 3,788,566, entitled CUBE ICE SEPARATOR AND SCREENING APPA- RATUS, so as to dispose its inlet hopper 53a immediately above the discharge conveyor outlet 32a of the storage bin to receive the discharged ice from the storage bin, insure the separation of the ice cubes into individual cubes during transport of the inclined conveyor section 53b, and discharge the cube ice into a conventional bagging machine indicated at 54 for transport of bagged cube ice to vending lockers and storage lockers at commercial establishments. Where larger storage capacity is desired than that which is conveniently obtainable in a storage bin of the configuration illustrated in FIGS. 1 through 4, a larger capacity storage bin 60 of the general configuration illustrated in FIG. 6, having a single discharge screw conveyor 61 in a U-shaped trough formation 62 alined with the longitudinal center plane of the storage bin and flanked by a pair of downwardly converging inclined bottom walls 63a and 63b similar to the single bottom wall 31. The two halves of the storage compartment 60a within the bin 60 lying to the opposite sides of the longitudinal vertical center plane may be fed with ice by screw conveyors at the top similar to the feed conveyor 26 of the first described embodiment, located near the outer side walls 64a and 64b in the upper regions thereof, and two sets of vertically spaced disturber bars, indicated at 65a and 65b similar to the disturber bars 40 of the previously described embodiment are located along a pair of vertical planes spaced laterally from each other and alined vertically approximately with the opposite vertical side wall portions of the discharge conveyor trough 62. The two sets of

disturber bars

65a and 65b may be driven in the same manner as the disturber bars 40 of the previously described embodiment by similar chain and sprocket drive trains. Further, even larger capacity units may be formed of a plurality of modules similar to the bin construction indicated at 60 in FIG. 6, by assembling a plurality of such modules in laterally adjoining relation and eliminating the portions of the side walls 640 and 64b of the modules in the region above the inclined bottom walls where the sides of the two modules adjoin each other.

When the cube ice storage bin is employed with automatic ice making machines of the type disclosed in my said earlier application Ser. No. 303,037 which produce cube ice in a manner such that some small sheet segments of interconnected cubes may be delivered into the hopper 25 for transfer to the storage bin, it may be desirable to employ a cube ice separating and screening cage and associated screw conveyor of the type disclosed in may said application entitled CUBE ICE SEPARATOR AND SCREENING APPARATUS, in association with the feed conveyor 26 at the inlet to the storage bin. In this case, the ice at the lower discharge end of the feed hopper 25 is delivered to a cage of rods, similar to that indicated by reference character 22 in said last mentioned patent application, over which the ice is distributed by a screw conveyor operating to move the ice generally outwardly or to the right as viewed in FIG. 4, and the screw conveyor 26 includes a portion underlying and coextensive with the screw conveyor above the rod cage to receive the ice cubes and convey them through the associated trough into the storage bin. A plurality of rods, such as the rods forming the fines screening opening 33 disclosed in my said last mentioned patent application, forms the opening through which the fines are discharged into the fines chute 29.

The arrangment of disturber bars in two vertical columns or planes generally alined with the two side walls of the bottom discharge conveyor trough, as generally illustrated in FIG. 5, may be employed in a storage bin of other configuration, such as a cylindrical bin having a circular cross-section with the lower discharge conveyor trough and the upper feed conveyor trough both alined with the vertical center plane of the cylindrical storage bin.

It will be apparent that with the construction illus trated, wherein the uppermost level of the helical flites of the discharge screw conveyor or conveyors is located below the level of the top of the discharge screw conveyor trough, and the disturber bars, preferably of substantially rectangular cross-section, span the axial length of the storage compartment and are rotatably driven to continuously rotate about their axes at a plurality of spaced locations in the zone above the discharge conveyor trough, the disturber bars share the weight or downward force of some of the mass of ice cubes in the Zone above the discharge conveyor, reliev ing the ice which comes into immediate contact with the discharge conveyor fiites from most of the crushing force of the stored mass of ice thereabove, to minimize crushing, flaking and breaking up of the ice cubes from their cube form, while the rotation of the disturber bars and their location gently agitate the ice cubes in the region where bridges of ice would be most likely to form resulting in disturbing normal feeding of ice into the operative zone of the discharge conveyor, so as to minimize the formation of bridges and insure uniform proper feed of cube ice into the working zone of the discharge conveyor.

What is claimed is:

l. A cube ice storage bin for storing large quantities of cube ice and similar small ice formations during periods between production of the ice cubes and discharge of the ice cubes to a further processing or use station, comprising an elongated bin housing having vertical side and end walls and top and bottom walls defining an ice storage enclosure, the bottom wall having a portion extending along a downwardly sloping plane from a horizontal line of intersection with one of the side walls substantially midway along its height declining downwardly toward the opposite side wall, means defining an elongated upwardly opening discharge trough of U-shaped cross-section defining a concave semicircular bottom and two upper sides extending the longitudinal length of the housing and projecting out wardly through one end thereof having a discharge outlet, a driven continuous conveyor screw having a helical flite in said trough for transporting the cube ice which enters said trough to said discharge outlet, said trough having an upper trough edge of one side thereof joining the lower edge of said sloping bottom wall and said trough being of sufficient depth to locate the uppermost level of the conveyor screw flite below the level of said upper trough edge, and a plurality of rotatably driven disturber bars of substantially square crosssection each formed of four flat elongated faces at right angles to' each other free of outwardly extending projections protruding beyond said faces said bars being disposed along parallel horizontal vertically spaced axes in a vertical plane through the trough and paralleling the conveyor screw axis, drive means for rotating said disturber bars at very slow speed independently of said conveyor screw, and said disturber bars being located in the zone vertically overlying the trough and having a vertical spacing from each other close enough to dislodge all cube ice in the region of said zone without grinding or damage to the ice cubes whereby the disturber bars gently agitate the cube ice in the region lying vertically above the trough over the full length thereof to prevent formation of ice bridges overlying the trough which may block gravitational feed of cube ice downwardly into the trough and divert from the ice immediately at the open top of the trough some of the weight load of the mass of stored ice thereabove.

2. A cube ice storage bin as defined in claim 1, wherein the other upper side of said trough is immediately adjacent the other of the side walls of said housing located at the bottom thereof, said disturber bars lying in a vertical plane spaced from said other side wall and substantially centered over the center axis of the conveyor screw therein.

3; A cube ice storage bin as defined in claim 1, wherein said square cross-section disturber bars are formed of a central cylindrical shaft and a pair of U- shaped flanged channel member fixed to said shaft in substantially enclosing relation thereto with the flanges of each channel member extending toward the flanges of the companion channel member.

4. A cube ice storage bin as defined in claim 1, including a feed screw conveyor trough of U-shaped cross-section in the upper region of the storage enclosure substantially spanning the length thereof and extending externally of the housing having an external inlet opening, a driven feed conveyor screw in said trough for feeding ice from said inlet opening along the length of the feed conveyor trough, and the trough having spaced interruptions along the length thereof to distribute ice discharged through the interruptions along the length of the enclosure.

5. A cube ice storage bin as defined in claim 2, including a feed screw conveyor trough of U-shaped cross-section in the upper region of the storage enclosure substantially spanning the length thereof and extending externally of the housing having an external inlet opening, a driven feed conveyor screw in said trough for feeding ice from said inlet opening along the length of the feed conveyor trough, and the trough having spaced interruptions along the length thereof to distribute ice discharged through the interruptions along the length of the enclosure.

6. A cube ice storage bin as defined in claim 3, including a feed screw conveyor trough of U-shaped cross-section in the upper region of the storage enclosure substantially spanning the length thereof and extending externally of the housing having an external inlet opening, a driven feed conveyor screw in said trough for feeding ice from said inlet opening along the length of the feed conveyor trough, and the trough having spaced interruptions along the length thereof to distribute ice discharged through the interruptions along the length of the enclosure.

7. A cube ice storage bin as defined in claim 1, wherein said bottom wall includes a second sloping bottom wall section declining along an inclined plane which extends in downwardly converging relation toward said discharge trough relative to the firstmentioned sloping bottom wall portion from the level of said line of intersection to the upper edge of the other side of said trough, and said disturber bars being arranged in a first vertical row lying in a vertical plane located near one side of said trough and a second vertical row lying in a vertical plane near the other side of said trough.

8. A cube ice storage bin as defined in claim 7, wherein said square cross-section disturbor bars are formed of a central cylindrical shaft and a pair of U- shaped flanged channel members fixed to said shaft in substantially enclosing relation thereto with the flanges of each channel member extending toward the flanges of the companion channel member.

9. A cube ice storage bin as defined in claim 7, including a feed screw conveyor trough of U-shaped cross-section in the upper region of the storage enclosure substantially spanning the length thereof and extending externally of the housing having an external inlet opening, a driven feed conveyor screw in said trough for feeding ice from said inlet opening along the length of the feed conveyor trough, and the trough having spaced interruptions along the length thereof to distribute ice discharged through the interruptions along the length of the enclosure.

Claims

1. A cube ice storage bin for storing large quantities of cube ice and similar small ice formations during periods between production of the ice cubes and discharge of the ice cubes to a further processing or use station, comprising an elongated bin housing having vertical side and end walls and top and bottom walls defining an ice storage enclosure, the bottom wall having a portion extending along a downwardly sloping plane from a horizontal line of intersection with one of the side walls substantially midway along its height declining downwardly toward the opposite side wall, means defining an elongated upwardly opening discharge trough of U-shaped cross-section defining a concave semi-circular bottom and two upper sides extending the longitudinal length of the housing and projecting outwardly through one end thereof having a discharge outlet, a driven continuous conveyor screw having a helical flite in said trough for transporting the cube ice which enters said trough to said discharge outlet, said trough having an upper trough edge of one side thereof joining the lower edge of said sloping bottom wall and said trough being of sufficient depth to locate the uppermost level of the conveyor screw flite below the level of said upper trough edge, and a plurality of rotatably driven disturber bars of substantially square cross-section each formed of four flat elongated faces at right angles to each other free of outwardly extending projections protruding beyond said faces said bars being disposed along parallel horizontal vertically spaced axes in a vertical plane through the trough and paralleling the conveyor screw axis, drive means for rotating said disturber bars at very slow speed independently of said conveyor screw, and said disturber bars being located in the zone vertically overlying the trough and having a vertical spacing from each other close enough to dislodge all cube ice in the region of said zone without grinding or damage to the ice cubes whereby the disturber bars gently agitate the cube ice in the region lying vertically above the trough over the full length thereof to prevent formation of ice bridges overlying the trough which may block gravitational feed of cube ice downwardly into the trough and divert from the ice immediately at the open top of the trough some of the weight load of the mass of stored ice thereabove.

3. A cube ice storage bin as defined in claim 1, wherein said square cross-section disturber bars are formed of a central cylindrical shaft and a pair of U-shaped flanged channel member fixed to said shaft in substantially enclosing relation thereto with the flanges of each channel member extending toward the flanges of the companion channel member.

7. A cube ice storage bin as defined in claim 1, wherein said bottom wall includes a second sloping bottom wall section declining along an inclined plane which extends in downwardly converging relation toward said discharge trough relative to the first-mentioned sloping bottom wall portion from the level of said line of intersection to the upper edge of the other side of said trough, and said disturber bars being arranged in a first vertical row lying in a vertical plane located near one side of said trough and a second vertical row lying in a vertical plane near the other side of said trough.

8. A cube ice storage bin as defined in claim 7, wherein said square cross-section disturbor bars are formed of a central cylindrical shaft and a pair of U-shaped flanged channel members fixed to said shaft in substantially enclosing relation thereto with the flanges of each channel member extending toward the flanges of the companion channel member.