The present invention refers to an improved refrigerated exhibitor for prepared ice-creams contained in cups. Refrigerated exhibitors are known in the art, which are aimed to store food products at temperatures higher than 0°C: examples of such exhibitors are disclosed in KR-A-0169137 , EP-A- 0958766, EP-A-0571331, DE-A-3203903, DE-A-2310903, FR-A-1515531, DE-A-1554653, US-A-3314250, US-A- 2932955, GB-A-803048.

In particular, to facilitate the sale of artisan-made ice-creams exhibited in cups and aimed for preparing cones or small cups, refrigerated exhibitors are known, which are commonly called "scooping display cabinets": to guarantee scooping of ice-creams, it is known that such exhibitors, usually equipped with a front glass, must keep, inside the exhibiting room, a temperature lower than 0 ⁰ C: moreover, given the different compositions and consistencies of the different types of ice-creams, it would be desirable that the exhibiting room were divided into different ranges of temperatures inside which the respective types of ice-creams can be arranged.

Clearly, for such types of exhibitors, the quality of visibility of the exhibited products is an extremely important feature, suitable to invite and facilitate their choice by a purchaser. In general, the prior art substantially proposes two different types of refrigerated exhibitors for ice-creams in cups. A first type provides for a static operation, in which the refrigerating system is equipped with a rear evaporator and a front evaporator arranged inside the exhibiting room of ice-cream cups above the cups themselves, in such a way that these latter ones are subjected to flows of air cooled by the evaporators, exploiting a convection motion in cascade: though this type of exhibitors has evident advantages in terms of reduced consumptions of electric power, since a reduced amount of air is taken from the outside environment and there are no fans for the forced movement of air flows inside the exhibiting room, and there is a low production of brine on the evaporator, it has a reduced visibility of the ice-creams contained therein, due to the presence of one or more front evaporators, necessarily arranged above the product exhibition line. Therefore, this constructive type, with a standard visibility test, namely placing a point of view of an observer having a height H = 1550 mm at a distance D = 1000 mm from the exhibitor, provides a visual angle normally included between 3° and 5°. The second type instead provides for a ventilated operation, in which the refrigerating system is equipped with one or more evaporators of a winged type, placed below the cups and with a system of fans aimed to convey the flows of cold air from the evaporator, so that they touch on the upper part the cups, creating forced motions of cold air. Though this type of exhibitors has an improved ice-cream visibility with respect to previous static exhibitors, on the order of 6° - 10°, since the exhibitor position is not constraining and it is possible to place the cups higher inside the exhibiting room, it requires a complex defrosting system and the use of heated glasses and has high consumptions of electric current due to the operation of the fans and the glass heating system.

Therefore, object of the present invention is solving the above prior art problems by providing an improved refrigerated exhibitor for prepared ice-creams, with static operation equipped with at least one rear evaporator that allows obtaining a high product visibility, approximately of the same order of magnitude of the one given by prior art vented exhibitors . Another object of the present invention is providing an improved refrigerated exhibitor for prepared ice-creams, with static operation equipped with at least one rear evaporator for the proposed type of section of exhibiting room that allows obtaining a reduced consumption of electric energy, comparable with the consumption of prior art static exhibitors.

The above and other objects and advantages of the invention, as will appear from the following description, are obtained with an improved refrigerated exhibitor for prepared ice-creams in cup, as claimed in claim 1. Preferred embodiment and non-trivial variations of the present invention are the subject matter of the dependent claims. It will be immediately obvious that numerous variations and modifications (for example related to shape, sizes, arrangements and parts with equivalent functionality) can be made to what is described, without departing from the scope of the invention as appears from the enclosed claims.

The present invention will be better described by some preferred embodiments thereof, provided as a non-limiting example, with reference to the enclosed drawings, in which: - Figure 1 shows a front view of a preferred embodiment of the improved refrigerated exhibitor according to the present invention;

Figure 2 shows a sectional view along section line A-A in Figure 1 of the improved refrigerated exhibitor according to the present invention;

Figure 3 shows an enlarged view of the part of the improved refrigerated exhibitor according to the present invention contained in box B of FIG. 2; and - Figure 4 schematically shows the improved refrigerated exhibitor according to the present invention during a standard visibility test.

For briefness, herein below obviously the descriptions will be omitted of all parts and components which are common with other refrigerated exhibitors and necessary for the basic operation of the exhibitor itself, that are anyway deemed as widely known in the art, such as, for example, electric supply systems, air conditioning systems, systems for compressing and channelling refrigerating gases, etc., to describe instead in detail the aspects and components that characterised the improved refrigerated exhibitor according to the present invention. With reference to the Figures, it is possible to note that the improved refrigerated exhibitor 1 according to the present invention, aimed for storing and exhibiting for sale ice-creams in cups at temperatures lower than 0 ⁰ C, comprises at least one exhibiting room 3 inside which at least one cup 5 is arranged, containing inside it ice-cream (obviously, the cups 5 can be a plurality, each one containing a different taste of ice-cream) , and at least one refrigerating system, of a substantially known type, comprising at least one evaporator 7, preferably of a substantially known winged type, rearward arranged inside such exhibiting room 3, such cups 5 being supported by at least one supporting plane 9, such supporting plane 9 and such cup 5 being arranged inside the exhibiting room 3 in order to divide a flow of cooled air F coming from the evaporator 7 into at least one lower flow F ₁ passing below the supporting plane 9 and at least one upper flow F _s passing above the cup 5, the lower flow F ₁ and the upper flow F ₃ defining at least one range of temperatures increasing from bottom to top and from the rear part to the front part of the exhibiting room 3, inside which the cup 5 resides. In particular, in order to allow dividing the flow F into the lower flow F ₁ and the upper flow F ₃ , between the supporting plane 9, and its related cup 5, and the evaporator 7, at least one dividing opening 11 is arranged, through which the lower flow F ₁ flows, while the upper flow F ₃ touches the upper surface of the cup 5, and obviously its contents. Preferably, between the supporting plane 9, and its related cup 5, and the front wall 13 of the evaporator 1, at least one opening 15 is arranged for the convective rise of the lower flow F ₁ as at least one return flow F _R ; advantageously, therefore, the suitable positioning of the supporting plane 9, and its related cup 5, inside the exhibiting room 3 allows naturally creating two flows of cooled air F ₁ and F ₃ and, by exploiting the natural convective motions of air, taking in a convective way the lower flow F ₁ to rise from the front part through the rising opening 15 as return flow F _R in order to cool, also on the front part, the cups 5, making a sort of "virtual" front evaporator as replacement of a proper evaporator, advantageously absent in the refrigerated exhibitor 1 according to the present invention. Moreover, the front wall 13 is obviously surmounted by at least one front exhibiting glass 17, preferably not heated, such glass being advantageously, but not exclusively, made of at least one multi-layer glass, in order to minimise the addition of front heat and maximise the efficiency of the virtual front evaporator.

Possibly, the exhibitor 1 according to the present invention can be equipped with foamed pipes 22 immersed into the structure of the exhibitor 1 itself, preferably inside the front wall 13 and/or the rear wall 16 below the evaporator 7.

Preferably, the supporting plane 9 is frontward slanted towards the front wall 13: in this way, it is possible to place the cups 5 within the range of temperatures defined by the lower flow F ₁ and by the upper flow F _s more homogeneously.

Obviously, the supporting plane 9 could be equipped with means for adjusting the slanting (not shown) in such a way as to change such slanting and position the cup 5 in the most suitable way within the range of temperatures depending on the types of ice-cream and the preferable temperature at which it remains exhibited.

The absence of a front evaporator in the refrigerated exhibitor 1 according to the present invention further allows positioning the supporting plane 9, and consequently the cups 5, at a higher position with respect to traditional prior art static exhibitors, increasing the product visibility without the need of exploiting a ventilated operation: in fact, with reference, in particular, to Figure 4, it is possible to note that, by subjecting the refrigerated exhibitor 1 according to the present invention to a standard visibility test, therefore by placing a point of view V of an observer O having a height H = 1550 mm at a distance D = 1000 mm from the exhibitor 1, a visual angle α (about 10°) is obtained, similar or better than the one in vented glasses. The absence of a front evaporator placed on over the exhibiting line further allows providing the exhibiting room 3 of the exhibitor 1 according to the present invention with reduced sizes for the proposed type exhibiting room; such advantage allows making, for example below the exhibiting room 3 itself by interposing at least one insulating wall 19, at least one standby chamber 21 suitable for storing the cups 5 when they are not exhibited: it is known that the standby chamber 21, inside which ice-creams are kept under storage, must have an internal temperature lower than the one of the exhibiting room 3, inside which icecreams must instead be shown as suitably malleable and adapted to be spooled to allow their sale: in order to practically and economically obtain such two different ranges of temperatures, the refrigerating system of the exhibitor 1 according to the present invention could comprise at least two different compressors and their related circuits, a first compressor (not shown) being adapted to supply the rear evaporator 7 of the exhibiting room and a second compressor (not shown) being adapted to supply at least one evaporator placed inside the standby chamber 21 or at least one possible evaporator or foamed pipes 23 in contact with at least one surface of the standby chamber 21.

The refrigerated exhibitor 1 according to the present invention therefore allows obtaining simultaneously the advantages both of exhibitors of the static type and of exhibitors of the vented type, showing a high product visibility, reduced production costs and electric consumptions due to the absence of a front evaporator and the absence of brine formations on the glass.