Description

Hot bagel automatic vending machine

Background of the Invention

The present invention relates to an automatic vending machine for hot and fresh breaded products, more specifically Greek type bagels and bagels. Vending machines for soft drinks, candy, chips and the like have already been especially successful commercially. However, the use of automatic vending machines for ready meals has been limited to frozen products, such as sandwiches, salads, ready meals and the like.

Automatic vending machines for hot meals consist of a storage and food preservation zone, a fast baking zone (usually a microwave oven) and the dispensing zone. When a microwave oven is used for baking products such as pizza, sandwiches and/or other breaded baked goods, it results in a low quality product as the microwave oven induces condensation during cooking process result-ing in a soft, soggy and moisture filled bread product outcome, in comparison to this innovational vending machine, which uses a thermal resistors oven in which the breaded products keeping their natural taste and freshness. This is the reason why automatic vending machines using a microwave

oven for breaded products have been showing a quite limited commercial activity.

Dispensing time of the final product to the customer is something worth noting for vending machines in general. The dispensing time is fixed for the kind of products dispensed at room temperature or at low refrigeration and frozen temperatures, as the product is dispensed to the customer straight from the storage zone. Nevertheless, in automatic vending machines where the product must be warmed and/or baked prior to being dispensed to the customer, the dispensing time depends on the product and the technology utilized by the automatic vending machine. Said time is of critical importance for the commercial success of these machines. Usually, the total time of a machine cycle (from the moment the order is placed to the dispensing of the product to the customer) should not be more than two minutes.

Some of the patents already published and relating to automatic vending machines are given below:

WO 2005/083645 Al WO 2004/047033 Al

WO 2004/059587 Al

WO 2005/074759 Al

US 5522310

US 5404796 US 5309824

US 5272961

US 5186355

US 5598947

US 5275092

US 5566856 US 4722267

US 4030632

US 3866795

Field of the invention

The hot bagel automatic vending machine is an automatic vending machine which cooks and dispenses hot and fresh bagels to a customer. A drawing of this machine is shown in Fig. IA. The automatic vending machine is divided into three main compartments: the refrigeration zone (Fig. IB-I), the baking zone (Fig. 1B-2) and the dispensing zone (Fig. 1B-3).

The machine consists externally of the peripheral covering parts of the machine which are made of plastic GRP (Fig. 1A-4, 1A-8), a touch screen

(Fig. 1A-5) by means of which the machine's basic functions controlled as well as the placement of an order are carried out by a potential customer, a coin mechanism (Fig. 1A-6) which has a telemetry control, the product dispensing door (Fig. 1A-7) and the support table (Fig. 1A-9) . The refrigeration zone of the machine is constructed of two cylindrical sections, the one of which makes up the door of the machine' s refrigeration

zone (Fig. lA-10) . In order to be able to move the machine through double building doors, it has been designed in such a manner as to be easily disassembled and assembled during transport. The frame and the main body of the machine are made out of stainless steel.

The bagels are stored in the refrigeration zone, 80% prebaked, at 2-4°C. The refrigeration zone has a total capacity of 400 bagels. The bagels are placed into three spirals (Fig. 2A-1) inside the machine's refrigeration zone. These spirals are made out of aluminum and are covered with food approved plastic or they are made of food approved stainless steel. The rotational gradient of each spiral permits the natural, owing to gravity, downward movement of the bagels.

At the end of each spiral there is a powered screw (Fig. 2A-3, Fig. 3) . This screw acts as a controlled dispenser of the bagels to the next phase. The powered screw is activated with every order placed by a potential customer, until a bagel falls into the hopper (Fig. 2A-4) which will lead it to the conveyor belt (Fig. 2A-5) which transports the bagel outside the refrigeration zone and onto the lift for transport to the oven area (Fig. 2A-6 and Fig. 4) .

After that, the lift moves upward and when reaches its upper position it tilts until the bagel is led

inside the oven in the baking zone (Fig. 2A-8 and Fig. 5) . This oven is a device consisting of thermal resistors and a metallic conveyor belt. When the bagel falls from the lift onto the conveyor belt, it is transported inside the oven and baked by means of the thermal resistors. On completion of the baking cycle the bagel is ejected and it falls onto a slide (Fig. 2A-9) by means of gravity, which transports the finished cooked product to the machine' s dispensing zone for collection by the client (Fig. 2A-10).

Brief Description of the Drawings

Fig. IA shows the hot bagel automatic vending machine and external parts thereof.

Fig. IB shows the internal parts of the hot bagel automatic vending machine.

Fig. 2A shows the hot bagel automatic vending machine and the main components of which it is composed.

Fig. 2B shows the basic function of the hot bagel automatic vending machine. Where shown, the bagel

(B) , the powered screw (1) , the bagel dispensers (2, 3), the hopper (4), the lift (L), the conveyor belt (CB) , the thermal resistors oven (O) and the

main areas of the machine (A, B and C) . Also shown the operating sequence of the machine, where each bagel is moved between positions S1-S2-S3-S4-S5- S6-S7-S8-S9-S10, from its original position to its way out from the machine and its delivery to the potential customer.

Fig. 3 shows the powered screw which is situated at the end of each spiral of the machine's refrigeration zone.

Fig. 4 shows the lift of the hot bagel automatic vending machine .

Fig. 5 shows the oven of the hot bagel automatic vending machine.

Fig. 6 shows a hot bagel automatic vending machine with multiple dispensing points.

Fig. 7 shows a hot bagel automatic vending machine with multiple refrigeration zones.

Fig. 8 and Fig. 9 show hot bagel automatic vending machines which can have different arrangements in the refrigeration zone (thus increasing the machine' s capacity) or which can be positioned on a wall.