Abstrict This merchandiser (10) with horizontal air curtain includes an
insulated product compartment (11) having an open access top (20);
an evaporator compartment (22) for cooling air supplied from a fan
compartment (26) and an air circulation system (25) having an upper
outlet (40) at one side of the product compartment (11), an upper
inlet at the other side of the product compartment disposed across
from the outlet (40) and air circulation passages (30) and (32)
communicating between the inlet (42) and the fan compartment (26).
The outlet (40) discharges air from the evaporator compartment (22)
into the return air inlet (42) and the inlet (42) returns air to
the fan compartment (26) to provide a continuous air curtain for
protecting the product compartment (11) from the incursion of ambient
air so that the product (B) is maintained in a cool condition. The
product compartment (11) includes a holding rack (48) adapted to
hold single depth rows of partitioned vertical columns of bottles
(B).
Claims I claim:
1. A merchandiser with horizontal air curtain comprising: an insulated
product compartment having an open access top and including a front
wall, a rear wall, apposed end walls and a bottom wall, the distance
between the front and rear walls being sufficiently short to accommodate
only a single depth row of containers and being substantially less
than the distance between the access opening and the bottom wall;
an evaporator compartment having a compressor therein; a compressor
compartment having a compressor therein, supplying refrigerant to
the evaporator; a fan compartment having a fan therein and communicating
with the evaporator compartment; and air circulation means having
an upper outlet at one side of the product compartment communicating
with the evaporator compartment and an upper inlet at the other
side of the product compartment across from the upper outlet and
an air circulation passage having opposed ends one end communicating
with the inlet and the other end communicating with the fan compartment;
the outlet discharging cool air from the evaporator compartment
into the inlet to provide a constant stream of circulating air across
the top of the product compartment when the fan is operating sufficient
to provide an air curtain insulating the product compartment from
ambient air and maintaining the product in a cool condition with
minimum heat loss due to the relatively short distance between the
inlet and outlet defining de air curtain as compared to the height
of the product compartment.
2. A merchandiser as defined in claim 1, wherein: the distance
between the front and rear walls being about one half of the distance
between the access opening and the bottom wall.
3. A merchandiser as defined in claim 1, wherein: the distance
between the front and rear walls is about one half of the distance
between the end walls.
4. A merchandiser as defined in claim 1, wherein: the evaporation
compartment communicates with the product compartment and includes
a vertical panel adjacent the rear wall having a plurality of vents
defining the upper outlet.
5. A merchandiser as defined in claim 1, wherein: the air circulation
passage includes a vertical panel disposed adjacent the front wall
and having a plurality of perforations defining the upper inlet.
6. A merchandiser as defined in claim 5, wherein: the air circulation
passage includes a horizontal panel disposed adjacent the bottom
wall.
7. A merchandiser as defined in claim 1, wherein: a product holding
rack adapted to receive bottle containers is disposed in said insulated
product compartment including a plurality of vertical partitions
extending substantially from the bottom wall to the access opening.
8. A merchandiser as defined in claim 7, wherein: said vertical
partitions are provided by grills held in spring biased relation
within said product compartment.
9. A merchandiser as defined in claim 7, wherein: said product
holding rack includes an inclined grill for holding bottle containers
in inclined relation within said product compartment.
10. A merchandiser as defined in claim 7, wherein: said product
holding rack includes a vertical U-shaped grill disposed adjacent
said rear wall and having an opening providing access to said fan
compartment.
11. A merchandiser as defined in claim 1, wherein: a product holding
rack is disposed in said insulated product compartment adapted to
hold a plurality of vertical columns of bottles in single depth
rows inclined to the horizontal to facilitate customer removal.
12. A merchandiser with horizontal air curtain comprising: a front
wall, rear wall, opposed ends and a bottom wall defining an insulated
beverage compartment having an open access top an evaporator compartment
defined in part by a panel adjacent the rear wall and having an
evaportator therein, said panel having a plurality of upper vents
for discharging a horizontal stream of cooled air across the beverage
compartment; a compressor compartment having a compressor therein
supply refrigerant to the evaporator; a fan compartment disposed
below and communicating with the evaporator compartment and having
a fan therein; a bottom air circulation passage disposed below the
fan compartment defined in pert by a panel disposed adjacent the
bottom wall and communicating with the fan compartment; and a front
air circulation passage defined in part by a panel disposed adjacent
the front wall and communicating with the bottom passage; said panel
having a plurality of perforations at the upper end disposed across
from the rear wall vents and sized to receive air from said vents
to provide a constant stream of circulating air when the fan is
operating to insulate the beverage compartment from ambient air;
and a product holding rack is disposed in said insulated product
compartment adapted to hold a plurality of vertical columns of bottles
in single depth rows inclined to the horizontal to facilitate customer
removal. Description BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates generally to refrigerator units for food
and beverage product of the type known as merchandisers, and particularly
to a merchandiser of a convenient small size having a horizontal
air curtain for maintaining the product at a desired temperature.
Refrigerator units having a storage cabinet have been used in supermarkets
and other public facilities for many years. Such units are usually
provided with a sliding cover which must be opened to access frozen
product stored within the cabinet. Alternatively, units having an
open top are known which provide a layer of cold air on the product.
Such units, which provide direct access to the product are revealed
in U.S. Pat. No. 2,446,686 and U.S. Pat. No. 2,463,104.
An early system which provides a cooling cycle and a defrost cycle
is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,425,236 which discloses a refrigerating
system with an air control system which passes air over the top
of product as part of a cooling cycle and returns air as part of
a defrost cycle using an air by-pass system.
A later development is that known as an air curtain refrigerated
unit which is represented by U.S. Pat. No. 5,675,983. This patent
discloses a refrigerated case having an upper display for food products
at a temperature above freezing and a lower display for products
at a temperature below freezing. The upper display is maintained
in a cool condition by a vertical airstream; the lower display is
maintained in a cold condition by an air stream projected across
the access opening.
None of the units described in the reference patents is intended
to provide easy access to a beverage container of relatively small
size which maintains product at a temperature above freezing with
easy access to the consumer.
The present merchandiser air curtain system overcomes these problems
in a manner not revealed in the known prior art.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This merchandiser is arranged to provide a horizontal air curtain
which passes over the product to maintain the product in a cool
but not frozen condition. The relatively small size unit has an
open top which provides ready access to customers who can reach
into the merchandiser and retrieve product without discomfort since
product is maintained in a cooled rather than a frozen condition
and the air curtain is maintained at a suitable temperature to avoid
discomfort to a customer reaching through it.
This merchandiser with horizontal air curtain comprises an insulated
product compartment having an open access top; an evaporator compartment
having an evaporator therein; a compressor compartment having a
compressor therein, supplying refrigerant to the evaporator; and
a fan compartment having a fan therein and communicating with the
evaporator compartment. An air circulation means is provided having
an upper discharge outlet at one side of the product compartment
communicating with the evaporator compartment and an upper return
inlet at the other side of the product compartment across from the
upper outlet and an air circulation passage. The air circulation
passage has opposed ends, one end communicating with the inlet and
the other end communicating with the fan compartment. The outlet
discharges cool air from the evaporator compartment into the return
inlet to provide a constant stream of circulating air across the
top of the product compartment when the fan is operating, sufficient
to provide an air curtain insulating the product compartment from
ambient air and maintain the product in a cool condition.
It is an aspect of the invention to provide that the product compartment
includes a front wall, a rear wall, opposed end walls and a bottom
wall, the distance between the front and rear walls being substantially
less than the distance between the end walls. It is another aspect
of this invention to provide that the distance between the front
and rear walls is about one half of the distance between the end
walls.
It is yet another aspect of the invention to provide that the evaporation
compartment includes a vertical panel adjacent the rear wall having
a plurality of vents defining the upper outlet.
It is still another aspect of the invention to provide that the
air circulation passage includes a vertical panel disposed adjacent
the front wall and having a plurality of perforations defining the
upper inlet.
It is another aspect of the invention to provide that the air circulation
passage includes a horizontal panel disposed adjacent the bottom
wall.
It is an aspect of this invention to provide that a product holding
rack adapted to receive bottle containers is disposed in said insulated
product compartment including a plurality of vertical partitions.
It is another aspect of the invention to provide that the vertical
partitions are provided by grills held in spring biased relation
within said product compartment.
It is yet another aspect of the invention to provide that the product
holding rack includes an inclined grill for holding bottle containers
in inclined relation within said product compartment.
It is still another aspect of the invention to provide that the
product holding rack includes a vertical U-shaped grill disposed
adjacent said rear wall and having an opening providing access to
said fan compartment.
It is an aspect of the invention to provide that a product holding
rack is disposed in said insulated product compartment adapted to
hold a plurality of vertical columns of bottles in single depth
rows inclined to the horizontal to facilitate customer removal.
This horizontal air curtain merchandiser is relatively simple to
manufacture, easy to maintain and replenish and efficient in operation.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the merchandiser;
FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken on Line 2--2 of FIG. 1 showing
the merchandiser unloaded;
FIG. 3 is a similar view to FIG. 2 showing the merchandiser loaded
with beverage containers;
FIG. 4 is a front elevational view of the merchandiser;
FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view showing the beverage support rack;
FIG. 6 is a longitudinal section taken on Line 6--6 of FIG. 5;
and
FIG. 7 is a fragmentary view taken on Line 7--7 of FIG. 5.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
Referring now by reference numerals to the drawings and first to
FIGS. 1-4, it will be understood that the merchandiser 10 is of
the type that may be used in supermarkets in the checkout area,
for example. Vertical air curtain merchandiser have been used for
many years in this location. This merchandiser provides a horizontal
air curtain, however, and is small enough, about 3 ft wide by 1.5
ft deep and 3 ft tall (less than 1.0 m.times.0.5 m.times.1.0 m)
to be accommodated in a small area adjacent the checkout counter.
More particularly, and as best shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the merchandiser
10 includes insulated front and rear walls 14 and 16, end walls
17 and an insulated bottom wall 18. The insulated walls cooperate
to provide an insulated beverage compartment 11 above a compressor
compartment 12, having an open top 20 in the operating condition.
Adjacent rear wall 16 is an evaporator compartment 22 defined by
a panel 23 and the rear wall 16 and housing an evaporator 24. The
evaporator 24 is supplied with refrigerant from a compressor (not
shown) housed in the compressor compartment 12. Adjacent the lower
end of the evaporator compartment 22 is a fan compartment 26 which
is defined by a panel 27 and houses a fan 28 which is mounted between
panels 23 and 27. Adjacent the front wall 14 and the bottom wall
18 are air circulation passages 30 and 32, defined by panels 31
and 33, respectively, which communicate with the fan compartment
26. The upper portion of rear panel 23 includes a plurality of vents
40 and the upper portion of front panel 31 includes a plurality
of perforations 42 across from the vents 40. A fluorescent light
44 is provided. In the embodiment shown, the product is beverage
bottle containers.
When the fan 28 is activated, air is drawn into the evaporator
compartment 22 from the circulation passages 30 and 32, which cooperate
with the discharge vents 40 and return air inlets to provide an
air circulation system 25, and distributed to the lengthwise extending
evaporator coils by inclined plates 29 below. the evaporator compartment.
The cooled air is directed by the vents 40 across the upper end
of the beverage bottle containers compartment 11, and into the vertical
and horizontal, circulation passages 30 and 32 by virtue of the
perforations 42 in the panel 31 located directly across from the
vents 40. The perforations 42, in the embodiment shown, extend along
the length of the upper portion of panel 31, as shown in FIG. 7,
and are of a diameter and number to receive the air being discharged
from the vents 40 in a smooth continuous flow of circulating air.
The circulation of the air is thus completed and a continuous horizontal
curtain of cooled air maintains the beverage bottle containers at
an appropriate temperature and prevents relatively warm ambient
air from entering the product storage compartment and, in effect,
completes the insulation system.
In the embodiment shown, see in particular FIGS. 5 and 6, a product
holding rack 48 is provided which includes a plurality of sub-compartments
holding the beverage containers B is provided by wire grills which
include an inclined beverage seating grill 50, a plurality of vertical
partition grills 52, and a rear U-shaped grill 56 which cooperate
to hold the container bottles in place and constitute an efficient
storage rack. Typically, six storage sub-compartments may hold up
to fourteen double column bottles each, resulting in an overall
capacity of eighty-four bottles. The small size, but easy access
and relatively large capacity storage compartment, allows for easy
inventory control by store personnel and maintains the beverage
containers B, for example, 20 ounce soft drink bottles, in a cool
condition.
The partition grills 52 extend between the front and rear panels
31 and 23 and include vertical inverted U-shaped pieces 60 connected
by transverse upper, lower and intermediate members 62, 64 and 66,
respectively, welded or otherwise attached thereto. At least the
upper members 62 include outwardly extending portions which are
a received in openings provided in the front and rear panels 31
and 23. Additionally, a compression spring 54 may be provided between
partitions 52 and the front panel 31 to assist in holding the grills
52 in place. The rear U-shaped grill 56, as shown in FIGS. 5 and
6 includes transverse members indicated by numerals 70 connected
by longitudinal members 72. The grill 56 may be welded or otherwise
attached to the panel 23. In order to facilitate access to the fan
28 for servicing the members 70 and 72 may be cut short around the
fan compartment.
It will be understood that the lower, seating grill 50, which includes
L-shaped transverse members 74 connected by longitudinal members
76, provides for inclined storage of the bottles B which facilitates
bottle storage and removal.
Because of the open top, the inclined positioning of the bottles
B, the spacing of the cap end of the bottles from the U-shaped grill
56, and the relatively narrow single container depth of the bottles,
it is a simple matter for a customer to reach into the merchandiser,
select a beverage of choice and grasp it by the neck for easy removal.
This is done without discomfort because the air curtain airstream
is relatively slow moving and is maintained only at a sufficient
temperature to keep the beverage cool.
In view of the above, it will be seen that the several objects
and advantages of the present invention have been achieved and other
advantageous results have been obtained. As various changes could
be made in the above constructions without departing from the scope
of the invention, it is intended that all matter contained in the
above description or shown in the accompanying drawings shall be
interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense. |