Title of Invention

PLUNGING MIXER

Abstract

Portable plunging mixer for the treatment of food. The device comprising a cover (3) supplied witt a handful (4), the cover (3) including an electric engine dragging in rotation a first 'extremity of a drive shaft (5) included in a set-up tube (2), a tool (13) being coupled with the drive shaft (5), a mouthpiece (1) removable associated with the tool (13) being set up on the free extremity of tube (2).

Full Text

The present invention relates to a portable plunging mixer meant in particular, but not exclusively, for the preparation of food. Such devices are popular and often used. They are composed by a cover, supplied with a handful, to the interior of which escalated an electric engine dragging in rotation a first extremity of a drive shaft included in a stationary tube or muff, the tool being set up on the other extremity of the drive shaft. Driven to high speed, the tool is lead inside the food to be prepared and cuts them, mixes, emulsifies, etc. The problem arising with this type of device is essentially a problem of hygiene. Indeed, with the presence of an electric engine, it is not possible to clean properly this one especially with a dish washer and, in particular, it is not possible to sterilize the anterior structural part of the tool which is brought to enter in contact with the successive and generally different preparations. Yet, the rotating tool which rotates at high speed plays a role of suction pump towards the top. Consequently, in spite of the care taken to the level of tightness, a small part of some liquid products mixed and cut, goes up to the interior of tube where, often, they putrefy under the action of bacterias. The present invention relates to prevent this inconvenience and to allow the realization of a plunging mixer which could be used in collective catering giving the necessary qualities of hygiene. According to the invention, the plunging mixer containing a cover supplied with a handful, the aforesaid cover including an electric engine dragging, in rotation, a first extremity of a drive shaft included in a tube integrated with the coyer, a tool being set on the second extremity of this drive shaft, has the characteristic to have set on the free extremity of the tube a removable mouthpiece integrated with the tool, the tool is erected in a removable way inside the mouthpiece. It is thus possible to disassemble the mouthpiece in order to ■w. proceed to a better cleaning and even a sterilization. Thus, it is possible to disassemble not only the mouthpiece, but also the tool for a better cleaning or upkeep in particular of the bearing found behind the tool- According to another characteristic of the invention, the bottom of the engine is insulated, the necessary entrance and exit of air being situated in the superior part of the engine with a suitable air cooling circulation- The tightness of the low part prevent the entrance of food in the engine when using correctly, prevent formation of bacterids inside of this one, decrease the risk of electric accident would the ears of ventilation fall being stilted and prevent the entrance of coal dust from the brooms in the food preparation. Preferably, the circuit of electric feed contains a card "lack of tension". Would the contacts of the thermal protection open (while there is an overheat of the engine for example), the card "lack of tension" is not supplied anymore and interrupts all restarting of the engine without voluntary intervention of the user on the switch on/off of the device« Security of the user is then increased. In some particular applications over "a brisk heat the container, in which food is brought to a temperature that could reach 100°Cf one noted a high temperature increase at the bearing of the bell level, the heat being transmitted to the bearing by the metallic drive shaft of the tool. The bearing being included in the plastic material, thermal insulator, the heat transmitted by the tool can only be evacuated with difficulty * This phenomenon is increased by the self overheating of bearing coming from the rotation of ^the axis of the tool to a speed which can reach several thousand of turning lathes. The result is serious risk of overheat. In a preferred embodiment, a thermal bridge is settled, with the help of a conductor ring of the heat, set between the bell and the bearing. So, the heat can be evacuated in good conditions. The bearing is thus in a thermal link with the bell of which the large surface allows an evacuation of the heat of bearing. Some other features and advantages of the present invention will appear throughout the description which follows in particular fashions of realization, given solely as by the way of examples, with reference to the accompanying drawings which represent: - Figure 1, a perspective view of a mixer according to the invention; - Figure 2, a view in cuts by a vertical plan of the bottom part of the tube and of the mouthpiece in position of work; - Figure 3f an exploded view of the superior part of the tube; - Figure 4, an exploded view of the bottom part of the mixer; - Figure 5 a view of the air cooling circulation inside of the engine hood; - The face 6, a view of a different installation of the tool inside the mouthpiece; - The face 7, in cuts the bottom part of a plunging mixer with removable mouthpiece presenting a thermal bridge, in figure 1, one sees that the mixer is composed from the bottom to the superior part a removable mouthpiece 1 set on a tube or muff 2. The tube 2 is joined to the cover 3 and includes a electric engine (not represented) as well as some means of electric connection with a power supply including a thermal fuse and a card of lack of tension- To the superior part of the cover 3 is integrated a handful 4, this handful 4 could include a switch to control the working of the engine. In figure 1, the mixer is represented while working, A first embodiment is represented in figures 2.3 and 4. The figure 2 represents in cuts the fore part of the mixer containing the fore extremity of tube 2 inside of which a drive shaft 5 is spread, of which the superior extremity (not represented) is mechanically linked to the drive shaft of exit of the engine • Of course , the drive shaft 5 is a longitudinal drive shaft of sufficient length in order to move away the cover 3 of the tool meant to work especially in some fluid preparations generally to relatively high temperature. The handful like the cover must, of course, remain, always distant and, outside of the preparation- A making-up length piece 7 with the removable mouthpiece 1 is raised on the bottom extremity of the tube 2. The front of the piece 7 (right part in the figure) shows a part 7 a of assembly with a piece 8 of which the internal face 8a corresponds to the surface 7a which, in the represented example, is conic, The piece 8 shows to its superior part some tips 21, one only appears on the figure, being able to insert a groove 22 of the piece 7 in order to form a closing to bayonets. A static joint 23 is disposed between the pieces 7 and 8. On the piece 8 is joined a metallic protection 9 in a shape of a bell which prevent that the tool 13 could touch the bottom or the inner sides of the container and allows the work of the tool by reflection of the matter treated against its inner sides. In the axial part, one distinguishes a prolongator 6 associated to the bottom part of the drive shaft 5 and prolonging this one* The prolongator 6 is inserted by his fore part in a drive piece screwed on the prologator 6, constituent a driving interstand 11 surrounding a driving hub 17. On the figure 3, one distinguishes from the right toward the left, the drive shaft 5 and the prolongator 6, a ball bearing 30 and a ring 30a, the tube 2 presenting to its superior part a wheel disc 2a of insulated installation on the cover 3 of the engine. To the bottom, part of the tube 2 one distinguishes the mouthpiece and his conical part 7a. Beneath of this one is represented a lip joint 18 and the driving interstand 11 is joined to the drive shaft 5 by the prolongator 6. In the same way, in figure 4 one distinguishes from bottom to superior part, the driving hub 17, the cylindrical bearing 16, by example in graphite, the muff 8 finishing by the bell 9, a piece of tightness 15 with poor coefficient of friction feed, on which comes to take support, after installation an elastic bellows 14, Inside of this whole is set up the axis 12,12a of the tool 13. These elements are found again, collected, in figure 2, Inside the driving interstand 11 is erected, with the help of hub 17, the extremity 12a of a reduced diameter of the axis 12 of which the second extremity carries the tool 13 which, in the represented example, includes three blades. A first ^tightness is insured by the bellows 14, for instance in neoprene, of which a side takes support on a surface of the piece 15 which is, for example in ceramic. Thanks to the springiness of the bellows 14, the tool has the possibility to move axially of about ten millimeters like explained below. The axis 12 is then spindled in the cylindrical bearing 16 • The driving hub 17 is united by screwing the rear part of the axis 12 and is surrounded by the driving interstand 11 associated to the mouthpiece 6. This rotary mouthpiece is itself protected against going-up liquid by the lip joint 18 and it turns in ball bearing 30. In rotating in the food preparation, the tool 13 exercises an effect of centrifugal pumping which tends to inhale the liquid inside the tube 2 with the inconveniences pointed out above. In the device, object of the invention, this problem is solved by the presence of means allowing to increase the tightness, on one hand and by the presence of decompression chamber 19 of suitable volume, on the other hand, set up inside the mouthpiece around some driving pieces of the tool. The tightness is improved by permitting a light axial clearance of the tool which, as it was said before puts pressure when rotating the bellows "TC^zTo "this effect, and like it appears at the top of figure 4, the driving hub 17 shows some ribs 17a while the interstand 11 shows some internal projecting parts 11a of it (Fig.3). The protrusions 11a which come to bear on the ribs 17a, are moving on a surface of cam 17b of hub 17 in order to attract the axis 12 and the tool toward prolongator 6, resulting in the compression wanted of the bellowed joint 14 as soon as the engine is switched on« It is found again in figure 3 some elements which have just been described and especially the mouthpiece 7, presenting a bayonets closing groove 22. The bottom part of figure 3 shows clearly that the tool set up inside the mouthpiece 1 can be easily removed, by a rotation of the axis 12 of the tool which disengages the protrusions 11a of the surface of cam 17b, then turning the muff 8 in order that the tips 21 of the muff came in front of the entrances of the grooves 22. The dismantling of the mouthpiece is thus quickly done by turning this one of a quarter of turning lathe which disengages the teeth 21 from the groove 22, after that a traction is executed on the mouthpiece 1 which puts apart the piece 11 from the piece 17 and disengages the piece 8 from cone 7a. Then the dismantling of the tool can be done by turning the piece 17 in the anti-clock wise way which unscrews the threaded part 12a* The figure 5 represents the superior part of the mixer • As indicated previously, it is preferable that this one fills the conditions of tightness as high^as possible- That is to say that the cover 3 must be perfectly insulated to its bottom part in order to avoid all projections in the engine. Now, there axe some projections coming from the rotary movement of the tool. Also, according to another characteristic of the invention, the entrance and exit the air used to cool the engine come from some hearings 34, 38 situated at the superior part of cover 3. The air circulation in the engine is represented by some arrows (not referenced)-The entrance hearings 34 communicate with a room 36 which is found on the top of the engine when this one is working, the tool being turned toward the bottom. The air circulates, from top to bottom, between the rotor 3 2 and the armatures 3 3 . After what, it goes up again by the cylindrical room 35 in order to evacuate by the hearings 38. The figure 6 represents a variant of installation of the tool and of the removable mouthpiece which have just been described. In this embodiment, the driving interstand 10 is stuck in the mouthpiece bell 9 through the flange 29 with a clearance which gives two degrees of freedomf respectively axially and crosswise. The hub 28 joined to the drive shaft 6 finishes in its fore part (on the right of figure 5), by a cone of centring 24 of the driving interstand 10- A lip joint 25 is set up between the driving interstand 10 and the bottom surface of the mouthpiece 1. The hub and the interstand show a rail system which allows to pull the driving interstand 11 against the hub 28 in order to crush the lip joint 25 and thus to insure a first tightness. We get a second tightness by the furniture 26 which turns while the tool is driven against the side of one piece 27, by example in ceramic. The drive shaft 6 turns inside the mouthpiece through two bearing balls 30 * it is united with the driving shaft like previously. This solution allows, after use of the devicef to disassemble the mouthpiece and the tool in order to clean thertt. The removable mouthpiece 8, linked mechanically to the tube 2 and including some means of movement transmission! permits a coating of the metallic pieces in order to show a surface with no food retention zone* i In figure 7, the axis 12 of the tool turns in a cylindrical bearing 16* An extremity of the axis 12 carries the tool 13 "which, in the represented example is a knife with three blades* The second extremity 12a of the axis 12 erected inside the driving interstand 11 through a drive hub 17, A tightness is insured, from the tool 13, by the bellows 14, for example in neoprene, of which one side takes support on a surface of the piece 15 with a weak rubbing coefficient, which is, for example in graphite. While the device is working, the rotation of the axis 12 in the bearing 16 generates an elevation of temperature which cannot be cleared away when the bearing 16 is drowned in the plastic and therefore isolated from the bell 9, so there is a risk of deterioration of the device. According to the invention, one inserts 16 between the bearing 9 and the bell a ring 39 conductive of the heat, for example in rustproof steel, with a truncated general shape of i which the external surface 40 is in contact with the superior part 49 of the bell 9 and of which the internal mouth 41 encloses the bearing 16 on the biggest part of its length- This ring 39 creates a thermal bridge between the bearing 16 and the bell 9 which permits the lift of heat toward the outside of the device- It goes without saying that of numerous variants could be brought, notably by substitution of equivalent technical means, without departing from the scope of the invention* CLAIMS 1° Plunging mixer comprising a cover (3) supplied with a handful (4), the cover (3) including an electric engine dragging in rotation a first extremity of a drive shaft (5) included in a set-up tube (2), a tool (13) being united with the second extremity of the drive shaft (5), characterized in that on the second extremity of tube (2) is erected a mouthpiece (1) removable joined to the tool (13), the tool (13) being set up in a removable way on the mouthpiece (1). 2° Mixer according to claim 1, characterized in that the bottom part of tub© (2) shows a piece of assembly (7) surmounted by a groove (22) in which fits some teeth (21) from the adjusting piece (8) of the mouthpiece (1), a static joint being interposed between pieces (7) and (8), 3 ° Mixer according to claims 1 or 2, characterized in that the driving shaft (5) includes a prolongator (6) dragging a driving interstand (11) associated with the prolongator (6), cooperating with a driving hub (17) joined to the axis (12) of the tool (13). 4° Mixer according to claims 3, characterized in that the interstand (11) includes some internal protrusions (11a) inserting in the hub (17) and bearing on some surfaces of cam (17b) in order to attract the axis (12) and the tool toward the prolongator (6)* 5° Mixer according to any previous claims, characterized in that, at the exit of the mouthpiece (1), and joined to the axis (12) of the tool is erected a joint with rotary bellows (14) susceptible of crushing in order to bear against an annular piece (15), with a weak of friction coefficient, set on the mouthpiece, followed by a-chamber of decompression (19) of suitable volume. 6° Mixer according to claim 1, characterized in that the driving interstand (10) is stuck in the mouthpiece bell (9) through a flange(29) with a clearance which confers two degrees of freedom, respectively axially and crosswise. 7° Mixer according to any previous claims, characterized in that the prolongator (6) is rotary set up through a bearing (30) and made watertight by a lip joint (18), 8° Mixer according to any previous claims, characterized in that the cover (3) is supplied, in its superior extremity, with hearings of air entrance (34) and of air exit (38), the bottom part of cover (3) being insulated, 9° Plunging mixer according to any previous claims, characterized in that a ring (39) conductive of the heat is set up between the bearing (16) and the bell (9). Plunging mixer substantially . as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Documents:

1588-mas-1998-abstract.pdf

1588-mas-1998-claims filed.pdf

1588-mas-1998-claims granted.pdf

1588-mas-1998-correspondnece-others.pdf

1588-mas-1998-correspondnece-po.pdf

1588-mas-1998-description(complete)filed.pdf

1588-mas-1998-description(complete)granted.pdf

1588-mas-1998-drawings.pdf

1588-mas-1998-form 1.pdf

1588-mas-1998-form 26.pdf

1588-mas-1998-form 3.pdf

1588-mas-1998-form 4.pdf

1588-mas-1998-form 5.pdf