Disclosed herein are methods, systems, and apparatuses for dispensing comestible products that are frozen or partially frozen by thermoelectric cooling. The systems and apparatuses may function for long periods of time without cleaning. The systems and apparatuses may be used in producing soft-serve and frozen beverage products including soft-serve ice cream, frozen yogurt, smoothies, acai mix, and other foods capable of being made into soft-serve products, and frozen beverages, slush, margaritas, granita, and the like. One or more thermoelectric cooling elements may be used to quickly and efficient freeze-down small batches of product. A lateral extrusion mechanism may be used to effect movement of the thermoelectric cooling element toward and away from the product. When the product is contained within a deformable container, a vertical extrusion mechanism may be used to effect dispensing of the product from the container into a desired receptacle.

An appliance for producing frozen food products, such as ice cream or slush drinks, includes a cooling cylinder connected in a refrigeration circuit, the cooling cylinder including a thermally-conductive cylinder wall and end cap closing the distal end of the cylinder wall, the cylinder wall and end cap separating refrigerant on one side from product to be frozen on the other side. A divider member disposed adjacent the cylinder wall forms contiguous evaporator compartments spaced apart axially. Restrictor passages in the divider member permit communication between contiguous compartments and refrigerant first enters the first-cooled evaporator compartment at one of the axial ends and flows in series between the evaporator compartments. For fast, efficient freezing of small batches, the product to be frozen is either driven by the auger, or drains, toward the first-cooled evaporator compartment.

An improved frozen product dispenser wherein a product is placed into a cooled hopper and the product is then fed from the hopper into a freezing and dispensing chamber where it is frozen and dispensed.

A cooling control device comprises a compressor, a condenser, a material reservoir evaporator, a freezing cylinder refrigeration inlet conduit, and a freezing cylinder refrigeration outlet conduit. An outlet end of the condenser is connected to a condenser outlet pipe. The condenser outlet pipe is in communication with three branch pipes, which are a freezing cylinder refrigeration pipe, a material reservoir pre-cooling pipe and a material reservoir freshness-preserving pipe arranged in parallel. The freezing cylinder refrigeration pipe is in communication with the freezing cylinder refrigeration inlet conduit. The material reservoir pre-cooling pipe and the material reservoir freshness-preserving pipe are in communication with an inlet end of the material reservoir evaporator. An outlet end of the material reservoir evaporator and the freezing cylinder refrigeration outlet conduit are respectively in communication with the compressor. The cooling control device can separate a pre-cooling mode and a freshness-preserving mode for a material reservoir.

An expansion evaporator includes a heat exchanger and a replaceable freezer cylinder detachably received within a receiving channel of the heat exchanger, wherein the replaceable freezer cylinder has a feeding channel for raw material feeding therethrough to thermally communicate with the heat exchanger so as to form a frozen product within the feeding channel. The replaceable freezer cylinder is detached from the heat exchanger for cleaning purpose as the raw material is not contacted with the heat exchanger.

Systems and methods have demonstrated the capability of rapidly cooling the contents of pods containing the ingredients for food and drinks.

A machine for making liquid or semi-liquid products comprises: a first container adapted to contain a first liquid or semi-liquid basic product; a first stirrer, mounted inside the first container; a second container connected to the first container to receive therefrom the first liquid or semi-liquid basic product; a pipe connecting the first container to the second container; a second stirrer, mounted inside the second container; a pump, having a first inlet duct, connected to the first container in order to draw the first liquid or semi-liquid basic product, a second, air inlet duct, and an outlet connected to the connecting pipe, the pump being also configured to mix the first liquid or semi-liquid basic product with air by compression.

Systems and methods have demonstrated the capability of rapidly cooling the contents of pods containing the ingredients for food and drinks.

A dispensing apparatus (20; 300; 400) comprises: a freezing cylinder (40); a water flowpath (526); a first controllable valve (130) along the water flowpath; a syrup flowpath (528), merging with the water flowpath and proceeding as a water/syrup flowpath (552) to the freezing cylinder; and a second controllable valve (132) along the syrup flowpath. The first controllable valve and the second controllable valve each comprise: a valve body (144; 432) having a cartridge compartment (164,166), an inlet (176) to the cartridge compartment, and an outlet (178) from the cartridge compartment; and a valve cartridge (162). The valve cartridge comprises: a cartridge body (200) mounted in the cartridge compartment; a valve element (222) carried by the cartridge body and shiftable between a first condition permitting communication between the inlet and the outlet and a second condition blocking communication between the inlet and the outlet; and a solenoid (224) carried by the cartridge body and coupled to the valve element to drive movement of the valve element.

A machine for making liquid/semi-liquid food products includes a container for the product; a dispenser connected to the container which allows or inhibits dispensing of the product; a mixing stirrer rotatable about an axis of rotation and mounted inside the container; a thermal system including a circuit with a heat exchanger fluid and an evaporator operatively associated with the container and including an inlet aperture for the fluid, a discharge aperture for the fluid, a first tubular element and a second tubular element coaxial with the first tubular element and having an axial direction of extension and a radial direction of extension, the second tubular element extending along an axial direction parallel to the axis of rotation and being disposed inside the first tubular element to define an annular chamber for circulating the fluid and defined by at least one microchannel, the microchannel having a hydraulic diameter of 3-13 mm.