US-12624885-B2 - Rapid chill and freeze cabinet

US12624885B2US 12624885 B2US12624885 B2US 12624885B2US-12624885-B2

Abstract

A rapid freeze cabinet includes an open rectangular parallelepiped frame, an open product drawer shelf, and a product drawer slidingly supported on the shelf. The product drawer includes a plurality of product cells having open upper and lower ends, closed sidewalls, and product container support member disposed therein to support a product container therewithin. The cabinet includes a blower supported by the frame, and a cold air distribution system to move air from the blower to nozzles disposed above respective product cells. Plenums house the nozzles, each plenum forming a seal around the upper end of a respective product cell.

Inventors

Ken Wilkinson

Assignees

Ken Wilkinson

Dates

Publication Date: 20260512
Application Date: 20240730

Claims (5)

1 . A rapid freeze cabinet, comprising: an open frame structure comprising a horizontally disposed rectangular upper frame; a horizontally disposed rectangular lower frame; four vertically disposed side frame members connected to the upper frame and the lower frame to thereby form the open frame structure as a rectangular parallelepiped; a blower disposed on the upper frame, the blower having a cold air discharge; a product drawer shelf disposed within the open frame structure between the upper frame and the lower frame, the product drawer shelf supported by the side frame members, the product drawer shelf defining shelf openings to allow passage of air therethrough; a product drawer slidingly disposed on the product drawer shelf, the product drawer comprising a plurality of product cells configured to support a plurality of product containers, each product cell having an open upper end, an open lower end, closed sidewalls, a product container support member disposed within the product cell proximate the open lower end of the product cell, and a plurality of product container spacers disposed within the product cell proximate the upper end of the product cell; and a cold air distribution system, comprising: a cold air supply line having a first end connected to the cold air discharge of the blower, and a second end attached to a plurality of cold air discharge nozzles, each cold air discharge nozzle disposed above a respective product cell when the product drawer is disposed within the open frame structure; and a plurality of cold air plenums, each cold air plenum housing a respective cold air discharge nozzle and forming a seal around the open upper end of a respective product cell.
2 . The rapid freeze cabinet of claim 1 , and wherein: the upper frame, the lower frame and the four vertically disposed side frame members define opposing first and second sides of the open frame structure, each of the first and second sides of the open frame structure being defined by a respective first and second side area, and further wherein each of the first and second side areas is at least 75% open space to thereby facilitate the flow of air through the first and second sides of the open frame structure.
3 . The rapid freeze cabinet of claim 2 , and wherein: the upper frame, the lower frame and the four vertically disposed side frame members define opposing front and back sides of the open frame structure, each of the front and back sides of the open frame structure being defined by a respective front and back side area, and further wherein each of the front and back side areas is at least 75% open space to thereby facilitate the flow of air through the front and back sides of the open frame structure.
4 . The rapid freeze cabinet of claim 1 , and wherein the product drawer shelf is a first product drawer shelf, the rapid freeze cabinet further comprising: a second product drawer shelf disposed within the open frame structure between the upper frame and the lower frame, the second product drawer shelf supported by the side frame members, and being spaced-apart from the first product drawer shelf, the second product drawer shelf defining shelf openings to allow passage of air therethrough.
5 . The rapid freeze cabinet of claim 1 , and further comprising a plurality of product cell air flow restricting valves, each product cell air flow restricting valve being disposed between the cold air supply line and an associated cold air discharge nozzle of the plurality of cold air discharge nozzles.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION(S) This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 63/629,955, filed Aug. 3, 2023, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. BACKGROUND Blood plasma and other biological liquids frequently need to be frozen in order to be stored for extended periods of time, and to facilitate the transport thereof. In order to preserve the biological integrity of the liquid, the freezing process must occur very rapidly. In the case of blood plasma, the industry provides a standard of cooling the plasma from 70 degrees F. to 30 degrees F. in 10 hours or less. The rapid chilling and freezing of blood plasma is oftentimes referred to as snap freezing, although the term flash freezing is sometimes also used (even though the latter process generally is understood to refer to a process of using a liquid bath of nitrogen or other cryogenic fluid to achieve the rapid freezing process). For purposes of this application, I will use the term snap freezing to refer to the rapid freezing of blood plasma and other biological liquids. The process described herein also can be used for rapid chilling (but not necessarily freezing) of biological liquids. While flash freezing using a cryogenic liquid is one option for freezing biological liquids (when the biological liquid is contained in a liquid-tight container to prevent contamination of the biological liquid), this process does not lend itself well to use in small scale operations. Specifically, the equipment required to store and use a cryogenic liquid is expensive and maintenance-intensive as compared to a chilled air freezer. Also, handling of cryogenic liquids requires special care and training to prevent accidents. Another option to rapidly freeze biological liquids is to place the liquids (i.e., bottles or containers filled with the liquids) inside of a walk-in type freezer. Such freezers are made to operate at sub-zero temperatures and can provide adequate, but non-uniform, freezing times. Specifically, articles placed at different locations within the walk-in freezer compartment can have significantly different freezing times. A further method for rapid chilling or freezing of blood plasma and biological liquids is to place containers (e.g., bottles) of the liquids in a separate rack or cabinet, which can then be placed inside of a larger primary freezer (such as a walk-in freezer or cooler). This method, and the accompanying apparatus, are described in my U.S. Pat. No. 6,968,712 B2 (issued Nov. 29, 2005). Since that time, industry standards have changed to decrease or control the allowed time for freezing/cooling of blood plasma, and there is a need to increase the efficiency of my previous design by being able to adjust or set the rate of time to freeze or chill the biological liquids. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is an isometric view of a rapid freeze cabinet as provided for herein. FIG. 2A is a sectional detail of a product cell used in the rapid freeze cabinet of FIG. 1. FIG. 2B is the sectional detail of FIG. 2A but showing air flow through the bottle air cell. FIG. 3 is an isometric schematic diagram depicting a variation on the cold air distribution system of the rapid freeze cabinet of FIG. 1. FIG. 4 is a partial side view piping diagram depicting a variation on the cold air distribution system of the rapid freeze cabinet of FIG. 1. FIG. 5 is a sectional plan view of the product drawer used in the rapid freeze cabinet of FIG. 1. FIG. 6 is a plan view of an alternative product drawer that can be used in the rapid freeze cabinet of FIG. 1. FIG. 7 is an exploded isometric view depicting a product cell from the rapid freeze cabinet of FIG. 1. FIG. 8 is a sectional side view of the lower left side of the rapid freeze cabinet of FIG. 1, but using the alternative cold air distribution system of FIG. 3. FIG. 9 is a left side view of a rapid freeze cabinet using the alternative cold air distribution system of FIG. 3. FIG. 10 is a front side view of the rapid freeze cabinet of FIG. 9. DETAILED DESCRIPTION With reference to the accompanying drawings, FIG. 1 is an isometric view of a first embodiment of a rapid freeze cabinet 100 according to the present disclosure. It will be appreciated that the rapid freeze cabinet 100 can also be used for chilling liquids without freezing them, and so can also function as a rapid chill cabinet. That is, the cabinet 100 of FIG. 1 (and other embodiments as provided for herein) can be described as a rapid freeze/chill cabinet, but for the sake of simplifying the following description will be referred to only as a rapid freeze cabinet. The use of “rapid freeze cabinet” to generally describe the present apparatus should not in any way be understood as limiting the use of the cabinet to freezing only. The rapid freeze cabinet 100 of FIG. 1 includes an open frame structure 102 which has, as structural frame members, vertical front frame members 10