Flavor station assembly

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10130111-B2
Application number	US-201615375437-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 12, 2016
Priority date	Dec 12, 2016
Publication date	Nov 20, 2018
Grant date	Nov 20, 2018

Abstract

A flavor station assembly can be employed to dispense snow cone flavors or other types of flavoring syrups or liquids. The flavor station assembly can include one or more saucer assemblies where each saucer assembly is configured to dispense a number of flavors. Each saucer assembly can be coupled to a support assembly that is configured to pivot thereby enabling the saucer assemblies to be positioned in a desired location relative to the structure to which the support assembly is mounted.

First claim

What is claimed:

1. A saucer assembly for use in a flavor station assembly, the saucer assembly comprising:
a disk component having a number of channels formed within a sidewall of the disk component; and
a button component having a number of buttons that extend radially, the button component configured to couple to the disk component by inserting the buttons into the channels;
wherein the disk component includes a ridge and each button includes a ridge that aligns with the ridge of the disk component to form clamping surfaces that occlude a tube that passes between the disk component and the button.

2. The saucer assembly of claim 1 , wherein each button includes a push tab at an end of the button, the push tab extending beyond the channel when the button component is coupled to the disk component.

3. The saucer assembly of claim 2 , further comprising:
a number of tubes, each tube passing between one of the buttons and the disk component to thereby occlude the tube;
wherein the ridge of the disk component is a circular ridge.

4. The saucer assembly of claim 3 , wherein each button includes a first opening and a second opening positioned outwardly from the first opening.

5. The saucer assembly of claim 4 , wherein the end of the button is angled upwardly to position the push tab above the first and second openings.

6. The saucer assembly of claim 4 , wherein each of the disk component and the button component includes a central opening through which the number of tubes pass.

7. The saucer assembly of claim 6 , wherein the disk component is positioned above the button component, and wherein, after the tubes pass through the central openings, each tube passes up through the first opening and then down through the second opening of a corresponding button.

8. The saucer assembly of claim 3 , wherein the channels are configured to allow the push tab to be pressed downwardly to cause the corresponding tube to no longer be occluded between the ridge and the circular ridge thereby allowing flavoring syrup to flow through the tube.

9. The saucer assembly of claim 1 , wherein the disk component includes a central opening for enabling a number of tubes to pass through the disk component and a plurality of mounting structures positioned around the central opening.

10. A flavor station assembly comprising:
a support assembly; and
a saucer assembly coupled to the support assembly, the saucer assembly comprising:
a disk component having a number of channels formed within a sidewall of the disk component; and
a button component having a number of buttons that extend radially, the button component configured to couple to the disk component by inserting the buttons into the channels; and
a plurality of tubes that pass through the support assembly and into the saucer assembly, each tube passing between one of the buttons and the disk component to thereby occlude the tube.

11. The flavor station assembly of claim 10 , wherein the support assembly includes:
a vertical arm to which the disk component mounts to position the saucer assembly above the ground.

12. The saucer assembly of claim 11 , wherein the tubes pass through the vertical arm and through a central opening in the disk component.

13. A flavor station assembly comprising:
a support assembly; and
a saucer assembly coupled to the support assembly, the saucer assembly comprising:
a disk component having a number of channels formed within a sidewall of the disk component; and
a button component having a number of buttons that extend radially, the button component configured to couple to the disk component by inserting the buttons into the channels; and
a plurality of tubes that pass through the support assembly and into the saucer assembly, each tube passing between one of the buttons and the disk component to thereby occlude the tube.

14. The flavor station assembly of claim 13 , wherein the support assembly is configured to mount to a vehicle via a pivoting connection.

15. The flavor station assembly of claim 13 , wherein the support assembly is coupled to a base that rests on the ground.

16. The flavor station assembly of claim 15 , further comprising:
a container support secured to the support assembly above the saucer assembly, the container support being configured to support a plurality of flavoring syrup containers.

17. The flavor station assembly of claim 10 , wherein each button includes a push tab at an end of the button, the push tab extending beyond the corresponding channel when the button component is coupled to the disk component.

18. The flavor station assembly of claim 13 , wherein the tubes extend to a vehicle from which flavoring syrup is dispensed.

19. The flavor station assembly of claim 13 , wherein the button component includes at least ten buttons.

20. A saucer assembly for use in a flavor station assembly, the saucer assembly comprising:
a disk component having a number of channels formed within a sidewall of the disk component;
a button component having a number of buttons that extend radially, the button component configured to couple to the disk component by inserting the buttons into the channels; and
a plurality of tubes that extend within the channels between the disk component and the button component, the buttons being biased to occlude the tubes absent an external force on the buttons.

Assignees

• Snowie LLC

Inventors

• Rupp Carl A
• Rupp David

Classifications

• B67D3/00

  Apparatus or devices for controlling flow of liquids under gravity from storage containers for dispensing purposes (separating and dispensing metered quantities of liquids G01F) · CPC title

• A23G9/245 Primary

  for coating the products · CPC title

• A23G9/045 Primary

  of slush-ice, e.g. semi-frozen beverage · CPC title