Ice Machine With Reduced Footprint

Abstract

An ice machine is provided that has a minimal footprint, while still being able to quickly and efficiently fill bags of ice. The machine has a cabinet, a frame within the cabinet, and an ice maker mounted to the cabinet and/or the frame. Once the ice maker has made ice, the ice is deposited into a hopper. The ice machine may have multiple hoppers through which the ice is guided to a bagging system. Once the ice has been inserted into a bag by the bagging system, the filled bag is sealed. Once the bag has been sealed, it can be delivered to a customer, otherwise it can be stored in a cooler section. The ice machine has a number of high power motors that enable fast movement of the ice to generate the bags of ice in minimal time.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . An ice machine comprising:
 a frame;   a cabinet extending around the frame;   at least one ice maker coupled to the frame;   a first ice hopper located beneath the ice maker and configured to receive ice from the ice maker;   an auger extending along a portion of the first ice hopper to move ice to an opening;   a second hopper configured to receive ice from the first ice hopper moved through the opening by the auger;   a bagging system configured to receive ice from the second hopper;   a cradle having a bottom and a plurality of sides, the cradle configured to support and constrain a bag from the bagging system while the bag receives ice from the second hopper; and   a retrieval section configured to receive the bag after the bag is filled with ice.   
     
     
         2 . The ice machine of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 a sealing system;   a chute extending from and pivotable about the second hopper; and   a pusher section configured to bias the bag of ice towards the sealing system to seal the bag of ice using the heating element;   wherein the pusher section is configured to push against and pivot the chute about the second hopper.   
     
     
         3 . The ice machine of  claim 2 , wherein the sealing system comprises:
 a heating element;   a pusher plate having an opening formed therein; and   a biasing assembly coupled to the pusher plate;   wherein the pusher plate is moved by the biasing assembly to expose the heating element for sealing a bag of ice.   
     
     
         4 . The ice machine of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 a roll of bags removably mounted to the frame;   a motor configured to advance a portion of the roll of bags to the bagging system; and   a sensor configured to scan each bag from the roll of bags;   wherein advancement of the roll of bags to the bagging system by the motor is terminated when the sensor detects an unverified bag design.   
     
     
         5 . The ice machine of  claim 1 , further comprising a refrigerated storage section located beneath the bagging system. 
     
     
         6 . The ice machine of  claim 5 , wherein ice is deposited from the second hopper into the bag contained within the cradle; and
 wherein the cradle is rotated to deposit bags of ice into the refrigerated storage section.   
     
     
         7 . The ice machine of  claim 1 , wherein the first hopper is a drying hopper having a sloped bottom surface to drain water away from the second hopper. 
     
     
         8 . The ice machine of  claim 1 , further comprising a cradle fill sensor located adjacent the cradle to monitor when the cradle is in a position to receive the bag. 
     
     
         9 . The ice machine of  claim 1 , further comprising a bag fill sensor to monitor when the bag is partially full;
 wherein, when the bag fill sensor is blocked, the auger is rotated a predetermined number of times to complete fill the bag.   
     
     
         10 . An ice machine comprising:
 at least one ice maker;   a first ice hopper located beneath the ice maker and configured to receive ice from the ice maker;   an auger extending along a portion of the first ice hopper to move ice to an opening, the auger configured to jog back and forth after a predetermined period of time;   a second hopper configured to receive ice from the first ice hopper moved through the opening by the auger;   a bagging system configured to receive ice from the second hopper; and   a retrieval section configured to receive the bag after the bag is filled with ice.   
     
     
         11 . The ice machine of  claim 10 , wherein the auger moves forward a first predetermined number of rotations to move ice to the opening; and
 wherein, after the first predetermined number of rotations, the auger moves backward a second predetermined number of rotations.   
     
     
         12 . The ice machine of  claim 10 , further comprising a hopper sensor configured to determine whether the hopper is below or above a predetermined fill level. 
     
     
         13 . The ice machine of  claim 12 , wherein, when the hopper sensor determines that the hopper is above a predetermined fill level, the predetermined period of time is less than 40 minutes. 
     
     
         14 . The ice machine of  claim 12 , wherein, when the hopper sensor determines that the hopper is below a predetermined fill level, the auger rotates forward to move ice to the opening after a second predetermined period of time. 
     
     
         15 . The ice machine of  claim 14 , wherein the second predetermined period of time is less than 20 minutes. 
     
     
         16 . The ice machine of  claim 10 , further comprising a coated heating wire disposed within a drain line of the ice maker. 
     
     
         17 . An ice machine comprising:
 at least one ice maker;   a bagging system configured to receive and bag ice from the at least one ice maker;   a storage section configured to receive the bag after the bag is filled with ice, the storage section including a fill sensor configured to monitor the storage section; and   a controller configured to, upon determination by the fill sensor that the storage section being at or above a predetermined fill level for a predetermined period of time, activate an alarm to notify a user.   
     
     
         18 . The ice machine of  claim 17 , wherein the controller is further configured to, upon determination by the fill sensor that the storage section has been emptied to a predetermined empty level, turn off the alarm. 
     
     
         19 . The ice machine of  claim 17 , wherein the controller is further configured to, upon determination by the fill sensor that bags of ice in a first side of the storage section and a second side of the storage section exceed a predetermined fill ratio for a predetermined period of time, activate an alarm to notify a user. 
     
     
         20 . The ice machine of  claim 19 , wherein the controller is further configured to, upon determination that bags of ice in the first side of the storage section and the second side of the storage section no longer exceed the predetermined fill ratio, turn off the alarm.