Method for blending food or beverages

US9420917B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• fReal! Foods, LLC · US

Inventors

• James J. Farrell · Belvedere, US
• Jens P. Voges · Cambridge, US
• Clayton G. Gardner · Alamo, US
• Steve T. Connell · San Francisco, US
• Shek Fai Lau · Foster City, US
• Gage C. Cauchois · Oakland, US
• Joseph M. Lehman · New Albany, US
• Chris Bradley · Baltimore, US
• Alan Scott Crarer · Pacifica, US
• Jeffrey Alan Tilley · La Honda, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Jun 26, 2012
• Grant date: Aug 23, 2016
• Expiry date: Mar 3, 2034

Classification

• Technology area (CPC B): Performing Operations; Transporting
• CPC primary: B01F35/6052
• WIPO field: Chemical engineering
• WIPO sector: Chemistry

Abstract

A method for blending food or beverages, preferably using a blender that is compact enough for home use, rugged enough to blend frozen beverages, simple to use and safe. The blender includes an upper housing, with a front housing door, that covers the moving blending machinery. The blender also includes a cupholder receiving area which allows the user to safely insert a frozen beverage cup inside a cupholder for blending. After the start button is pressed, a cupholder lip will be grasped by the clamping jaw of an elevator assembly to lift the cupholder up. As the cupholder is lifted upward, a cover will be pressed over the top opening of the inserted cup to prevent spillage during blending. The elevator assembly will then continue to lift the cupholder upward until the rotating cutter blades of a spindle assembly cut through successive layers of the frozen beverage.