ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 19 -- United States Patent no. 12,331,981, issued on June 17.
"Ice vending machine having reduced footprint" was invented by Mark Metzger (Phoenix).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An ice vending 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 vending 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 ...