ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 19 -- United States Patent no. 12,331,977, issued on June 17, was assigned to Hoshizaki America Inc. (Peachtree City, Ga.).
"Method of cleaning an ice machine" was invented by Luther L. Clayton Jr. (Hogansville, Ga.), Hideki Sakakibara (Aichi, Japan) and Abdul Waheed (Tucson, Ariz.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A method of cleaning an evaporator of an ice maker can include a first manual intervention comprising activating a switch of an ice maker, activating the switch of the ice maker comprising initiating an overall cleaning procedure; a first automatic step comprising signaling to a user that a second manual intervention comprising pouring one of a cleaning fluid and...