Liquid purification or separation – With alarm – indicator – register – recorder – signal or... – Material level or thickness responsive
Patent
1993-04-26
1996-12-10
Drodge, Joseph W.
Liquid purification or separation
With alarm, indicator, register, recorder, signal or...
Material level or thickness responsive
210192, 210248, 2102572, 222 2, 22218906, B01D 1712, B01D 6500
Patent
active
055827179
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to apparatus for dispensing purified water. It also relates to two better methods of operating grocery store facilities. In one method the growth of bacteria on produce displayed for sale in a grocery store is inhibited by spraying the produce with the ozonated water from the apparatus. In the second method water is conserved by using waste water from the reverse osmosis unit of the apparatus for the cooling tower of the refrigeration system for the grocery store.
2. Background Discussion
Many grocery stores, particularly large chain stores, have outside, near the entrance of these stores, coin operated vending machines which dispense purified, and in some cases, demineralized drinking water. The customers bring a bottle to the machine, place it in a vending station, and then insert coins into the machine to actuate the machine, causing it to dispense a predetermined quantity of water sufficient to fill the bottle. Because these machines are outside, they are subject to vandalization, and they are exposed to a hostile outdoor environment, which results in rapid deterioration of the machine, leading to frequent service calls.
Grocery stores commonly display fresh produce, fruits and vegetables, which is periodically sprayed with water to maintain the appearance and weight of the produce. Many believe that harmful bacteria grows within the misting system used to spray the produce with water.
Grocery stores usually have a large capacity refrigeration system having cooling towers which use large quantities of cooling water. It is desirable to converse water used in these grocery store refrigeration systems.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is the object of tile present invention to provide a self service vending apparatus, which efficiently utilizes space and provides a method of dispensing purified water that gives an economic incentive to the grocery store to keep the apparatus inside the store. The apparatus of this invention is not coin-operated. Rather, the customer simply fills his or her bottle with purified water and then pays for the water when checking out of the grocery store. This eliminates all the mechanical and electronic equipment normally associated with coin-operated vending machines, and it also gives the grocery store an opportunity to make a profit on the sale of the water directly, without the need to collect and account for coin sales.
In accordance with this invention, the water is disinfected using ozone or ultraviolet light. Ozone is preferred because it is carried with the water into the bottle upon dispensing. The disinfected water is stored in sufficient quantity in the apparatus to allow the grocery store to tap into this supply and use the disinfected water for housekeeping and other purposes within the grocery store facility. One of the principal advantages of using disinfected water is to spray this water on produce, when unpacked and displayed for sale within the grocery store. Such spraying helps eliminate product weight loss due to dehydration and eliminates waterspots on mirrors and glassware of the produce display cases.
The apparatus of this invention preferably uses a reverse osmosis unit to purify water from a public supply source. The water passing through a membrane in the reverse osmosis unit is purified, but a large portion is waste water which is normally directed to the public sewerage system. As an optional feature of this invention, this waste water may be fed to the cooling tower of the grocery store's refrigeration system, thereby conserving water.
The apparatus of this invention has several features, no single one of which is solely responsible for its desirable attributes. Without limiting the scope of this invention as expressed by the claims which follow, its more prominent features will now be discussed briefly. After considering this discussion, and particularly after reading the section of this application entitled, "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS," one will u
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