Fluent material handling – with receiver or receiver coacting mea – Processes – Filling dispensers
Patent
1995-10-23
1998-02-10
Recla, Henry J.
Fluent material handling, with receiver or receiver coacting mea
Processes
Filling dispensers
141 18, 141 82, 141100, 141 63, 426398, 53432, B65B 104
Patent
active
057158746
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF INVENTION
This invention concerns the packaging of beverages particularly but not exclusively beer in combination with devices within the packaging for generating a frothy head on the beer when the package is broken and the contents are poured prior to consumption. Such devices will be referred to as head inducers. The term beer can include any alcoholic drink such as beer, stout, ale, lager and the like having gas such as carbon dioxide and/or nitrogen dissolved therein.
By packaging is meant the filling of cans or like containers. A popular form of packaging is a so-called two part can formed from aluminium and comprising a cylindrical reservoir section which is closed at the base and open at the top and a closure section comprising a circular plate or lid which can be rim sealed to the periphery of the open end of the can to form a liquid and gas tight enclosure.
BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION
It is known to fill the reservoir section of a two part can with beer having previously inserted into the can a head inducer (see UK Patent Specification No. 2218080A). It is also known from EP 0227213A2 to add a quantity of a liquified inert gas such as nitrogen which with increasing temperature begins to boil and change state into its gaseous form so displacing any air at the upper end of the can above the liquid and thereafter to add the closure section (normally a lid) to the can, and join the two parts together, so as to form a fluid tight seal, and to then subject the can to pasturisation in which the filled can is heated and then cooled in a controlled manner and thereafter to turn the can back onto its base and check the level of the contents before further processing the cans for storage and transportation, typically involving the packaging of the filled cans into boxes or groups using shrink wrapping techniques or the like (see Metal Box Ltd Guidance Notes for the Handling and Use of two piece lightweight cans (particularly Section 1.1.5 on page 2), and UK Patent Specification No. 2218080A.
The sealed can will be subjected to a relatively high internal pressure as a result of adding the liquified gas and particularly as a further consequence of heating the can during pasturisation. Consequently if the seal between lid and reservoir section is not fluid tight, fluid will leave the can through the faulty seal during pasturisation if not before. Since the lid and reservoir section can be individually checked before filling, the only essentially weak link is the rim seal.
Since the cans are easily damaged it was recommended by the can manufacturers in 1981 that filled and sealed cans should be upended as soon as possible after leaving the seamer and before pasteurization and this had the added advantage that any loss from the can would be beverge and not gas.
By upending the filled can before and during pasturisation, it will be the liquid content of the can will be driven out of any faulty seam under the elevated internal pressure. Any loss of liquid can be detected by means of a check on the level of the liquid remaining in the can after pasturisation. The step of upending filled cans for this purpose is well known in the canning industry and was adopted following the issue of the Guidance Notes for the handling and use of two piece lightweight cans (see Section 1.1.5) by Metal Box Ltd in the early 1980's.
It has been proposed in EP 227213A2 that the head inducer should be filled at least partly with an inert-gas under pressure, to retain the device at or near the bottom of the can, and to cause pressurised gas and/or beverage from within the device to leave it in the form of a fine jet when the can lid is broken. For this to happen the interior of the head inducer must communicate with the liquid within the can via a small orifice in the wall separating the contents of the inducer from the beverage in the can.
Since the head formation is essentially only created by the discharge of a gas jet at the pressures available in a can, it has always been desirable to maximise the volume of gas in the he
REFERENCES:
patent: 4832968 (1989-05-01), Forage et al.
patent: 5517804 (1996-05-01), Lynch
Newman Michael John
Poley John
Reynolds Andrew John
Wood Timothy Michael
Douglas Steven O.
Recla Henry J.
Scottish & Newcastle PLC
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