Dispensing – With discharge assistant – Fluid pressure
Reexamination Certificate
2002-05-31
2004-03-09
Kaufman, Joseph A. (Department: 3754)
Dispensing
With discharge assistant
Fluid pressure
Reexamination Certificate
active
06702159
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a pouring spout for sparkling beverages, more specifically to an improvement of spout, which is used in a sparkling beverage server or dispenser capable of pouring a sparkling beverage typified by beer under operation of a lever and which can additionally pour, after pouring of a predetermined quantity of the beverage into a vessel such as a mug, fine froth over the beverage in the vessel.
2. Description of the Related Art
Some pouring spouts to be used in apparatuses for pouring sparkling beverages by operating levers, for example, in beer servers, have a function of additionally pouring, after pouring a predetermined quantity of beer into a mug by tilting a lever manually in one direction, fine beer froth over the beer in the mug. As a pouring spout having such a froth adding function, there is disclosed a spout having a frothing function in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 9-2590. The reason why such fine froth is additionally poured over the beer in a mug is that appropriately frothed beer gives improved texture when the beer goes through ones throat and that the froth prevents carbon dioxide gas from escaping quickly from the beer. Recently, froth to be poured additionally after pouring of beer is required to be as fine as cream.
In a beer server having such a frothing function, a lever attached to a beer pouring spout is switched over to pour beer only or to additionally pour froth from a single nozzle provided in the spout. Therefore, fine froth passes through the nozzle of the beer pouring spout after passage of beer through it, or vice versa. However, it is essential in pouring draft beer from a beer server that there is no residue of beer and froth thereof on the internal surface of the nozzle so as to achieve appropriate frothing of the draft beer poured through it. If beer is poured to another mug with the beer or froth remaining on the internal surface of the nozzle, frothing is likely to occur excessively to give foamy beer. A countermeasure is taken for it by defining an air inlet hole in the pouring nozzle to let the beer and froth remaining on the internal surface of the nozzle drip by their own weights.
As mentioned already, it is true that finely divided creamy foam is required as the additional froth, but creamy froth is highly viscous, so that it is difficult and also takes time to discharge the froth with the aid of air supplied through the air inlet hole. Therefore, it is necessary for an operator, after pouring beer into a mug and carrying out the froth adding operation, to operate the lever in a flash so as to pour liquid beer to flush froth remaining in the spout body and nozzle away from them. However, this operation of flushing the spout body and nozzle with beer inevitably requires a lot of skill, so that there has been awaited an advent of a beer pouring spout capable of pouring constantly fine froth of high quality requiring no such a skill.
Meanwhile, a spout for pouring sparkling beverages is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-19102 filed according to the proposition of the Applicant of the present invention. This spout has a nozzle for pouring a liquid into a mug and another nozzle for pouring froth into the mug, and also contains in its body various kinds of valve mechanisms for opening and closing a liquid channel and a froth channel defined so that a liquid and froth can be poured separately from the respective nozzles.
In the spout for pouring a sparkling beverage described above, the nozzle for pouring froth is long, so that a large amount of froth remains on the internal surface of the nozzle, which is causative of marring the flavor of the liquid. This problem cannot be solved merely by shortening the froth pouring nozzle. If a short froth pouring nozzle is merely used, a vigorous turbulent flow of froth is injected into a mug to be causative of excessive frothing and to be a hindrance in forming fine froth of high quality.
The present inventor has already proposed a countermeasure for the above problem and filed a Japanese Patent Application No. 2001-137771 relating to an invention entitled “Pouring spout for sparkling beverages.” In the pouring spout according to this invention, a slider is provided in the spout body such that it can slide within a liquid passage defined in its body in intimate contact with the passage under operation of a lever connected to the slider. Meanwhile, a valve seat provided on one end face of the slider is normally urged, by a resilient part attached to the other end face of the slider, to be pressed against the froth pouring valve element and closes the opening of an orifice defined in the froth pouring valve element to communicate with a through hole through which a sparkling beverage passes. When the slider is slid toward the resilient part against the resilience of, the valve seat retracts from the froth pouring valve element to open the opening of the orifice, through which the beverage flows out to impinge against the valve seat and undergoes frothing, and the thus obtained froth is designed to flow to the froth pouring nozzle through an annular groove formed on the internal surface of the spout body.
According to the constitution, the froth formed by impingement of a sparkling beverage against the valve seat is allowed to flow through the annular groove defined in the spout body into the froth pouring nozzle, and thus the impetus of the froth flowing into the nozzle can be attenuated to prevent favorably excessive frothing occurring when a short froth pouring nozzle is used.
However, in the sparkling beverage pouring spout described above, when a liquid or froth thereof is poured, the liquid or froth is brought into contact with the internal surface of the liquid passage defined in the spout body and partly with the slider and remain there. Since the slider repeats sliding in intimate contact with the internal surface of the liquid passage of the spout body under tilting operation of the lever in each time the liquid or froth is poured, the liquid is applied to the internal surface of the liquid passage in the spout body over the full length of the passage and remains there. Thus, the external surface of the slider sliding in intimate contact with the internal surface of the liquid passage defined in the spout body is caused to assume airtightness due to the liquid applied to the passage and remains there.
Meanwhile, if the slider is moved away in a direction such that the valve seat retracts from the froth pouring valve element when froth is to be poured through the sparkling beverage pouring spout, the resilient part retained between the slider and the stopper is pressed against the stopper and is compressed, and the volume of the space in which the stopper and the slider are housed reduces. In this case, due to the high airtightness between the slider and the internal surface of the spout body brought about by the liquid remaining there as described above, the air having been present in that housing space is already ejected along the external surface of the stopper having a lower resistance to airtightness to the outside of the pouring spout. The beer liquid contains a foaming component, so that when the air is ejected along the external surface of the stopper, foaming occurs inevitably accompanied by ejection of the beer liquid. In other words, the ejected beer liquid seeps to the outside of the spout body to deposit thereon, causing contamination of the spout body, disadvantageously.
On the other hand, it is contemplable, as techniques of preventing foaming, in a beer spout structure as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2000-318799, to notch partly a cover corresponding to the stopper and facilitate incoming and outgoing of air, or to define a through hole in the spout body communicating to the outside. However, these structures are all accompanied by leakage of beer liquid from the spout body to the outside, and wetting of the external surface of the spout body
Hara Eiji
Itou Sukehide
Kobayashi Satoru
Kondou Shigekazu
Saitou Fumitaka
Hoshizaki Denki Kabushiki Kaisha
Kaufman Joseph A.
Koda & Androlia
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