Dispensing – With discharge assistant – Fluid pressure
Patent
1998-06-05
2000-02-01
Kaufman, Joseph A.
Dispensing
With discharge assistant
Fluid pressure
222518, B65D 8300
Patent
active
060192577
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND ART
The invention relates to a faucet for tapping a liquid such as beer from a container, in which the liquid is stored under pressure of a gas, e.g. CO.sub.2, and where the faucet comprises a casing with an outlet duct and a valve plug placed therein, for closing the faucet.
Liquids, as e.g. beer, standing under pressure of CO.sub.2 in a container, are inclined to foam when they are tapped by opening the faucet. This is desirable to a certain but not too large degree. If the foam is too violent, the glasses which are to be filled with beer and a suitable amount of foam will be filled with too much foam and too little beer. This is not good enough for the customers. The balance between beer and foam can, however, in these cases be obtained by stripping off the foam and one or more re-fillings, or simply by letting the foam settle and then fill again. By stripping off the foam some of the beer will be lost and refillings cause extra work and take additional time. In the meantime the consumers have to wait and this fact is far from always being satisfactory.
These inconvenient disadvantages have, for obvious reasons, claimed much attention, and over the years there has been many attempts to solve the problem, but so far in a dissatisfactory way.
This is due to several circumstances. The beer is normally tapped in portions in smaller amounts of, for instance 1/4 or 1/2 liter. In this process the condition of the stream is more or less changing all the time, since the beer from standstill is accelerating upon opening of the faucet, and immediately after decelerating to standstill when the faucet is closed.
Some people are using a long time for tapping the beer, while others are faster. Furthermore, the gas pressure, that is the pressure for driving the liquid out through the faucet, can be subject to substantial changes, e.g. by adjusting the reduction valve, or if the container is supplied with too little driving gas. Furthermore, the temperature of the beer can vary significantly and thereby cause the gas pressure to fluctuate.
The conditions for dispensing the beer are in such way subject to even very large and partly also rapidly continuous changes. It has therefore up till now not been possible to control the foam process with a satisfactory result.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The purpose of the invention is to provide a tapping faucet which is able to automatically regulate the dispensing process by changings of conditions, in which the liquid, e.g. the beer, is dispensed, so that there continuously is obtained the foam degree which is chosen in advance, that means the relation between foam and liquid.
In this faucet, at least one stream resistance body is provided before the valve plug when viewed in the stream direction. This body is freely axially slidable in the outlet duct at least along a predetermined distance, and has a small cross section across the stream direction compared to that of the outlet duct. This provides a narrowing of the duct so that both the stream velocity and degree of foam of the beer are reduced. The reduction in foam is due to the ability of the resistance body to slide freely to and fro in the outlet duct depending upon the condition of the stream.
From PCT international patent application PCT/DK95/00376 is known a tapping faucet with a spout, in which the outlet duct is placed, and where the valve plug is placed at the end of a spindle which extends through the outlet duct to an area outside the casing. The spindle furthermore is connected to a handle to slide the spindle and thereby the valve plug to and fro in the outlet duct between a closed position where the valve plug is adjoining a seat in the outlet duct and an open position where the valve plug has been raised from the seat.
By an advantageous embodiment the resistance body can in this case have a central opening through which the spindle is extending and thereby is controlling the resistance body when this is axially slided to and fro in the outlet duct.
By forming the resistance body as a ring-shaped
REFERENCES:
patent: 3220617 (1965-11-01), Veistrup
patent: 3612354 (1971-10-01), Sitton et al.
patent: 4011894 (1977-03-01), Barnes
patent: 4655374 (1987-04-01), Guerette
patent: 4687123 (1987-08-01), Hyde
patent: 5573145 (1996-11-01), Groh
patent: 5607084 (1997-03-01), George
Kaufman Joseph A.
Rasmussen Jorgen
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