EP1590293A1

EP1590293A1 - Cock for pouring beer or beverages

Info

Publication number: EP1590293A1
Application number: EP03795978A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Carlo Maria Pensa; Pietro Rivaletto
Original assignee: BREW SERVICE Srl; Ode Officine di Esino Lario Srl
Current assignee: BREW SERVICE Srl; Ode Officine di Esino Lario Srl
Priority date: 2003-01-16
Filing date: 2003-12-31
Publication date: 2005-11-02
Also published as: ITMI20030053A1; WO2004062913A1; AU2003298254A1; AU2003298254A8

Abstract

A cock for pouring beer or beverages is described, comprising a cock body (1), an inlet conduit (2), an outlet conduit (9, 10), a fluid interception system and a control handle (13) of said system wherein the interception system is provided with a cock-cartridge unit (5) that can be replaced without disassembling the whole cock from the system. This embodiment leaves completely free the fluid passage hole in the open position and thus helps the washing and maintenance operations, completely emptying the system from the fluid left in the outlet conduit.

Description

"COCK FOR POURING BEER OR BEVERAGES"

The cocks for tapping beer or beverages mounted on the systems called "draught" are well known devices. They essentially comprise a cock body and a manual control lever which provides for the fluid passage opening. The opening system can be provided by a shutter, with or without load loss compensation, or by the rotation of a cylinder or of a ball which opens the passage.

Three are the disadvantages of this embodiment that the present invention solves. The first one concerns the lack of possibility to have the full and free passage of the fluid through a conduit of appropriate dimensions, in order to perform the system cleaning also using rubber balls able to operate a mechanical rubbing. The second one concerns the impossibility to perform the cock maintenance and the gaskets and wearing parts replacement without removing said cock from the system. The third one is that the possibility to empty the system from the fluid left between the cock control point and the outlet port is not always provided.

The embodiment described hereby provides for a cock essentially comprising a cock-body in which a ball cock-cartridge unit, operated by the manual lever and easy to be assembled to said body, is frontally inserted and maintained in position by a ring nut; said ball cock-cartridge unit characteristics are described in the appended claims and will be better highlighted examining the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment given in an explanatory but not limiting way, with reference to the annexed drawings wherein:

Figure 1 shows a vertical section of the cock; Figure 2 shows a horizontal section of said cock, in the opened position;

Figure 3 shows a vertical section of said cock, in the closed position; Figure 4 is a sectional view of an embodiment of the cock-cartridge unit with the body made of two components;

Figure 5 shows a cross section of the same cock-cartridge unit shown in Figure 5; and

Figure 6 shows another embodiment of said cock-cartridge unit with the body made by a disposable bent pipe. Referring to the Figures 1 and 2, with numeral 1 the cock body is shown, on which is screwed the connector 2 with a sleeve collar 3 fixing it to the system; inside the connector the fluid passage conduit 4 is obtained. The cock-cartridge unit 5, which is sealed with the O-Ring 6, is placed against the connector 2; said cartridge is maintained in position by the outlet connector 7 with the pouring pipe 8, inside of which the outlet conduits are obtained, indicated with numerals 9 and 10 respectively; said connector 7 is sealed with the cock-cartridge unit by the O-Ring gasket 11 and is fixed to the cock body by the threaded ring nut 12.

The manual control lever is formed by the handle 13, fixed to the clevis 14 which is housed in two half-hubs 15 and 16 fixed with the screws 17 and 18; said half-hubs can rotate on the cylindrical diameters 19 and 20 and abuts against the pins 21 and 22 which slide through two slots, not shown in the drawings, in the half- hubs; the half-hub 15 then is provided with the slot 23 where the control pin 24 (square and with two steps) of the cock-cartridge unit is housed. Said pin, in the present embodiment, is integral with the ball 25 provided with the fluid conduit 26.

With reference also to the Figure 4, said cock-cartridge unit consists of the body 27, on which the closing cap 28 is screwed, said cap holding in position the two gaskets 29 and 30 forming a tight seal with the ball, the control pin and to each other.

In the cock body 1 the chamber 31, in communication with the atmosphere through the hole 32, is provided; in said chamber the hole 33 is furthermore in communication with the hole 34 in the cock-cartridge unit and in the gasket body respectively; the ball is then provided with the hole 35 which, in its open position, is sealed by the gasket 29; in Figure 3 one can clearly see that, in the closed position of the inlet conduit 4 by the ball 25, the outlet conduit 9 is in communication with the atmosphere so that said outlet conduit 9 is emptied from the fluid remaining after the pouring operation.

It is evident from the foregoing description that, to perform the maintenance of the system, it is sufficient to remove the screws 17 and 18, detach the handle 13, then remove the two half-hubs 15 and 16, unscrew the ring nut 12 through the holes 36 and 37, thus detaching the cock-cartridge unit changing it with a new one.

Moreover one can clearly see that the fluid passage hole in the open position is completely free and allows washing with the rubber balls without the complicated operations needed when the closing system is provided with a shutter. Although the presently preferred embodiment of the invention has been described in detail, it must be noticed that it is possible to resort to elements variations, additions, alterations and/or modifications, without falling outside its scope of protection, as it is also defined in the appended claims.

Claims

1. A cock for pouring beer or beverages essentially comprising a cock body, an inlet conduit, an outlet conduit, a fluid interception system and a control handle of said system wherein the interception system is provided with a cock-cartridge unit that can be replaced without disassembling the whole cock from the system.

2. The cock according to claim 1 , wherein the cock-cartridge unit comprises a ball shutter, a control for said ball shutter, two gaskets adapted to warrant a tight seal, the whole unit being assembled in a body made with a screwed cap or with a disposable bevelled single piece.

3. The cock according to the preceding claims, wherein said ball has a further passage which connects the outlet conduit with a bleed hole when the cock is in closed position, so as to cause said outlet conduit to be emptied from the fluid.

4. The cock according to the preceding claims, wherein the replacement of the cock-cartridge unit is performed by the mere operations of detaching the control handle, removing the two control handle fixing half-hubs, unscrewing the outlet connector's ring nut, thus simply detaching the cock-cartridge unit for its replacement.

5. The cock according to the preceding claims, wherein the two gaskets assembled in the cock-cartridge unit body are sealed at the same time on the ball shutter, the control pin of said ball and between each other.