GB1588855A - Refrigerated beverage cooling baths - Google Patents

Description

(54) IMPROVEMENTS IN OR RELATING TO REFRIGERATED BEVERAGE COOLING BATHS (71) We, McQUAY-PERFEX INC., of 13600 Industrial Park Boulevard Minneapolis, Minnesota 55440, United States of America, a corporation organised and existing under the laws of the State of Minnesota, United States of America, do hereby declare the invention, for which we pray that a patent may be granted to us, and the method by which it is to be performed, to be particularly described in and by the following statement: This invention relates to a beverage cooling bath, and more specifically to means for controlling the size of an ice bank therein.

It has been known heretofore to provide beverage cooling baths that include a water tank having water associated with a refrigeration evaporator, a beverage cooling coil being disposed therein. One type of control that has been proposed is disclosed in copending application 22065/78 filed 24 May 1978 (Serial No. 1574580) assigned to the assignee of this application, Serial No.

In that control, a tube is arranged in a generally Y-shape with water fed from below. Water is discharged through one arm of the Y-shape which extends adjacent to the evaporator, and the other arm of the Y-shape goes to a reservoir containing an appropriate level-responsive sensing means. Although such structure is meritorious, the control is not entirely fail-safe.

The present invention is directed to a beverage cooling bath adapted to be cooled by a refrigeration system, comprising: a thermally insulated water tank; an evaporator forming a part of the refrigeration system and supported to be in heat-transfer relation to water in said tank for freezing ice on a surface thereof; a motor-driven water impeller supported in said tank; a tube having an inlet end supported in confronting relation to said impeller for receiving a flow of water therefrom, said tube having an intermediate portion extending alongside and spaced from the freezing surface of said evaporator, and an outlet end in series with said inlet end and said intermediate portion; and means connected to said outlet and responsive to blockage of the sampling flow through said outlet due to the formation of ice in said intermediate portion to control the refrigeration system.

Many other features of the present invention will become manifest to those versed in the art upon making reference to the detailed description and the accompanying sheet of drawings in which a preferred structural embodiment incorporating the present invention is shown by way of illustrative example.

On the drawings Figure 1 is a diagram of a beverage dispensing system having a beverage cooling bath provided according to the present invention; and Figure 2 is an enlarged cross-sectional view, diagrammatic in nature, of the beverage cooling bath of Figure 1 showing the novel ice bank control.

The present invention is particularly useful when embodied in a beverage dispensing system having a beverage cooling bath such as is schematically shown in Figure 1, generally indicated by the numeral 10. The system includes a source of beverage 11, which is under pressure, for example from a source of carbon dioxide gas 12, and the beverage can be withdrawn from a dispensing valve 13, the beverage cooling bath 10 being connected between the source 11 and the valve 13. The bath 10 includes a water tank 14, a beverage cooling coil 15, and a separate evaporator coil 16. The evaporator or evaporator coil 16 is adapted to be connected to and to form a part of a conventional refrigeration system 17.

As best seen in Figure 2, the water tank 14 is enclosed by thermal insulation 18, there being a cover 19. The tank 14 is normally nearly filled with water.

The evaporator 16 is spaced well away from the interior wall 20 of the tank 14, and the beverage cooling coil 15 is disposed between the inside wall 20 and the evaporator 16 and a tube described below. By keeping the beverage cooling coil 15 well spaced from the evaporator 16, the likelihood of a freeze-up occurring in the beverage cooling coil 15 is minimized.

When the refrigeration system 17 is energized, heat is removed from the water by the evaporator 16 until the water reaches its freezing point. Thereafter, after removal of the latent heat of fusion, ice begins to form on the outside of the evaporator or evaporator coil 16. Ice formed on the evaporator 16 is known in the trade as an "ice bank".

When beverage is not being dispensed from the valve 13, the beverage cooling coil 15 contains beverage which is not flowing, and therefore its temperature will drop along with the temperature of the water in the tank 14. After beverage has been dispensed, the beverage cooling coil 15 becomes partially or fully filled with room-temperature beverage from the source 11. Such beverage is warmer and tends to raise the temperature of the water, but first acts to melt a portion of the ice bank. When drinks are not being dispensed, the ice bank builds up in size. In order to ensure that the ice bank does not engage and possibly freeze the beverage in the beverage cooling coil 15, an ice bank control is necessary for limiting the maximum size thereof.

According to the present invention, the beverage cooling bath 10 further includes a motor 21 supported on the cover 19, the motor supporting a shaft 22, on the lower end of which is an impeller 23. The impeller 23 causes a current of water to flow downwardly and also acts as an agitator to keep the water in the tank at a fairly uniform temperature. Yet, it is so small that it does not apply any significant heat to the water because of its movement. Situated immediately below the impeller 23 is an inlet end 24 of a tube 25 into which water is downwardly forced by the impeller 23. The tube 25 is fixedly supported with respect to the evaporator coil 16. The tube 25 has an inside diameter of substantially one eighth inch throughout its length and includes an intermediate copper portion 26 which has a length between 12 and 15 inches.The inlet 24 is connected to the upstream end of the intermediate portion 26 by a plastic portion or hose 27. and its downstream end is connected by a similar portion 28, the tube 25 thus constituting the inlet 24 and the series-connected portions 27. 26 and 28 leading to an outlet 29 thereof, which is connected to the inlet of a reservoir 30. The evaporator coil 16 is helical and as viewed from above is generally oval-shaped, the portion 26 of the tube 25 thus being generally U-shaped and being disposed between the first and second coils of the evaporator coil 16, and lying parallel thereto for a major portion of one turn thereof. Within the reservoir 30, there is disposed the float 31 of a float switch 32 which is adapted to be connected to the refrigeration system 17 for controlling it.The reservoir 30 and the float switch 32 here comprise means connected to the outlet of the tube 25, responsive to blockage of flow there-through due to ice formation, and adapted to be connected to control the refrigeration system 17. The reservoir 30 has an overflow 33 which is directed to return water to the tank 14, and also has a drain 34 also directed to return water to the tank 14.

The motor 21 is normally continually energized and thus the impeller 23 continually discharges a flow of water within the tank and directs such flow downwardly into the inlet 24 and through the tube 25 into the reservoir 30. Once the reservoir 30 becomes filled to the level of the overflow 33, the float 31 is raised to its upper position to energize the refrigeration system 17. Eventually, ice will form within the copper intermediate portion 26 of the tube 25 and begin to restrict the flow of water therethrough. The reservoir 30 has a drain 34 which has a smaller flow capacity than that of the tube 25, and when the flow capacity of the tube 25 is reduced so that it is less than the drain 34, the water in the reservoir 30 will pass out through the drain 34, thus lowering the float 31 to deenergize the refrigeration system 17.The flow capacity of the overflow 33 combined with the flow capacity of the drain 34 is greater than the flow capacity of the tube 25 so that the overflow 33 will always act to limit the maximum level up to which water may rise in the reservoir 30, and in that the drain 34 is relatively small, it will not prevent the water level going up, but will always drain the reservoir as the flow into it becomes reduced.

In the event that the motor 21 should fail or if the impeller 23 should become dislodged from the shaft 22, water will cease flowing through the tube 25, enabling the reservoir 30 to drain, and thus enable the refrigeration system to be shut down because of such failure of the ice bank control.

Any freeze-up of the tube 25, or if it should become clogged by foreign material, will cause the refrigeration system to be shut down. In summary, any failure of any component in the circulating system of the ice bank control will cause the electrical circuit to the refrigeration system to be opened, to stop the production of ice. Thus the problems connected with possible water bath freeze-up are avoided by such fail-safe construction.

The actual amount of ice that will form on the evaporator coil 16 will depend in part upon the length of the metal portion 26, the distance that the intermediate metal portion 26 is spaced from the evaporator coil 16, and the force of water level needed to actuate the float switch 32. When ice on the ice bank melts, ice within the intermediate portion 26 will also melt, thus reestablishing flow of water to the reservoir 30 and thus energizing the float switch 32.

A bracket 35 provides means for supporting the inlet 24 of the tube 25 and also carries thereon anti-cavitation plates such as 36.

Thus there is provided an inexpensive beverage cooling bath assembly that has a particularly simple and inexpensive means or ice bank control for controlling the amount of ice that can be formed therein constructed in a fail-safe manner.

WHAT WE CLAIM IS: 1. A beverage cooling bath adapted to be cooled by a refrigeration system, comprising: a thermally insulated water tank; an evaporator forming a part of the refrigeration system and supported to be in heattransfer relation to water in said tank for freezing ice on a surface thereof; a motordriven water impeller supported in said tank; a tube having an inlet end supported in confronting relation to said impeller for receiving a flow of water therefrom, said tube having an intermediate portion extending alongside and spaced from the freezing surface of said evaporator, and an outlet end in series with said inlet end and said intermediate portion; and means connected to said outlet and responsive to blockage of the sampling flow through said outlet due to the formation of ice in said intermediate portion to control the refrigeration system.

2. A beverage cooling bath according to claim 1, said means comprising: a reservoir connected to said outlet, and arranged to return water into said tank; and a floatswitch having a float in said reservoir and arranged to energize the refrigeration system in response to said float being in an upper position, and to deenergise the refrigeration system in a lower position.

3. A beverage cooling bath according to claim 1 or 2, said intermediate portion of said tube being metallic.

4. A beverage cooling bath according to claim 1, 2 or 3, said evaporator being a helical coil, and said intermediate portion of said tube being generally U-shaped and extending parallel to a portion of one turn of said helical coil.

5. A beverage cooling bath according to any preceding claim, in which said tube has a substantially uniform cross-sectional size from its inlet to said reservoir.

6. A beverage cooling bath according to any preceding claim, said means comprising: a float switch adapted to be connected to the refrigeration system; and a reservoir connected to said outlet, said float switch being responsive to the level of water in said reservoir, said reservoir having a drain of lesser flow capacity than said tube, and said reservoir having an overflow which, with said drain, has a combined flow capacity greater than said tube.

7. A beverage cooling bath according to claim 6, at least one of said drain and said overflow being directed to return water to said tank.

8. A beverage cooling bath according to any preceding claim, including a beverage cooling coil disposed between said intermediate portion of said tube and the internal wall of said tank.

9. A beverage cooling bath substantially as shown and described herein.

**WARNING** end of DESC field may overlap start of CLMS **.

Claims (9)

**WARNING** start of CLMS field may overlap end of DESC **. opened, to stop the production of ice. Thus the problems connected with possible water bath freeze-up are avoided by such fail-safe construction. The actual amount of ice that will form on the evaporator coil 16 will depend in part upon the length of the metal portion 26, the distance that the intermediate metal portion 26 is spaced from the evaporator coil 16, and the force of water level needed to actuate the float switch 32. When ice on the ice bank melts, ice within the intermediate portion 26 will also melt, thus reestablishing flow of water to the reservoir 30 and thus energizing the float switch 32. A bracket 35 provides means for supporting the inlet 24 of the tube 25 and also carries thereon anti-cavitation plates such as 36. Thus there is provided an inexpensive beverage cooling bath assembly that has a particularly simple and inexpensive means or ice bank control for controlling the amount of ice that can be formed therein constructed in a fail-safe manner. WHAT WE CLAIM IS:

1. A beverage cooling bath adapted to be cooled by a refrigeration system, comprising: a thermally insulated water tank; an evaporator forming a part of the refrigeration system and supported to be in heattransfer relation to water in said tank for freezing ice on a surface thereof; a motordriven water impeller supported in said tank; a tube having an inlet end supported in confronting relation to said impeller for receiving a flow of water therefrom, said tube having an intermediate portion extending alongside and spaced from the freezing surface of said evaporator, and an outlet end in series with said inlet end and said intermediate portion; and means connected to said outlet and responsive to blockage of the sampling flow through said outlet due to the formation of ice in said intermediate portion to control the refrigeration system.

2. A beverage cooling bath according to claim 1, said means comprising: a reservoir connected to said outlet, and arranged to return water into said tank; and a floatswitch having a float in said reservoir and arranged to energize the refrigeration system in response to said float being in an upper position, and to deenergise the refrigeration system in a lower position.

3. A beverage cooling bath according to claim 1 or 2, said intermediate portion of said tube being metallic.

4. A beverage cooling bath according to claim 1, 2 or 3, said evaporator being a helical coil, and said intermediate portion of said tube being generally U-shaped and extending parallel to a portion of one turn of said helical coil.

5. A beverage cooling bath according to any preceding claim, in which said tube has a substantially uniform cross-sectional size from its inlet to said reservoir.

6. A beverage cooling bath according to any preceding claim, said means comprising: a float switch adapted to be connected to the refrigeration system; and a reservoir connected to said outlet, said float switch being responsive to the level of water in said reservoir, said reservoir having a drain of lesser flow capacity than said tube, and said reservoir having an overflow which, with said drain, has a combined flow capacity greater than said tube.

7. A beverage cooling bath according to claim 6, at least one of said drain and said overflow being directed to return water to said tank.

8. A beverage cooling bath according to any preceding claim, including a beverage cooling coil disposed between said intermediate portion of said tube and the internal wall of said tank.

9. A beverage cooling bath substantially as shown and described herein.