GB2434572A

GB2434572A - Beverage dispense tap

Info

Publication number: GB2434572A
Application number: GB0515720A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Roger Hyde
Original assignee: Alumasc Dispense Ltd
Current assignee: Alumasc Dispense Ltd
Priority date: 2005-07-30
Filing date: 2005-07-30
Publication date: 2007-08-01
Anticipated expiration: 2025-07-30
Also published as: GB0515720D0; GB2434572B

Abstract

A beverage dispensing tap comprising an inlet, (1a, fig 2) two flow paths (23a, 23b) leading to respective outlets, the outlets being preferably coaxially arranged, wherein one of the flow paths includes a restrictor (20, fig 2), and moveable means such as a lever for directing beverage to one or other flow path, which means is moveable by a user-operated mechanism moveable in one operating direction to direct flow to one outlet and in a second operating direction to direct flow to the other outlet.

Description

Bevera2e Dispense Tap This invention relates to a beverage dispense

tap. In particular, it relates to a beverage dispense tap for dispensing beer or similar beverages and in particular, which can provide, in addition to a full liquid flow, also a creamy flow during a part of a dispensing operation.

It is common to use a tap to control the quantity and timing of dispense of a beverage. Whilst some beers, cider or similar beverage require just a simple dispensing operation which generally is uniform throughout the dispense of the quantity of product, others require a more sophisticated dispense. It is becoming more common for customers to require a presentation of beer or lager with a very tight creamy head of close knit bubbles.

The creamy head is often formed by agitation of the beer or lager in the glass during the dispensation period, manipulation of the lever towards the end of dispense in an effort to maintain the tap in a finely open position whereby a creamy effect may be obtained or by some other non-specific method.

Also by creating a creamy head with a tap with a single outlet, this can cause a dispense problem during the subsequent pour due to the residual cream or foam hanging in the tap nozzle from the previous dispense. This problem is mainly seen as excessive foaming of the beer or lager during dispense at the subsequent pour creating uncontrollable head or foam conditions.

To overcome the aforementioned problems previous invention(s) have used separate parallel tubular nozzles, one for normal smooth pour and the other for creamy/foam pour, switchable between the two as required.

The present invention arose in an attempt to provide an improved dispenser for this type of beverage.

According to the present invention in a first aspect, there is provided a beverage dispensing tap comprising an inlet and two tubular nozzles, one of which includes flow restriction means and one of the nozzle being within, preferably coaxially within, the other.

Preferably, moveable means for directing beverage to one or other nozzle are provided, which means are moveable by a user-operated mechanism moveable in one operating direction to direct flow to one outlet and in a second operating direction to direct flow to the other outlet.

According to the present invention there is provided a beverage dispensing tap comprising an inlet, two flow paths leading to respective outlets, the outlets being coaxially arranged, wherein one of the flow paths includes a restrictor, and; moveable means for directing beverage to one or other flow path, which means is moveable by a user-operated mechanism moveable in one operating direction to direct flow to one outlet and in a second operating direction to direct flow to the other outlet.

Embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 shows a side view of a tap; Figure 2 shows a cross-sectional view of the tap from the same direction; Figure 3 shows a cross-sectional view through line Ill-Ill; Figure 4 shows a cross-sectional view through line IV-IV; and Figure 5 shows a cross-sectional view through line V-V.

Referring to Figure 1, a side of a tap is shown, which tap looks very conventional from the outside. The tap T connects to an inlet 1 from a keg or other type of beer store! dispenser. A manually operated lever L is used to operate the tap. As will be described further below, the arrangement is such that the lever can be rotated in one direction, say anti-clockwise, about a pivot point P to provide "normal" unrestricted flow and then be rotated in the opposite direction (say clockwise) to direct flow through a restricted outlet to provide a creamy head towards the end of a dispensing process.

Referring now to Figures 2 to 5, the mechanical construction of the tap according to this embodiment will now be described.

In a beverage dispense system, liquid is contained under pressure within the tap via a inlet bore la and a tap body I, inner chamber lb and sealed to atmosphere by a diaphragm 2 and main seal 3. An inner diametral lip 2b of the diaphragm is held sealingly captive around a piston 4 by downward force exerted by a main spring 5 through a diaphragm support 6. The main spring force is maintained via the piston 4 to engage the main seal 3 with a sealing face ic of the tap body 1. The outer diametral lip 2c of diaphragm 2 is held sealingly captive by downwards force of locating sleeve 7 exerted by the screwed retaining nut 8.

The piston 4 also carries a creaming device incorporating a creamer piston 9, creamer piston seat 10 together with a lift pin 12 and creamer piston spring 13. In this configuration, creamer piston 9 is urged downwards by spring 13 to provide a liquid tight seal against the sealing face of creamer piston seat 10 by creamer piston seal 14.

Appropriate additional seals are provided at 15 and 16 to prevent liquid leakage to atmosphere. In creamer operation, the creamer piston 9 is lifted independently upwards by upward movement of creamer actuator 17 and lift pin 12 that in turn disengages its seal with the creamer piston seat 10 for liquid flow. Liquid flow in this operation is provided through cross-holes 4a within piston 4 from tap body chamber lb. The whole main piston assembly may be lifted to provide normal outlet liquid flow by moving the operating lever cam 19 forward through approximately 80 in the direction indicated. The assembly is slideably mounted within the tap body such that rotational movement of the tap lever 19 lifts the assembly via pivot pin 18 which in turn moves the main seal 3 upwards and away from its sealing face ic of body 1.

Backwards rotation of the tap lever cam 19 through approximately 8 in the direction indicated provides lift of the creamer components only. Protrusions 1 9a within lever cam 19 engage two opposing upper slots 1 7a of creamer actuator 17 and the vertical movement generated of creamer actuator lift creamer piston 9 via lift pin 12. Liquid under pressure is therefore allowed to flow from tap body chamber at lb through the cross-holes 4a in piston 4 and through creamer seat 10 at lOa. Cream flow is then provided by the pressurized liquid passing through a multi-holed restrictor 20 and dispensed through the nozzle 23 as indicated. Below the restrictor 20 there is provided a multi-slotted damper plate 21 to prevent jetting of the cream flow. An additional seal 22 is provided between restrictor 20 and piston 4 to prevent pressurized liquid leakage during the creaming phase.

The nozzle 23 is basically a two passage concentric outlet that is screw fitted to the body 1. The inner bore 23a is for cream flow and the outer annular passage 23b for normal flow. The restrictor 20 and damper plate 21 are in effect permanent features of the nozzle in that they are part of the nozzle assembly. This is a desirable feature since the assembly may be removed from the tap body as a whole for separate cleaning, thus ensuring that the restrictor creaming ports are maintained in a contamination free state.

The lever/lever cam 19 is positively held in a "flat" condition against cap 27 by downward spring force on the pivot pin 18 through grip 24, grip pin 25 and lever spring 26.

Compression of the spring 26 is retained by spring fastener 28.

General sideways rotation of the main piston assembly is prevented by the square creamer actuator 17 having a square or rectangular configuration I 7b (or any other non-circular configuration) locating within correspondingly shaped passage 7a of locating sleeve 7 which in turn is located within the tap body 1 via lug 7b within body slot id. The square configuration is shown most clearly in Figure 5.

In use, the tap is first connected to a keg or other source of beer or other beverage to be dispensed. When a quantity of beer is to be dispensed (in the UK this will generally be in pint or half pint quantities) the lever is first rotated in the forward direction by around 800. This causes the beverage to flow through the outer outlet 41 which is therefore unrestricted flow. After the main bulk of the beverage has been poured, the lever handle may then be moved in the opposite direction by approximately 8 (until it stops) and this then causes the flow to be through the central creamer flow path and through the restrictor 20. This then enables restricted flow and therefore more turbulence and so creamy' flow to be dispensed for the final portion of the beverage so that the it is laid upon the normally poured product to create a creamy head at 42. It has been found that an entire pint of beer with head can be poured in an average period of about 10 to 12 seconds, although it may be done in as low as 8 seconds, and this speed has considerable advantages in environments where many drinks have to be poured in a short period of time.

The speed of fluid flow through the restricted inner passage 42 is controlled at least partially by the size and quantity of orifice holes into the tube and also by controlling the diameter d of the inner restricted outlet.

When the lever is pulled back to its cream dispensing position, it should be noted that it is merely simply pulled back by the full 8 until it reaches a stop position. Previous cream flow type dispensing apparatus, which used lever movable in different direction used the degree by which the lever was pulled back to determine the amount of frothing which occurred. This required skill on the part of an operator to judge the precise angle. With the presently described embodiment, this is not necessary, the user simply pulls back the lever as far as it will go (ie approximately 8 in this embodiment). This enables a less skilled user to dispense a beverage.

In previously known creamer type dispensers having two flow paths, one of the flow paths (typically the creamer path) terminates at a higher position than the other flow path. This sometimes resulted in a problem that after a creaming operation, some foam or cream was left in the system. Any foam that was left in the system could represent a problem since the foam itself acts as nucleation points for the beverage dispense through the normal dispense nozzle during the next dispense operation and therefore the beverage that should have been normally dispensed tended to be creamy, at least at the start of a dispensing operation. With embodiments of the present invention, therefore, the inner creaming outlet is preferably level with or below (in use) the outer normal dispensing outlet. This avoids contamination of the outer outlet by foam from the inner outlet.

One further feature is shown in Figures 1 and 2 and is a small slot 40 formed in the wall of the outer outlet 41. This slot extends down to the bottom of this outlet and may, in one embodiment, be around 1.5 mm wide. This operation is to drain the nozzle and ensures consistency of subsequent dispensations.

The outlet nozzles, in embodiments of the invention, may be coaxial or substantially coaxial or may be non-coaxial.

Claims

Claims 1. A beverage dispensing tap comprising an inlet and two tubular

nozzles, one of which includes flow restriction means and one of the nozzles being within the other.

2. A beverage dispensing tap as claimed in Claim 1, comprising moveable means for directing beverage to one or other nozzle, which means is moveable by a user-operated mechanism moveable in one operating direction to direct flow to one outlet and in a second operating direction to direct flow to the other outlet.

3. A tap as claimed in Claim 1 or 2, wherein the nozzles are substantially coaxial.

4. A tap as claimed in Claim 2, wherein the two lever directions are opposite directions.

5. A tap as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the path with the restrictor is the inner path.

6. A tap as claimed in any preceding claim, including a piston moveable axially against a return force by the operating mechanism.

7. A tap as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the user-operated mechanism is a lever-operated mechanism.

8. A tap as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the restrictor is a means for foaming or creaming.

9. A tap as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the restrictor is a perforated plate.

10. A tap as claimed in any preceding claim, including a damper plate.

11. A tap as claimed in any preceding claim, including an actuator having a non-circular configuration to avoid sideways rotation.

12. A tap as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the restricted outlet terminates at or below the level of the non-restricted outlet.

13. A tap as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the user operated mechanism is moveable in the first direction to dispense beverage through the unrestricted outlet and to a stop position in the second direction to dispense through the restricted outlet.

14. A tap as claimed in any preceding claim, including draining means in the outer/coaxially outlet.

15. A tap as claimed in Claim 14, wherein the draining means is a slot.

16. A tap as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the required movement in the first direction is substantially greater than the required movement in the second direction.

17. A tap substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to, and as illustrated by, the accompanying drawings.