JP2000302195A - Beverage server - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To efficiently cool and heat the beverage by a compact device by continuously and longitudinally storing a plurality of plate-like bodies having beverage flow passages inside in an exchangeable manner in a heat exchange box with a heat exchange medium stored therein, and connecting the beverage flow passages of the plate-like bodies to each other. SOLUTION: Cooling water is stored inside a heat exchange box 10 to be assembled by fitting a top plate 1, a bottom plate 2, right and left side plates 3 and forward and rear plates 4, 4 using screws 5.... Beverage connection flow passages 20 in which a plurality of plate-like bodies 21 having a flow passage 25 therein are arranged are provided in the box 10, and the beverage flowing through the plate-like bodies 21... is cooled through the heat exchange with the cooling water in the box 10. The plate-like bodies 21 are connected to communicate with each other by connection pipes 30..., a rearmost portion 30a is connected to a beverage tank through a joint 31, and a forward-most portion 30b is connected to a beverage pouring nozzle through a joint 32. An agitating machine 33 is provided through rearmost three plate-like bodies 21....

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a beverage server represented by a beer server and has an improved cooling structure. More specifically, the present invention employs a cartridge type flow path in place of a conventional pipe flow path. It is about structure.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a beverage server installed in a restaurant or the like has a structure in which a drinking water pipe is routed in a heat exchange box storing cooling water, and the drinking water is cooled by heat exchange with the cooling water. Is common.

[0003]

By the way, in the above-mentioned conventional beverage server, in order to obtain a predetermined cooling efficiency, a drinking water pipe is formed into a spiral shape to lengthen the entire length of the pipe and increase a contact area with the cooling water. Was. However, due to the molding of the pipe, it is difficult to make the drinking water pipe extremely curved or complicated, and the curved part is gently molded to avoid unnecessary pressure loss of the delivery pressure of the drinking water. Is preferred. For this reason, in the past, a drinking water pipe was spirally formed into a cylindrical or rectangular shape, but in this case, the dead space due to the center space of the spiral, that is, the surrounding space of the pipe, became large, and the heat exchange box Also, it was necessary to make the shape with sufficient vertical, horizontal and depth. That is, conventionally, there was a problem that the size of the beer server could not be reduced due to the molding of the drinking water pipe. Therefore, this kind of beverage server is mainly used for business use, and it is difficult to introduce it for home use because of the installation space. Has forced the number of seats to be reduced, making it difficult to introduce a beverage server.

[0004] On the other hand, when a part of a beverage pipe is broken or clogged in the above-mentioned conventional beverage server, it is necessary to replace the entire drinking water pipe and maintenance is difficult. Note that the above-described problem is not limited to the case of cooling the beverage, but is of course common to the beverage server for warming the beverage.

[0005] The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a beverage server which is smaller and easy to maintain.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, a plurality of plate-like bodies each having a beverage flow path provided inside a heat exchange box storing a heat exchange medium are arranged vertically. A means of accommodating each of them in a replaceable manner and connecting the beverage flow paths of each plate-like body was used. Here, the plate-like body is defined as a panel body including not only a rectangular shape but also a circular shape and other shapes. Further, the beverage flow path includes not only a mode of reciprocating the plate-like body up, down, left and right, but also a spiral mode and other modes. Further, the heat exchange medium refers to a coolant such as cooling water when cooling the beverage, and refers to a heat medium such as hot water when heating the beverage.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, a specific configuration of the plate-like body is constituted by a pair of face plates in which the plate material is divided into two in the thickness direction, and a half-split flow path is formed on the facing surface of each face plate. Then, a means of integrating these pair of face plates to provide a beverage flow path was used. Further, in claim 3, a means is adopted in which a plurality of spiral pipes wound in a spiral shape instead of the plate-like body are connected in parallel vertically. Furthermore, in claim 4, means for selectively forming a flow path of another heat exchange medium for performing heat exchange with the heat exchange medium on the outer surface of the heat exchange box is selectively used.

[0008]

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a beverage server according to one embodiment of the present invention. In the figure,
Reference numeral 10 denotes a heat exchange box assembled by fastening the top plate 1, the bottom plate 2, the side plates 3.3, and the front and rear plates 4, 4 with screws 5,..., And stores cooling water therein. 20
Is a connection flow path for a beverage in which a plurality of plate-like bodies 21 each having a flow path 25 formed therein are arranged, and as shown in FIG.
A plurality of (five in the present embodiment) plate-like bodies 21 are vertically arranged in parallel in parallel at a predetermined interval in the heat exchange box 1, and each of them is replaceable to be a cartridge type. Then, the beverage flowing through the plate-like bodies 21 is cooled by heat exchange with cooling water in the heat exchange box. Note that the plate-like body 21 preferably has a high heat exchange rate and is made of a material having excellent corrosion resistance and rust resistance, for example, stainless steel or titanium.
When it is made of aluminum, it is preferable to coat the inside of the beverage flow path 25 with Teflon in order to prevent rust in the beverage flow path 25 and to smoothly distribute the beverage. In FIG. 2, reference numerals 30... 30 denote connecting pipes communicating the respective plate-like bodies 21, and a rear end 30 a thereof is connected to a beverage tank (not shown) via a joint 31, and a front pipe 30 b is connected to It is connected to a beverage discharge nozzle (not shown) via a joint 32. Reference numeral 33 denotes a stirrer provided so as to penetrate the three sheets behind the plate-like bodies 21... 21 to stir the cooling water in the heat exchange box to make the temperature uniform.

In the above configuration, the front and rear plates 4.4 of the heat exchange box 10 are provided with refrigerant ports 6.6 for introducing and discharging a refrigerant such as Freon gas, as shown in FIG. Refrigerant channels 7... 7 are formed in each of the plate 1, the bottom plate 2, and the side plates 3 so as to communicate therewith. As described above, in the present embodiment, by forming the flow path of the refrigerant on the outer wall of the heat exchange box 1, the cooling water in the heat exchange box exchanges heat with the refrigerant flowing through the refrigerant flow paths 7 to 7 and is cooled and held. I have to do that.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 4, the connection flow path 20 for the beverage comprises a combination of a plate-like body 21 and lids 22 fixed on the upper and lower sides with screws 5. Note that 23
Is an entrance of the beverage, and 24 is a shaft insertion hole of the agitator 33. Further, as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, the plate-shaped body 21 is provided with beverage passages 25 penetrating vertically, which are provided in two front and rear rows, and by forming folding grooves 26 on the upper and lower surfaces thereof,
Adjacent beverage channels 25 are communicated with each other. Further, by forming a vertical folded groove 27 at the left end of the upper surface of the plate-shaped body 21, the front and rear beverage flow paths 25a and 25b are connected, and all the internal flow paths 25...

The turning grooves 26 and 27 of the flow path 25 are
As shown in FIG. 7, it may be formed in the lid 22 and the plate-shaped body 21 may be provided with a flow path 25 vertically penetrating therethrough. At this time,
By forming the folded grooves 26 and 27 in a curved shape, there is no corner in the flow path, which is suitable for application to carbonated beverages such as beer. This is because the flow path can be smoothed to reduce the flow path resistance, thereby preventing unnecessary foaming.

[0012] From the viewpoint of preventing foaming of the carbonated beverage, in the modification shown in FIG.
A half-shaped flow path 29 having a curved folded portion 28 was formed on one surface of the. Then, as shown in FIG. 9, by bonding and integrating the plate members 21, a beverage flow path having substantially the same shape as that shown in FIG. 7 can be formed. Note that the flow path 29 may be formed in a spiral shape.

FIG. 10 shows another embodiment of the connection flow path for the beverage, in which a pipe 40 wound in a spiral shape is used as the beverage flow path instead of the above-mentioned plate-like body 21. By projecting the ends 41 and 42 of the spiral pipe 40 back and forth, the ends can be connected to secure a plurality of rows of beverage flow paths as shown in FIG.

In the above embodiment, the configuration for cooling the beverage by using the refrigerant has been described. However, it is needless to say that the server for heating the beverage can be provided by using the heat medium instead of the refrigerant. In addition, heat exchange box 1
It is also possible to cover the outer surface of 0 with a heat insulating material.

[0015]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Since the plate-like body with the flow path formed inside was used as the flow path for the beverage,
Since the beverage flow path is completed only by arranging a plurality of the plate-shaped members, the trouble of routing pipes in the heat exchange box as in the related art is eliminated, and the interval between the plate-shaped members can be appropriately reduced. As a result, the dead space can be reduced, so that the beverage server can be downsized. Further, according to the present invention, by combining the plate and the lid, a complicated and long flow path that cannot be formed by a pipe can be configured, and as a result, the flow path length per one plate can be increased. Therefore, the size of the beverage server can be reduced.

Further, since the plate-like body having the beverage flow path formed therein can be replaced one by one, maintenance of the beverage flow path is easy. Furthermore, if only the flow path length per one plate is calculated, the total length of the beverage flow path can be easily calculated by multiplying the number of the flow paths.

Further, in the case of a plate-like body in which a pipe is spirally wound instead of the plate-like body, the thickness thereof is substantially the same as the pipe diameter. Even so, the entire width is smaller than when the pipes are arranged in a spiral shape, and the size of the beverage server can be reduced. Further, it is needless to say that the same effects as those of the above-described plate-like body can be obtained with respect to the ease of replacement and the ease of calculating the flow path length.

Further, since a flow path for another heat exchange medium for performing heat exchange with the internal heat exchange medium is formed on the outer surface of the heat exchange box, a temperature recovery device (cooling water) for the internal heat exchange medium is separately provided. Generator, etc.), the structure can be simplified, and the length of the flow path can be increased in proportion to the size of the heat exchange box, so that the temperature of the internal heat exchange medium can be efficiently restored. It can be carried out.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a beverage server according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an overall side view of the beverage server with a left side plate removed.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of a heat exchange box in the beverage server.

FIG. 4 is an exploded front view of a plate and a lid in the beverage server.

FIG. 5 is a plan view of the plate-like body.

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of the plate and the lid.

FIG. 7 is an exploded cross-sectional view showing a modified example of a plate-like body and a lid.

FIG. 8 is a front view showing a further modification of the plate-like body.

FIG. 9 is a perspective view showing a state in which the plate-like bodies are attached to each other.

FIG. 10 is a front view of a spiral pipe showing another embodiment of the beverage flow path.

FIG. 11 is a side view showing a connection state of the spiral pipe.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Top plate of heat exchange box 2 Same, bottom plate 3 Same, side plate 4 Same, front plate / rear plate 5 Screw 6 Refrigerant inlet / outlet 7 Refrigerant flow path 10 Heat exchange box 20 Beverage connection flow path 21 Plate-shaped body 22 Lid Reference Signs List 23 Drink entrance / exit 24 Shaft insertion hole 25 Beverage flow path 26 Folded groove (left / right) 27 Folded groove (front and rear) 28 Half-folded part 29 Half-shaped flow path 30 Connecting pipe 31/32 Joint 33 Stirrer 40 Spiral Pipe

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A heat exchange box storing a heat exchange medium,
A beverage server comprising: a plurality of plate-like bodies each having a beverage flow path provided therein; and a plurality of the plate-like bodies are vertically arranged in parallel and exchangeably accommodated, and the beverage flow paths of the respective plate-like bodies are connected. 2. A plate-like body is constituted by a pair of face plates obtained by dividing a plate material into two in a thickness direction, and a half-split flow path is formed on opposing surfaces of each face plate, and these pair of face plates are integrated. The beverage server according to claim 1, further comprising a beverage flow path. 3. The beverage server according to claim 1, wherein the beverage flow path is formed by connecting a plurality of spiral pipes wound in a spiral shape in place of the plate-like body in a vertical and parallel manner. 4. The beverage server according to claim 1, wherein a flow path for another heat exchange medium for exchanging heat with the heat exchange medium is formed on an outer surface of the heat exchange box.