JPH11157598A - Beer barrel switching apparatus for beer dispenser - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a novel beer barrel switching apparatus wherein a plurality of beer barrels prepared in advance are connected with a beer dispenser and an empty beer barrel can be automatically changed over to another barrel as beer sale proceeds so that beer can be continuously supplied to the dispenser without pause. SOLUTION: A beer circuit (including a sold-out sensor and a beer valve) for connecting each barrel to a beer dispenser in parallel is incorporated in the beer barrel switching apparatus 4 placed among the beer dispenser 1, a plurality of beer barrels 2 (#1 to #4) and a carbon dioxide gas cylinder 3, and a gas circuit (including a gas distribution pipe and a gas valve) for distributing carbon dioxide gas to each beer barrel is incorporated. Control in an automatic mode input to a control box 5 causes the beer valve and the gas valve to sequentially switch from an empty beer barrel to another beer barrel based on a signal from the sold-out sensor for supplying beer to the dispenser.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention automatically switches a plurality of pre-set beer barrels from an empty barrel to another barrel as an optional draft beer dispenser for business use in a restaurant or a pub. And a beer keg switching device for supplying beer to a beer dispenser without interruption.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a beer dispenser for extracting beer from beer barrels into small dispensers and pouring into a cup (jug),
A beer barrel is connected to a beer dispenser equipped with a beer cock and a cooling coil via a connection hose, and beer is extracted from the barrel in a pressure-rise manner by gas pressurization applied to the beer barrel from a carbon dioxide gas cylinder. It is well known to pour into a cup through a cock.

[0003] In this case, conventionally, a beer cock mounted on a beer dispenser and a beer barrel connected thereto have a one-to-one relationship, that is, one beer barrel is connected to each beer cock and used. The current situation is that when the beer barrels in use are emptied due to the progress of beer sales (the dispenser has a built-in beer sold-out sensor, and the sold-out display is displayed by the signal of the sensor). After emptying the connection hose of the dispenser, removing it from the beer keg and replacing it with a separately prepared beer keg, and then invoking the beer extracted from the beer keg into the dispenser and performing a filling operation so as to fill the pipe line , They are trying to resume beer sales.

[0004]

By the way, if the beer cock mounted on the beer dispenser and the beer barrel connected to it are one-to-one as described above, the beer barrel is closed during business hours when beer sales are concentrated. Becomes empty and the operation of replacing the barrel occurs. In addition, beer barrel replacement requires a lot of labor and time, and during this time, sales of beer are interrupted and customers are kept waiting.

[0005] From this point of view, the use of beer barrels connected in series to one beer cock has been partly performed. However, this series connection method uses beer barrels to be used in view of carbon dioxide gas pressure. The number is limited to two barrels, and furthermore, there is a drawback that beer barrels cannot be put in and out first and freshness of beer cannot be managed. The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and a plurality of beer barrels prepared in advance are connected and set in a beer dispenser, and the beer barrels are emptied from the empty ones according to the progress of beer sales. It is an object of the present invention to provide a novel beer keg switching device, which can be automatically switched to beer and can be supplied to a dispenser without interruption, thereby improving sales efficiency.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, a beer keg switching device according to the present invention comprises a beer circuit for connecting a plurality of beer kegs in parallel to a beer dispenser, and a pressurization of each beer keg from a carbon dioxide gas cylinder. A switcher body incorporating a gas circuit for distributing and supplying carbon dioxide gas for extraction, an operation device for controlling the switching of the beer circuit and the gas circuit, and the beer circuit includes a plurality of beer barrels each corresponding to a beer barrel. Manifold with beer inlet,
A beer valve connected to an internal pipe line between each inlet of the manifold and a beer barrel, and a beer sold-out sensor, and the gas circuit includes a plurality of gas distribution ports respectively corresponding to the beer barrel. It has a gas distribution pipe and a gas valve individually corresponding to each gas distribution port. Based on the signal of the beer sold-out sensor, the beer valve and the gas valve are separated from the empty beer barrel by a command from the operating device. It is configured to switch to beer barrels and supply beer to the beer dispenser (claim 1).

According to the present invention, the beer keg switching device having the above configuration can be specifically configured in the following manner. (1) Assemble the manifold by connecting, in series, an inlet block corresponding to the number of beer barrels having beer introduction ports branching laterally from the main body for each block, and an outlet block having beer outlet ports. The present invention is configured (claim 2) so that the selected number of beer barrels connected to the dispenser can correspond to a user's request.

(2) In the manifold according to the above (1), the angle of withdrawal of the beer introduction port branched from the inlet block is set to an acute angle with respect to the direction of beer flow (claim 3). When the piping system is washed with water, a sponge ball which is pushed into an inlet of the piping and scrapes off dirt attached to the pipe wall of the piping is prevented from being caught in the middle of the manifold.

(3) The manifold according to (1), wherein the outlet block is provided with a filling port communicating with a beer filling valve in addition to an outlet port communicating with the beer dispenser. The filling valve is temporarily opened, and the beer extracted from the beer barrel is called to fill the beer circuit (claim 4).

(4) The pipe length between the beer sale sensor connected to the beer circuit and the beer valve is at least 1.5 m.
With the above setting (claim 5), the hose in this section is used as a cushion to prevent bubbles remaining in the empty beer barrel from being sent to the dispenser through the beer valve until the next beer barrel is switched. I do. (5) The operation device of the beer keg switching device is provided with an operation panel, and the operation panel is provided with a beer keg selection button and a mode changeover switch for switching the device between automatic, manual, filling, and termination. The beer valve and gas valve are automatically switched from the empty barrel to the next barrel based on the signal of the sold-out sensor. In the manual mode, an arbitrary beer barrel is selected and the beer valve and gas valve are switched. (Claim 6).

(6) In the preceding paragraph (5), in the automatic mode, the memory of the operating device stores the used beer barrel, and when the sales are resumed in the automatic mode after the temporary sales stop, the beer barrel is used before the sales stop. A control function is provided for supplying beer to the dispenser from the beer barrel that has been operated (claim 7).

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described below based on the illustrated embodiment. First, FIG. 1 shows an external connection diagram between a beer dispenser including a beer keg switching device according to the present invention and a beer keg. In the figure, 1 is a beer dispenser, 2 is a beer barrel, 3 is a carbon dioxide gas cylinder, 4 is a main body of a beer barrel switching device interposed in a pipe between the beer dispenser 1 and the beer barrel, and 5 is an operation box thereof. . The internal piping circuit of the beer keg switching device body will be described later with reference to FIG.

The beer dispenser 1 incorporates a manually operated or button operated beer cock 1a disposed on the front surface thereof and a water-cooled cooling coil 1b connected to the beer cock 1b, and opens the beer cock 1a. The beer is poured into the cup 6 placed on the bend stage. In addition, a dispense head (adapter having a carbon dioxide gas inlet and a beer extraction port) 2a is attached to the beer barrel 2 in advance, and a plurality of barrels (for example, four beer barrels # 1 to # 4) prepared in advance are stored in one. Set it in place.

A hose is connected to the switching device main body 4 between the dispense head 2a of each of the beer barrels # 1 to # 4 and the connection port (beer IN, gas OUT) drawn from the switching device main body 4. A pipe is connected, a hose is connected between the carbon dioxide gas cylinder 3 and the connection port (gas IN), and a hose drawn from the beer dispenser 1 is connected to the connection port (beer OU).
T). The switching device body 4 is controlled by a command from the external operation box 5, and the operation panel 5a of the operation box 5 switches between an automatic mode / manual mode / filling mode / end mode as shown in the figure. A mode changeover switch and a barrel selection button corresponding to the number of beer barrels are provided.

Next, FIG. 2 shows an internal piping circuit of the switching device main body 4 described above. As shown, the internal piping circuit includes a beer circuit represented by a solid gland and a gas circuit represented by a chain line. Here, the beer circuit includes a manifold 7 connected to the connection port (beer OUT), and piping for four systems connected between an inlet port branched from the manifold 7 and the connection ports (# 1 to # 4 beer IN). Beer valve 8 connected for each road
, A beer sold-out sensor 9 connected to the upstream side of the beer valve 8, and a filling valve 10 connected to a filling port of the manifold 8, and the space between the beer valve 8 and the beer sold-out sensor 9 is provided. They are connected via a cushion hose 11 having a length of at least 1.5 m. On the other hand, the gas circuit includes a gas distribution pipe 12 connected between the connection port (gas IN) and the connection ports (# 1 to # 4 gas OUT), and a gas valve (for four systems) branched from the gas distribution pipe 12. # 1 to # 4) 13.

The structure of the manifold 7 is, as shown in FIG. 3, an assembly in which inlet blocks 7A and 7B made as separate parts and an outlet block 7C are interconnected in series via an O-ring 14. Here, the entrance block 7A is provided with two beer introduction ports A1 and A2 drawn to the rear end and side surfaces of the block body, and the entrance block 7A.
B has a beer introduction port B1 branched to the side for each block, and an exit block 7C has a beer discharge port C1 drawn in the axial direction from the front end and a beer filling port C2 drawn in the side. This manifold 8 is connected to a beer circuit as shown in FIG. As described above, if the manifold 7 has a divided structure, the number of the beer barrels to be connected can be easily increased or decreased by selecting the number of the inlet blocks 7B to be combined with the inlet block 7A and the outlet block 7C. Can respond. The withdrawal angle θ of the beer introduction ports A2, B1 branched laterally from the inlet blocks 7A, 7B of the manifold 8 is set to be an acute angle with respect to the flow direction (arrow P) of the beer flowing through the manifold. .

Next, the operation of the beer keg switching device having the above configuration will be described. First, a plurality of beer barrels 2 (# 1 to # 4) prepared in advance and a carbon dioxide gas cylinder 3 are connected to the main body 4 of the switching device connected to the beer dispenser 1 by pipe connection as shown in FIG. In this state, prior to the start of the sale, the charging mode changeover switch is pressed in the operation box 5, and then the beer keg # 1 is selected with the keg selection button. Thus, the beer valve 8 and the gas valve 1 corresponding to the beer keg # 1 in accordance with a command from the operation box 5
3, and the filling valve 10 is opened, and the beer extracted from the beer barrel 1 by gas pressurization passes through the connection port (# 1 beer IN) of the switching device main body 4 to the internal piping circuit (see FIG. 2).
, Which is called into the manifold 7 through the beer sold-out sensor 9 and the beer valve 8, and is discharged through the filling valve 10 from here. This allows
The sold-out sensor 9 detects the beer flowing in the circuit and determines that there is "beer", closes the beer valve 8, the gas valve 9 and the filling valve 13, and thereby completes the beer filling of the circuit for the beer barrel # 1. Next, the same operation is performed for beer barrel #
When steps 2 to # 4 are performed, all beer circuits are filled with beer, and preparations for starting sales are completed.

In this state, when the automatic mode is selected by the mode changeover switch of the operation box 5, the beer extracted from the beer barrel # 1 is poured into the cup 6 for dispensing each time the beer cock 1a of the beer dispenser 1 is opened. When the beer sales proceed and the beer barrel # 1 becomes empty, the sold-out sensor 9 connected to the beer circuit leading to the beer barrel # 1.
Detects that the beer is sold out, and switches the beer valve 9 and the gas valve 13 from beer barrel # 1 to beer barrel # 2 of the next rank based on this signal. As a result, the beer extracted from the beer barrel # 2 is continuously supplied to the beer dispenser 1 without interruption. Hereinafter, similarly, when the beer barrel # 2 becomes empty, the beer barrels to be used are automatically switched in the order of # 3 and # 4.

In this case, since it takes about a little less than one second from the detection of the sold-out sensor 9 to the switching operation of the beer valve 9, the bubbles remaining in the empty beer barrel are removed. The beer is discharged into the manifold 7 through the beer valve 8 and mixed with beer supplied from another keg.
However, in this regard, the beer sold-out sensor 9 and the beer valve 1 are used as described above.
0, the beer valve 8 is closed before the foam passing through the sold-out sensor 9 passes through the beer valve 8 and reaches the manifold 7. Therefore, unnecessary foam can be effectively prevented from being poured.

Further, in this embodiment, a memory is incorporated in the circuit of the operation box 5, and in the automatic mode, the currently used beer barrel is always stored. Then, the beer sales are temporarily suspended for some reason (for example, when replacing the empty beer barrel # 1 during use of the beer barrel # 2, it is necessary to temporarily switch from the automatic mode to the filling mode). In this case, control is performed so that beer is supplied to the beer dispenser 1 from the previously used beer barrel # 2 (the beer barrel stored in the memory) when resuming sales. This allows first-in, first-out management,
Beer can always be sold with priority given to the first-placed beer barrel.

On the other hand, when the manual mode is selected in the operation box 5, it is possible to independently select the beer barrel to be supplied to the beer dispenser with the barrel selection button. This manual mode is also used when washing the beer piping with water. That is, when periodically cleaning the beer piping in the system including the internal piping of the beer dispenser 1 and the switching device main body 4, a tank filled with cleaning water is connected instead of a beer barrel, and a gas of carbon dioxide gas is connected. In general, washing is performed by flowing washing water into beer piping using pressurization. In this case, by selecting a manual mode, water washing of beer piping can be performed for each system. In this case,
In order to effectively remove dirt attached to the pipe wall of the beer pipe (hose), push a sponge ball into the hose from the inlet side of the beer pipe and rub the dirt sticking to the pipe wall with the sponge ball together with the washing water. After dropping, the beer is discharged from the beer cock of the beer dispenser. In this case, as described in FIG. 3, if the beer introduction ports branched from the inlet blocks A and B of the manifold 7 are set at an acute angle to the flow direction, the sponge balls are caught in the middle of the passage in the manifold ( If the introduction port is drawn out at a right angle from the block body, it becomes easy to pass through without the sponge ball clogging the bent portion of the passage.

When the end mode is selected in the operation box 5, all the valves incorporated in the switching device main body 4 are closed and stopped. Thereby, the beer and the gas can be kept in a suspended state without unnecessary beer and gas leaking from the beer barrel 2 and the carbon dioxide gas cylinder 3.

[0023]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Prior to the start of business, multiple beer barrels are connected and set to the beer dispenser, and empty barrels are sequentially switched to different barrels as beer sales progress, and beer is continuously supplied to the dispenser without interruption This allows you to concentrate on beer sales during business hours,
It is not necessary to replace the empty beer each time and connect it to the beer dispenser as before. In addition, beer loss due to beer filling work when replacing beer barrels, and the piping system when beer is sold out. In this way, the loss of beer remaining in the beer can be reduced, thereby improving the sales efficiency in sales as well as labor saving.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external connection diagram of a beer sales system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an internal piping circuit diagram of the beer keg switching device main body in FIG.

FIG. 3 is an exploded view showing an assembly structure of the manifold in FIG. 2;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Beer dispenser 1a Beer cock 2 Beer barrel 3 Carbon dioxide gas cylinder 4 Body of beer barrel switching device 5 Operation box 6 Cup (beer mug) 7 Manifold 7A, 7B Inlet block 7C Outlet block A1, A2, B1 Beer introduction port C2 filling port 8 Beer valve 9 Beer sold-out sensor 10 Filling valve 11 Cushion hose 12 Gas distribution pipe 13 Gas valve

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A beer pipe connected between a beer dispenser and a plurality of beer barrels prepared in advance, and a beer barrel connected to the dispenser is separated from the empty barrel by another as the beer sale progresses. A beer keg switching device for sequentially switching beer kegs and supplying beer continuously, a beer circuit connecting each beer keg in parallel with a beer dispenser, and carbon dioxide gas for pressurized extraction from a carbon dioxide gas cylinder to each beer keg. And a controller for controlling the switching of the beer circuit and the gas circuit, and the beer circuit has a plurality of beer inlets respectively corresponding to the beer barrels. A manifold, a beer valve connected to an internal pipe line connecting between each inlet of the manifold and a beer barrel, and a beer selling sensor. The circuit includes a gas distribution pipe having a plurality of gas distribution ports respectively corresponding to the beer barrels, and a gas valve individually corresponding to each gas distribution port. A beer dispenser switching device for a beer dispenser, wherein the beer valve and the gas valve are switched from an empty beer barrel to another beer barrel in accordance with the above instruction to supply beer to the beer dispenser. 2. The beer keg switching device according to claim 1, wherein the manifold has an inlet block corresponding to the number of beer kegs provided with a beer introduction port branching laterally from the main body for each block, and a beer outlet port. A beer keg switching device for a beer dispenser, wherein the beer dispenser has a configuration in which an outlet block having the above is connected in series and assembled. 3. The beer for a beer dispenser according to claim 2, wherein the angle of withdrawal of the beer introduction port branched from the inlet block is set to an acute angle with respect to the direction of beer flow. Barrel switching device. 4. The beer keg switching device according to claim 2, wherein the outlet block is provided with a filling port communicating with a beer filling valve separately from the outlet port communicating with the beer dispenser, and the beer barrel is initially connected and set. A beer keg switching device for a beer dispenser, wherein a beer filling valve is temporarily opened to draw beer extracted from a beer keg to fill a beer circuit. 5. The beer keg switching device according to claim 1, wherein a pipe length between the beer selling sensor connected to the beer circuit and the beer valve is set to at least 1.5 m or more. Beer barrel switching device for dispensers. 6. The beer keg switching device according to claim 1, further comprising a beer keg selection button on the operation panel of the operation device, and a mode changeover switch for switching the device between automatic, manual, filling, and ending. Then, the beer valve and gas valve are automatically switched from the empty barrel to the next barrel based on the signal of the beer sold-out sensor. In the manual mode, an arbitrary beer barrel is selected and the beer valve and gas valve are switched. A beer keg switching device for a beer dispenser, characterized in that: 7. The beer keg switching device according to claim 6, wherein in the automatic mode, the memory of the operating device stores the beer barrel in use, and when the sales are resumed in the automatic mode after a temporary sales halt, the sales are started. A beer dispenser switching device for a beer dispenser, which has a control function of supplying beer to a dispenser from a beer barrel used before a stop.