JPS6231829Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a cooling device for rapidly cooling a hot beverage liquid such as coffee.

As this type of cooling device, the structure shown schematically in Fig. 3 is often used, and it has been proposed in Patent No. 918453 (see Japanese Patent Publication No. 52-38262). It has a cold water tank 1 containing cooling water cooled by an evaporator 4 of a refrigeration unit 3, a lower tank with a step 6 as a boundary, and an upper tank with a larger diameter than the lower tank. The lower part serves as a reservoir for drinking liquid, and the upper part serves as a space communicating with the atmosphere, and the side wall of the upper part becomes a wet wall by being immersed in the cooling water of the cold water tank 1. It is composed of a liquid storage tank 5 formed by forming a liquid storage tank 5, and a retention tank 13 placed on the stepped portion 6 of this liquid storage tank 5. After the high-temperature beverage liquid in the reservoir tank 13 is allowed to flow down the wetted wall, it is stored in a lower storage portion. The operation of the device having such a structure will be explained below. When a beverage liquid, such as coffee, at a temperature of 75°C to 80°C is poured into the retention tank 13, this coffee temporarily accumulates in the retention tank 13, and at the same time It gradually flows down from the small hole 14 and falls onto the step 6 of the liquid storage tank 5,
The water then flows through the side wall, which becomes a wetted wall, into the lower storage portion. At that time, while flowing down the wet wall, it exchanges heat with the cooling water at approximately 0° C. on the outer periphery of the side wall, is rapidly cooled, and is then stored in the storage section and taken out from the spout pipe 11 as needed. be.

However, this device has a small hole 1 in the retention tank 13 as a structure to gradually flow the hot beverage liquid little by little.
4, and since the opening area of the small hole 14 is very small, it is easily clogged by impurities and raw material powder contained in the liquid, and must be cleaned repeatedly. Moreover, a needle is used to clean the small hole.
In addition to requiring the use of cleaning members such as bundlers, the work is quite cumbersome and extremely inconvenient to handle.

Furthermore, since the water pressure applied to the small hole changes depending on the depth of the drinking liquid stored in the retention tank 13,
Small hole 14 when the water depth is deep, i.e. the capacity is large.
The amount of water flowing down from the small hole 14 is large and reaches the storage part without being sufficiently cooled. Conversely, if the water depth is shallow, that is, the storage capacity is small, the amount of water flowing down from the small hole 14 is small and the water reaches the storage part after being cooled more than necessary. As a result, there is a large temperature change between the beginning and the end, and if the entire amount has accumulated and is served as a beverage after a considerable amount of time has passed, the temperature will average out and there will be no problem, but if you try to pour out the accumulated amount immediately The temperature was uneven, which was extremely inconvenient.

Even if there is temperature unevenness, in the long run, the temperature of the stored beverage will be the same as the surrounding cooling water, so at first glance it may not seem to be a problem, but it will cool down quickly to a low temperature. It is known that the aroma and taste of beverages such as coffee change undesirably depending on whether the water is poured or not, and fluctuations in the amount flowing down from the small holes 14 affect the quality. The reality is that it is avoided because it is too big.

The present invention was developed with attention to this fact, and its purpose is to stabilize the amount flowing down the wet wall, regardless of whether the amount of high-temperature beverage accumulated is large or small. This makes it possible to achieve rapid cooling, and in particular, it is easy to clean the component parts, thereby ensuring a clean and hygienic condition.

Another purpose of this invention is to automatically adjust the flow path resistance depending on the amount of high-temperature beverage accumulated, allowing a certain amount of beverage to flow down the wet wall, and thereby preventing changes in the cooling temperature. This is what we mean.

However, in order to achieve the above purpose, the present invention
Unlike the upper lid used in the conventional device having the above-mentioned structure, the element is a drop-shaped upper lid without any small holes, and a gap is provided between the peripheral edge and the stepped portion of this upper lid, Furthermore, a liquid flow interference plate having a ring shape and having a large number of zigzag passages formed between the outer peripheries of the rings on one or both sides is interposed between the peripheral edge and the step of the upper lid. It is characterized by the following configuration.

Further, the present invention is characterized in that the liquid flow interference plate is formed of an elastic body whose thickness can be changed by changing the load, so that the flow resistance of the zigzag passage can be automatically adjusted. be.

The details of the present invention will be explained below based on the embodiment shown in FIG.

The cold water tank 1 is made of a heat insulating material, and houses therein an evaporator 4 connected to a refrigeration unit 3, and a cooling water 2 around it.

Reference numeral 5 denotes a liquid storage tank, which has a lower part of the tank with the stepped portion 6 as its boundary, and an upper part of the tank that has a larger diameter than the lower part of the tank, and the upper part of the tank is large enough to store, for example, about 2 volumes of high-temperature beverage liquid. The lower part of the tank has a volume of 4
The second beverage liquid is stored in the lower half.

The lower part of the tank serves as a reservoir for drinking liquid, and the upper part forms a space communicating with the atmosphere. By immersing the lower part of the tank in the cooling water 2 of the cold water tank 1, The side wall of the part is formed into a wet wall (a wall covered by a liquid film).

Reference numeral 11 denotes a pouring pipe connected to the bottom wall of the liquid storage tank 5, which penetrates the side wall of the cold water tank 1 in a watertight manner and extends out of the tank, and has a liquid pouring pot 12 attached to its tip.

Reference numeral 7 denotes an upper lid, which has a ring-shaped flange corresponding to the stepped portion 6 around the central cap, and has a ring-shaped flange at the center of the cap for connecting the upper space of the lower part of the tank to the atmosphere. A ventilation cylinder is provided upright, and by placing the upper lid 7 on the stepped portion 6, the upper part of the tank and the lower part of the tank can be partitioned off.

Note that the upper lid 7 does not need to have such a high flatness that when the flange serving as the peripheral edge portion is placed on the stepped portion 6, it comes into close contact with the stepped portion to form a liquid-tight partition. It is necessary to avoid warped objects that are easily displaced depending on the state in which they are placed on the stepped portion 6, or where the gap between them and the stepped portion 6 is large or small depending on the location.

8 is a liquid flow interference plate which is a feature of the present invention,
The liquid flow interference plate 8, which is inserted between the peripheral edge of the upper lid 7 and the stepped portion 6, is a ring-shaped plate as shown in a partially enlarged perspective view in FIG. The surface has a large number of zigzag passages extending in the circumferential direction of the ring and formed between the outer circumference of the ring and the inner circumference of the ring by convex portions 9 and concave portions 10 which are distributed. is the second
As shown in the figure, it exists on both sides, or it exists on one side.

In order to facilitate cleaning of the liquid flow interference plate 8, it is preferable that the convex portions 9 have a round body with no corners, and the top of each convex portion 9 should be It is preferable to have a structure in which the surfaces are at the same height so that they can come into close contact with the stepped portion 6 or the upper lid 7.

The cooling operation of the cooling system having the above configuration has many points in common with those described for the conventional system shown in Figure 3, so I will avoid repeating the explanation and explain the unique features below. The beverage liquid passes through the gap between the top lid 7 and the step 6, that is, the zigzag passage of the liquid flow interference plate 8, and is rapidly cooled by the surrounding cooling water 2 while flowing down along the wetted wall at the bottom of the tank.

In this case, the zigzag passage has a long passage length and a small cross-sectional area, so it functions like a capillary pipe, and is not affected by differences in the depth of the drinking liquid at the top of the tank, that is, the head. The beverage liquid can be caused to flow down towards the wetted wall at a constant flow rate.

Therefore, when it flows into the storage portion at the bottom of the tank, it is always cooled to a constant temperature, and the low temperature beverage liquid can be stored without temperature unevenness, and no problem will occur even if it is poured immediately.

Although the liquid flow interference plate 8 is usually made of heat-resistant hard synthetic resin, it is also preferable to make it made of soft synthetic resin, such as silicone resin, or an elastic material such as synthetic rubber. The one made of an elastic material is extremely advantageous because it has the function of self-controlling the flow rate.

That is, when there is a large amount of drinking liquid in the upper part of the tank, since the weight of the liquid is large, the liquid flow interference plate 8 is appropriately compressed by the water column pressure applied to the top lid 7, and the zigzag passage becomes narrower and slightly longer, increasing the resistance. . On the other hand, when the amount of beverage liquid is low, the zigzag path becomes wider and slightly shorter, reducing the resistance.

Therefore, the liquid flow interference plate 8 always keeps the amount of liquid flowing through its zigzag passage constant regardless of changes in water column pressure, and has a better control function to keep the flow rate constant than a plate made of a hard body. Are better.

Next, the effects of the present invention are listed as follows: (a) The liquid storage tank 5, the upper lid 7, and the liquid flow interference plate 8 are all independent members and are easy to remove;
Moreover, it is easy to clean because there are no hard-to-reach pockets or small dents.

(b) In particular, unlike conventional devices, there are no small holes, so there is no clogging, and the flow of the drinking liquid is stable. Therefore, cleaning is easy.

(C) The liquid flow interference plate 8 is different from an orifice structure having small holes as elements, and has a zigzag passage with flow resistance through which the drinking liquid flows. There is very little variation in the flow rate due to fluctuations in pressure, making it possible to allow the beverage liquid to flow down the wetted wall at a constant flow rate, making it possible to store the beverage liquid at a stable temperature in a short time.

(d) By forming the liquid flow interference plate 8 from an elastic material, the self-control function of keeping the flow rate constant is further exerted, and the cooling effect is stabilized.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view of one example of the device of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a detailed perspective view of the main part of FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a schematic sectional view of a conventional cooling device. 1... Cold water tank, 2... Cooling water, 3... Refrigeration unit, 5... Liquid storage tank, 6... Stepped section, 7...
...Top lid, 8...Liquid flow interference plate, 9...Protrusion, 10...
...concavity.

Claims (1)

[Claims for Utility Model Registration] 1 Cooling water 2 cooled by the refrigeration unit 3
A cold water tank 1 containing a cold water tank 1, a tank lower part with a step part 6 as a boundary, and a tank upper part having a larger diameter than the tank lower part, the lower part of the tank serving as a storage part for drinking liquid, A liquid storage tank 5 whose upper part is a space communicating with the atmosphere and whose side wall of the upper part is formed into a wet wall by being immersed in the cooling water of the cold water tank 1, and this liquid storage tank. By placing it on the step 6 of No. 5, the upper part of the tank and the lower part of the tank are partitioned, and a gap is provided between the step part 6 at the peripheral edge thereof,
and an upper lid 7 in which the gap is formed as a fluid passage for causing the high-temperature beverage liquid stored in the upper part of the tank to flow down to the storage portion through the wetted wall, the upper lid A ring-shaped liquid flow interference plate 8 is interposed between the peripheral edge of the ring 7 and the stepped portion 6, and this liquid flow interference plate 8 extends in the circumferential direction of the ring and has convex portions 9 disposed in a distributed manner. A cooling device for a beverage liquid, characterized in that it has a large number of zigzag passages formed by recesses 10 between the outer circumference of the ring and the inner circumference of the ring on one or both sides. 2 Practical use in which the liquid flow interference plate 8 interposed between the peripheral edge of the upper lid 7 and the stepped portion 6 is formed of an elastic material such as a soft synthetic resin whose thickness can change depending on changes in load. A beverage liquid cooling device according to claim 1.