RU2811123C2 - Contactless supply system of cold or hot or sparkled water - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: drinking water supply equipment.

SUBSTANCE: invention is related to a system that allows contactless supply of cold or hot or sparkling water. The technical result is achieved by using a contactless supply system for cold or hot or sparkling water, containing a dispenser for dispensing drinking water, made in form of a tap and located on a horizontal surface. The system also contains a housing part with devices for cooling drinking water, devices for heating drinking water and a carbonizer for producing carbonated drinking water located in it, pipelines connecting these devices for cooling, heating drinking water and a carbonizer with the specified dispenser. The system also contains contactless sensors located on the specified dispenser and responding to the user’s hand approaching them to start the process of dispensing cold or hot or sparkling water. Said non-contact sensors are connected to a control unit located in the specified housing part which starts the process of supplying cold or hot or carbonated water from the corresponding devices located in the housing part into the corresponding pipelines and then into said dispenser.

EFFECT: increase of safety of consumption of cold or hot or carbonated drinking water while maintaining the compact dimensions of the system for supplying different types of drinking water itself by dividing the system into a body part and a dispenser in form of a tap located on a horizontal surface, on which contactless sensors are placed for supplying cold or hot or sparkling water

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Description

The invention relates to drinking water supply equipment, namely to a system that allows contactless supply of cold or hot or sparkling water in order to limit physical contacts of people in public places during periods of mass spread of diseases.

A beverage dispensing system is known from the prior art (RF patent No. 2555787, published on July 10, 2015), which contains a housing with a pouring tube located in a recess on the front panel of the housing, while pipelines for supplying cold or hot are connected to the filling tube. sparkling water, or water at room temperature. The housing also has a visual identification device (for example, reading a barcode) or a touch control panel associated with a programmable control unit.

In this case, by pressing buttons on the control panel, the user can dispense water of his choice in the required quantity. In addition, the user can specify the parameters of portions of water of various types at his own discretion when generating a barcode, which, after reading using a visual identification device, is processed in a programmable control unit with subsequent dispensing of drinking water.

The considered beverage dispensing system allows the user to dispense different types of water of his choice through one dispensing tube, which is convenient.

However, in this case, the main method of dispensing liquid is the contact method, which leads to the accumulation of dirt and bacteria on the control panel buttons, especially in public places, and contributes to the spread of diseases. The provided contactless method of dispensing water using a barcode is labor-intensive and inconvenient: first you need to generate the barcode itself with the required parameters, then print it or visualize it in another way, then bring it to a visual identification device.

It should be noted that this beverage dispensing system has a massive body with an installed bottle of drinking water in its upper part, takes up quite a lot of space and can only be installed as a separate element of the interior.

At the same time, the location of the filling tube in a recess on the front panel of the housing requires the user to bend over, which can be difficult to implement for people with back problems. It is also inconvenient to pour water into large containers that may not fit into the indicated recess in the housing. In this case, there is a possibility that some of the water will spill past the container, and then to add liquid, the user will have to re-create the barcode and repeat all operations, which further increases the complexity of using the system under consideration.

A known contactless water supply system (Internet resource https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjzCI8B4FYs&ab_channel=%D0%AD%D0%BA%D0%BE%D1%86%D0%B5%D0%BD% D1%82%D1%80OASIS, date of publication 10/20/2020, viewed 11/26/2021), which contains a housing with a filling tube located in a recess on the front panel of the housing, while pipelines for supplying room water are connected to the filling tube temperature of either chilled water or hot water, and on the body there are infrared sensors for contactless supply of these types of water.

The considered system allows water to be bottled at the user’s request by placing his hand near the desired infrared sensor, which overall makes the process convenient, fast and safe from the point of view of the spread of diseases in crowded places.

However, this system does not supply the user with carbonated water, which limits its functionality.

In addition, the filling tube, as in the previous solution, is located in a recess on the front panel of the housing. The body itself is massive and takes up a lot of space, and the size of the recess may not be sufficient to quickly and conveniently fill a large container with drinking water. In this case, the user needs to hold the container in his hands and wait for it to be filled in a bent position, plus water may be spilled on the floor past the container being filled.

A liquid dispensing system is known (RF patent No. 2732088, published on September 11, 2020), adopted as the closest analogue to the claimed solution, which contains a housing with an ingredient system, dispensers for dispensing drinks in the form of dispensing heads, pipelines connecting the housing with the ingredient system and said dispensers, a touch control panel located on the dispensers for selecting the drink to be poured and connected to a control unit that starts the operation of the corresponding pumps to supply the selected drink from the housing with the ingredient system into the pipeline connecting the said housing and the dispenser.

This system is designed to dispense hot, cold and carbonated drinks, including drinks under any PepsiCo brand.

Dividing the said system into a housing and a dispenser, which are connected by a flexible pipeline, allows you to place the dispenser on any surface (for example, a tabletop, bar counter, etc.) at a convenient height for use and at the same time in a housing located, for example, under tabletop, you can compactly place all the main functional units (control unit, pumps, etc.) necessary to obtain the required drinks. In this case, the considered system is installed saving available space without the need to allocate a separate space for it. At the same time, a container of any volume can be placed under the dispenser with minimal risk of spilling drinks.

However, this system provides only a contact method for dispensing drinks via a touch control panel, which implies the use of one system for dispensing drinks by a large number of people in public places and the presence of physical contact between them, which leads to the accumulation of dirt and bacteria, reducing the level of safety among the population, which ultimately contributes to an increase in morbidity during the period of exacerbation of the epidemiological situation.

The technical problem of the present invention is to eliminate the disadvantages inherent in analogues and create a system for contactless supply of cold or hot or carbonated drinking water, eliminating physical contact between people when consuming drinking water from one dispenser in public places and helping to reduce the growth of morbidity among the population.

The technical result of the invention is to increase the safety of consumption of cold or hot or carbonated drinking water while maintaining the compact dimensions of the system itself for supplying different types of drinking water by dividing the system into a body part and a dispenser in the form of a tap located on a horizontal surface, on which contactless sensors are placed for supplying cold or hot or sparkling water.

The technical result is achieved by using a system for contactless supply of cold or hot or sparkling water, containing a dispenser for dispensing drinking water, made in the form of a tap and located on a horizontal surface, a housing part with devices for cooling drinking water, devices for heating drinking water located in it and a carbonizer for producing carbonated drinking water, pipelines connecting the specified devices for cooling, heating drinking water and the carbonizer with the specified dispenser. The system also contains a non-contact sensor for supplying cold water, located on the specified dispenser and responding to the user’s hand being brought to it, a contactless sensor for supplying hot water, located on the specified dispenser and responding to the user’s hand being brought to it, a contactless sensor for supplying sparkling water, located on the specified dispenser and responding to the user’s hand approaching it. In this case, these non-contact sensors are connected to a control unit located in the specified housing part and starts the process of supplying cold or hot or carbonated water from the corresponding devices located in the housing part into the corresponding pipelines and then into the specified dispenser.

The dispenser in the form of a tap can have touch buttons or a touch control panel for dispensing cold or hot or sparkling water.

A user presence sensor can be located on the dispenser in the form of a tap.

A wireless communication module may be located in the body of the inventive system to control the process of supplying drinking water, for example, using the user’s personal mobile device.

As in the case of the closest analogue, the division of the inventive system into a body part and a dispenser in the form of a tap, which are interconnected by flexible pipelines for dispensing drinking water of the selected type, allows the system to be as functional as possible and at the same time compact. In this case, there is no need to allocate a separate space for installing the entire drinking water supply system: the body part of the system can be located in one part of the room, and the dispenser in the form of a tap in another. This constructive implementation of the proposed system saves room space and makes it easy to install and dismantle depending on interior conditions.

In this case, the dispenser in the form of a tap can be installed on any horizontal surface (countertop, bar counter, etc.) at the required and convenient height for users. A container of any volume can be placed under the dispenser in the form of a tap without the risk of spilling drinking water.

Placing non-contact sensors (for example, non-contact distance sensors) for supplying cold or hot or sparkling water directly on the dispenser itself in the form of a tap allows you to quickly, conveniently and safely implement a non-contact process of obtaining the desired type of drinking water in any container without spilling it, which eliminates physical contact between people in public places and reduces the risk of developing diseases.

As a result, the inventive drinking water supply system takes up little space in the room and can be installed with a significant separation from each other of the body of the system and the dispenser in the form of a tap, depending on the requirements of the interior. It also provides the user with the opportunity to select the desired type of drinking water, safely pour water at a convenient height without the need to bend over and put strain on the back.

In fig. Figure 1 shows a general view of the dispenser of the inventive system, located on the countertop.

In fig. Figure 2 shows a left view of the dispenser of the inventive system, located on the countertop.

In fig. Figure 3 shows a right view of the dispenser of the inventive system, located on the countertop.

In fig. Figure 4 shows a rear view of the dispenser of the inventive system, located on the countertop.

In fig. Figure 5 shows a general view of the body of the proposed system.

In fig. Figure 6 shows a right view of the body of the proposed system.

In fig. Figure 7 shows a rear view of the body of the proposed system.

The contactless supply system for cold or hot or sparkling water contains a body part 1 and a dispenser 2 made in the form of a tap.

The dispenser 2 in the form of a tap can be located on the tabletop 3, while the body 1 of the system can be located either under the tabletop 3 or in another place in the room. In a particular case, the dispenser tap 2 may be L-shaped (Fig. 1). Any other faucet shape can also be selected.

On the dispenser 2 in the form of a faucet there are non-contact distance measuring sensors that respond to the user’s hand being brought to them to start the water dispensing process: a non-contact cold water supply sensor 4 (Fig. 3), located on the right side of the dispenser 2; non-contact hot water supply sensor 5 (Fig. 4), located on the back of the dispenser 2; non-contact sparkling water supply sensor 6 (Fig. 2), located on the left side of the dispenser 2.

Also, touch buttons 7, 8 and 9 or a control panel for supplying cold, hot and sparkling water, respectively, can be located on the dispenser 2 in the form of a tap (Fig. 1).

Also on the dispenser 2 can be located a user presence sensor 10, a light sensor 11 (Fig. 1).

A drip tray 12 (Fig. 1) is installed in the tabletop 3, which goes into the sewer or is connected to a tray 13 with an overflow sensor located in the lower part of the housing 1.

The housing 1 is made on a power frame 14 and has a predominantly parallelepiped shape. For ease of movement of the housing 1, wheels 15 are installed in its lower part (Fig. 6, 7).

Housing 1 contains devices for cooling drinking water, such as a condenser-cooler 16 with a cooling circuit, a chiller 17 (Fig. 5). Chiller 17 is designed for cooling drinking water passing through a stainless steel cooling circuit, which are located in a tank with process water (coolant). Cooled process water, due to convection and thermal conductivity, takes the heat of drinking water and transfers it through a cooling circuit with freon to a dissipating device - condenser-cooler 16.

In the body part 1 there are devices for heating drinking water, such as a boiler 18 with a water level sensor in the boiler (Fig. 7). Boiler 18 is a stainless steel tank in which water is heated using a heating element.

To produce carbonated water, a carbonizer 19 with a water level sensor in it is located in the body part 1 (Fig. 5, 6, 7). Carbonizer 19 is a device in which water is mixed with carbon dioxide supplied through a separate pipeline (not shown).

The above-mentioned devices for cooling drinking water 16 and 17, devices for heating drinking water 18 and a carbonizer 19 are connected to the dispenser 2 in the form of a tap via flexible pipelines (not shown), the length of which can be selected depending on the distance between the specified devices located in the housing part 1, and a dispenser 2 in the form of a tap, which can be placed separately and mounted on the tabletop 3.

To pump cold water into the carbonizer 19, a pump 20 is used (Fig. 6), which compensates for the difference in pressure of carbon dioxide in the carbonizer 19 and cold water at its inlet. That is, the pump 20 raises the cold water pressure to such a level as to overcome the pressure of the carbon dioxide and pump the cold water into the carbonator 19, where it will be mixed with carbon dioxide to supply carbonated water to the user through the faucet dispenser 2.

The system also has a pump 21 (Fig. 7) for supplying hot water from the boiler 18 to the corresponding pipeline leading to the dispenser 2 in the form of a tap.

Cold water is supplied to the dispenser 2 in the form of a tap from the corresponding cooling devices 16 and 17 without a pump due to the pressure in the cold water supply system.

Also, the housing part 1 of the system contains a compressor 22 and a cooling fan 23 (Fig. 6, 7). To regulate the flow rate, the housing part 1 has a cold water solenoid valve and a hot water solenoid valve (not shown).

Also located in the housing part 1 are a control unit 24 and power supplies 25 (Fig. 5).

In addition, a process water agitator, an ambient temperature sensor, water pressure sensors and other additional functional units can be located in the housing part 1.

The housing part 1 of the system also has a USB port for connecting to a personal computer for setting parameters and monitoring the status of devices located in the housing part 1 of the system.

The proposed system works as follows.

Non-contact distance measuring sensors 4 5, 6 are installed on the dispenser 2, responsive to the user’s hand being brought to them. Also, if necessary, touch buttons 7, 8, 9 or a control panel are installed (Fig. 1).

Two holes of the appropriate size are cut out in tabletop 3, into which dispenser 2 and drip tray 12 are mounted. Dispenser 2 and drip tray 12 are fastened to tabletop 3 with nuts through a centering plate, which prevents the devices from rotating along their axis. The water can be discharged from the drip tray 12 into an outlet into the sewer or into the drip tray 13 in the lower part of the housing 1 (Fig. 1).

The dispenser 2 is connected to the chiller 17, the carbonator 19 and the boiler 18 to supply cold, carbonated and hot water, respectively, through corresponding silicone pipelines.

The specified proximity sensors 4, 5, 6 and touch buttons 7, 8, 9, if available, are connected to the control unit 24 located in the housing 1 via a cord connecting to the equipment (not shown).

The body part 1 of the system is connected to water pipes. The water supplied to housing 1 is purified using filters.

These contactless sensors 4, 5, 6 are activated when the user's hand is brought to them at a distance of 2-6 cm. Also, the inventive system can be activated by pressing the touch buttons 7, 8, 9 located on the dispenser 2 in the form of a tap.

In this case, in order to avoid accidental supply of water, especially hot water, a user presence sensor 10 can be installed.

When the contactless cold water supply sensor 4 is activated, the control unit 24 starts the corresponding devices for supplying chilled drinking water (condenser-cooler 16 with a cooling circuit, chiller 17), which, thanks to the cold water pressure, passes through the corresponding pipeline from the body part 1 to the dispenser 2 in the form of a tap

Hot water is heated in boiler 18 in advance and maintained in it in the required volume and at the required temperature. When the contactless hot water supply sensor 5 is activated, the control unit 24 starts the process of supplying heated drinking water, which from the boiler 18 enters the pump 21, then into the corresponding pipeline and dispenser 2 in the form of a tap.

When the contactless carbonated water supply sensor 6 is activated, the control unit 24 starts the carbonator 19 with a water level sensor in the carbonator 19. The carbonated water then passes through the corresponding pipeline into the dispenser 2 in the form of a tap.

The process of supplying any type of water occurs as long as the user holds his hand at a specified distance from the desired contactless sensor 4, 5 or 6.

The process of supplying each of the specified types of water occurs similarly when you press the corresponding touch buttons 7, 8, 9.

Using the light sensor 11, you can illuminate the area under the dispenser 2 in order to see the process of pouring drinking water into the container. In addition, the light sensor 11 can regulate the operating mode of the inventive system (energy saving mode, sleep mode, active equipment operation mode). For example, in low light conditions at night and the user presence sensor 10 is inactive for a long time, the inventive system first switches to power saving mode and then to sleep mode to reduce energy costs. When the lighting is turned on or the illumination increases, the system naturally “awakens” and enters an active state.

A wireless communication module (not shown) can be installed in the control unit 24, which allows you to identify the inventive system in the user's mobile device and select parameters for pouring the desired type of drinking water. Upon receiving a signal from the wireless communication module, the control unit 24 starts the process of cooling, heating or carbonating drinking water with its subsequent dispensing to the user through dispenser 2. This solution additionally allows for contactless dispensing of drinking water.

Also, the presence of a wireless communication module in the proposed system allows it to be connected with a remote dispatch system, which:

- can provide statistical data for the management company (when, how much, what type of water was dispensed through dispenser 2, remaining filter life, remaining amount of carbon dioxide, etc.);

- allows for effective planning of operational costs and company resources.

Based on such statistical data and machine learning, a flexible water treatment system is formed, that is, it becomes possible to prepare water only in the required volume with the specified parameters at each moment of equipment operation, without keeping a full boiler 18 of hot water at night, on weekends and holidays, and track low and peak water consumption hours. Moreover, the specified features of drinking water consumption can be taken into account individually for each piece of equipment installed in offices, on different floors of the building, etc.

The presence of a wireless communication module in the proposed system and the connection of such modules with a remote dispatch system make it possible to reduce the load on the system and significantly (by about 30%) reduce the costs of its repair and maintenance. It becomes possible to carry out these types of work if necessary, and not according to a schedule. At the same time, by reducing energy consumption, the environmental component also increases.

Thus, the proposed system implements an effective model of drinking water distribution, in which it is possible to combine:

- automation of the process of distributing drinking water in crowded places, namely the absence of the need for additional personnel to distribute water and the elimination of mechanical impact between the device and the user;

- the practice of refusing to use non-ecological plastic bottles and purchasing bottled water;

- maintaining a regime of safe interaction between people in public space and limiting physical contacts between people to prevent the transmission of bacteria and viruses, especially during epidemics and mass diseases.

The inventive system is suitable for providing drinking water to large office spaces and public places with high people's demand for drinking water, since it occupies minimal space while having maximum productivity.

Claims (4)

1. A system for contactless supply of cold or hot or sparkling water, characterized in that it contains a dispenser for dispensing drinking water, made in the form of a tap and located on a horizontal surface, a housing part with devices for cooling drinking water, devices for heating drinking water located in it water and a carbonizer for producing carbonated drinking water, pipelines connecting the specified devices for cooling, heating drinking water and the carbonizer with the specified dispenser, a non-contact sensor for supplying cold water located on the specified dispenser and responding to the user’s hand being brought to it, a non-contact sensor for supplying hot water, located on the specified dispenser and responsive to the user’s hand being brought to it, a non-contact sensor for supplying sparkling water, located on the said dispenser and responsive to the user’s hand being brought to it, while the said non-contact sensors are connected to a control unit located in the specified housing parts and starting the process of supplying cold or hot or carbonated water from the corresponding devices located in the body part into the corresponding pipelines and then into the specified dispenser. 2. The system according to claim 1, characterized in that a tabletop and bar counter are used as a horizontal surface. 3. The system according to claim 1, characterized in that a user presence sensor is located on the dispenser in the form of a tap. 4. The system according to claim 1, characterized in that a wireless communication module is located in the housing to control the process of supplying drinking water.