TWM563532U - Beverage cooling device - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention provides a beverage cooling device comprising a body, a normal temperature cooling tank, a low temperature cooling tank, a cooling line, a coolant supply tank, and a pre-cooling tank. The normal temperature cooling tank and the low temperature cooling tank are disposed on the body. The cooling circuit consists of the front and rear sections. The front section is disposed in the normal temperature cooling tank, and the front section has a receiving end for receiving drinks. The rear section is disposed in the low temperature cooling tank and communicates with the front section, and the rear section has an output end for discharging the beverage. The coolant supply tank is connected to the normal temperature cooling tank and supplies the coolant. The pre-cooling tank is used to cool the aforementioned cooling liquid, and is connected to the low-temperature cooling tank to supply the cooling liquid. Therefore, the novel uses a two-stage cooling mechanism to avoid energy loss and other problems caused by the extremely rapid cooling of high-temperature drinks.

Description

Beverage cooler

The present invention relates to a beverage cooling device, and more particularly to a beverage cooling device having a two-stage cooling function.

The beverage cooler is a common commercial cooling device that is widely used in coffee shops and hand-cranked beverage shops. Because beverages are more prone to bacteria at high temperatures (18 ° C to 70 ° C), in order to quickly pass through this high temperature range, and to meet the different requirements of customers for the temperature of the beverage, the store must reduce the high temperature drinks to the appropriate temperature in a short time. The common traditional practice is to cool the ice, but the ice is still susceptible to contamination by the bacteria during the manufacturing process, so there are health problems.

To this end, the conventional beverage cooling device introduces the boiled beverage into a metal tube with high thermal conductivity, and directly immerses the metal tube in ice water or other lower temperature coolant to obtain as much as possible in a short time. Reduce the temperature of the drink. However, although the above method has the advantage of rapid cooling, there are still some unavoidable shortcomings. First, the aforementioned cooling mode is similar in that a large amount of heat exchange is completed in a short time, and the load on the refrigerant compressor is extremely large, and at the same time, the efficiency of the compressor is lowered, and unnecessary additional energy loss is generated.

Secondly, severe temperature changes lead to thermal expansion and contraction, which may lead to stress damage at the weld of the metal tube and other components (such as the water inlet and outlet of the beverage). The above phenomenon causes cracks in the metal pipe, causing the problem of cross-contamination of the beverage and the coolant.

Moreover, since the conventional beverage cooling device has only a single cooling tank, it is often difficult to achieve the desired cooling effect if water alone is used as the cooling liquid. In order to improve the cooling efficiency, some operators have adopted more extreme means (such as liquid nitrogen coolers) to enhance the heat exchange effect. However, such a practice often causes the drink to freeze directly in the metal tube and cannot flow out, but it cannot achieve the purpose of providing a quick drink.

Therefore, in order to solve the defects of the energy consumption and cooling performance of the conventional beverage cooling device, the present invention proposes a beverage cooling device, which can realize the two-stage cooling function by separating the arranged cooling grooves, thereby saving energy and improving cooling. Efficiency and stability.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a beverage cooling device comprising a body, a normal temperature cooling tank, a low temperature cooling tank, a cooling line, a coolant supply tank, and a pre-cooling tank.

The normal temperature cooling tank and the low temperature cooling tank are disposed on the body. The cooling circuit consists of the front and rear sections. The front section is disposed in the normal temperature cooling tank, and the front section has a receiving end for receiving drinks. The rear section is disposed in the low temperature cooling tank and communicates with the front section, and the rear section has an output end for discharging the beverage. The coolant supply tank is connected to the normal temperature cooling tank and supplies the coolant. The pre-cooling tank is used to cool the aforementioned cooling liquid, and is connected to the low-temperature cooling tank to supply the cooling liquid.

According to the above embodiment, the beverage cooling device performs two-stage cooling of the cooling pipe by the normal temperature cooling tank and the low temperature cooling tank. When the high-temperature drink enters the cooling pipe before, it is initially cooled by the cooling liquid in the normal temperature cooling tank to avoid excessive heat exchange when the beverage enters the latter stage. In addition, since the temperature of the beverage has been reduced to a certain extent, the cryogenic cooling tank does not need to be maintained in an extremely low temperature state, and the related components can be protected from severe temperature changes while reducing the additional energy loss of the compressor.

In an embodiment, the beverage cooling device may include a connecting pipe, the two ends of the connecting pipe are connected to the low temperature cooling tank and the pre-cooling tank, and the connecting pipe is disposed through the coolant supply tank. Alternatively, both ends of the connecting pipe may be connected to the normal temperature cooling tank and the coolant supply tank, and are disposed in the pre-cooling tank.

Under the above setting conditions, the connecting pipe can additionally provide a heat exchange path between the normal temperature cooling tank and the low temperature cooling tank. When drinks of different temperatures are introduced into the beverage cooling device, the connecting tube provides the temperature adjustment function of the two cooling grooves.

In an embodiment, the cooling conduit may be made of stainless steel.

In an embodiment, the pre-cooling tank may further comprise a refrigeration unit for immersing in the cooling liquid. The material of the refrigeration unit may be copper, but is not limited thereto. Further, the beverage cooling device may include a compressor, and the compressor has a condensation end, and the condensation end is connected to the refrigeration unit. The beverage cooling device may include a heat dissipating unit, and the heat dissipating unit is connected to the compressor to absorb the heat energy of the compressor and dissipate outward.

In an embodiment, the coolant may be water.

In order to fully understand the purpose, features and effects of the present invention, the present invention will be described in detail by the following specific embodiments and the accompanying drawings.

Referring to FIGS. 1A, 1B, and 1C together, the beverage cooling device 100 includes a main body 200, a normal temperature cooling tank 300, a low temperature cooling tank 400, a cooling line 500, a coolant supply tank 600, and a precooling tank 700. The front side of the body 200 has an injection port 210 and an output port 220. The inlet 210, the cooling line 500, and the outlet 220 are sequentially connected from top to bottom, so that the beverage automatically flows to the outlet 220. The room temperature cooling bath 300 and the low temperature cooling tank 400 are provided in the body 200. The cooling pipe 500 includes a front section 510 and a rear section 520, and the front section 510 and the rear section 520 are respectively disposed at the normal temperature cooling tank 300 and the low temperature cooling tank 400. The front section 510 includes a receiving end 511 that connects the injecting port 210 to receive a drink. The rear section 520 includes an output end 521, and the output end 521 is connected to the output port 220 to output a drink. Additionally, the cooling line 500 has a coupling section 530 to connect the front section 510 and the rear section 520. In the present embodiment, the injection port 210, the cooling pipe 500, and the output port 220 are paired left and right, and the two sets of pipes are independent of each other. The above piping may be three or more groups depending on the needs of use. The cooling line 500 can be made of stainless steel.

2 is a schematic view showing a normal temperature circulation line of the beverage cooling device 100. As shown in FIG. 2, the coolant supply tank 600 is located at the rear side of the beverage cooling device 100, and the coolant supply tank 600 is connected to the first motor M1 via a pipeline, and the first motor M1 is connected to the normal temperature cooling tank 300 via a pipeline. The coolant L is supplied to the room temperature cooling bath 300. In the normal temperature cooling bath 300, the cooling liquid L and the front stage 510 of the cooling line 500 are heat-exchanged, and are returned to the coolant supply tank 600 from the other side of the normal temperature cooling tank 300. In an embodiment, the cooling liquid L may be water.

FIG. 3 is a schematic view showing a low temperature circulation line of the beverage cooling device 100. The pre-cooling tank 700 is located on the front side of the beverage cooling device 100 and serves to lower the temperature of the cooling liquid L. The pre-cooling tank 700 is connected to the second motor M2 via a pipe, and the second motor M2 is connected to the low-temperature cooling tank 400 via a pipe, thereby supplying the cooled cooling liquid L to the low-temperature cooling tank 400. In the low temperature cooling bath 400, the coolant L and the rear section 520 of the cooling line 500 are heat exchanged, and are returned to the precooling tank 700 from the other side of the low temperature cooling tank 400.

As shown in FIGS. 1A to 1C, the beverage cooling device 100 is configured to pass the compressor 800 and the heat dissipation unit 900 to achieve the purpose of cooling. In detail, the pre-cooling tank 700 includes a refrigerating unit 710 for immersing in the cooling liquid L, and the compressor 800 has a condensing end connected to the refrigerating unit 710, thereby maintaining the cooling unit 710 at Low temperature state. The heat dissipation unit 900 is coupled to the compressor 800 to absorb thermal energy and dissipate thermal energy outward. The material of the cooling unit 710 and the heat dissipation unit 900 may be copper, but is not limited thereto.

It should be particularly noted that there are many methods for lowering the temperature of the coolant L, and the above-described compressor 800 and heat dissipating unit 900 are only one of them. Therefore, the above examples are only required to explain the operation principle of the beverage cooling device 100, but should not be considered as a necessary limitation of the present embodiment. In addition, the refrigeration and heating of the compressor 800 are well known in the art, so the technical principles of the compressor 800 and its condensing end are not detailed herein.

In addition, in order to accommodate beverages of different temperatures, the beverage cooling device 100 can pass through the pipeline to the coolant supply tank 600 or the pre-cooling tank 700, thereby achieving the effect of automatically balancing the temperature. Taking FIG. 4A as an example, the connecting pipe 410 is connected to the low-temperature cooling tank 400, and the flow path of the connecting pipe 410 flows first through the cooling liquid supply tank 600, and then flows back to the pre-cooling tank 700. In the coolant supply tank 600, the coolant L inside and outside the connection pipe 410 is exchanged with heat, thereby reducing the temperature difference between the normal temperature cooling bath 300 and the low temperature cooling tank 400.

Similarly, the beverage cooling device 100 can also adopt the laying form of FIG. 4B, that is, the connecting pipe 310 is connected to the normal temperature cooling tank 300, and the connecting pipe 310 flows through the pre-cooling tank 700 first, and then flows back to the cooling liquid supply tank. 600. Through the arrangement of the above-mentioned 4A and 4B, the normal temperature cooling tank 300 and the cooling liquid L in the low-temperature cooling tank 400 can perform appropriate heat exchange, and the beverage cooling device 100 can stably perform the two-stage cooling function.

It can be seen from the above embodiments that the beverage cooling device of the present invention reduces the temperature of the beverage through two sets of different temperature coolant systems, and avoids the high temperature beverage directly contacting the extremely low temperature coolant by the mechanism of the second cooling.

Thereby, the novel can effectively prevent the heat exchange of the beverage and the coolant too much, and can not only reduce the extra energy loss of the compressor, but also avoid the stress damage caused by the thermal shock. Moreover, since the novel adopts a progressive cooling method to extend the cooling action time, the beverage cooling device does not need to use a very low temperature coolant, and can also achieve an ideal cooling effect. Accordingly, the present invention can effectively solve the problem of beverage freezing in the conventional beverage cooling device.

The present invention has been described in the above preferred embodiments, and it should be understood by those skilled in the art that the foregoing embodiments are only intended to depict the present invention and should not be construed as limiting the scope of the invention. It should be noted that variations and permutations equivalent to those of the foregoing embodiments are intended to be within the scope of the present invention. Therefore, the scope of protection of this new type is subject to the definition of the scope of patent application.

100‧‧‧Beverage cooler
200‧‧‧ ontology
210‧‧‧Injection
220‧‧‧ outlet
300‧‧‧Normal temperature cooling tank
310‧‧‧Connecting tube
400‧‧‧Low temperature cooling tank
410‧‧‧Connecting tube
500‧‧‧Cooling line
510‧‧‧
511‧‧‧ receiving end
520‧‧‧After
521‧‧‧output
530‧‧‧ coupling section
600‧‧‧Cool supply tank
700‧‧‧Pre-cooling tank
710‧‧‧ Refrigeration unit
800‧‧‧Compressor
900‧‧‧heating unit
L‧‧‧ Coolant
M1‧‧‧first motor
M2‧‧‧second motor

1A is a schematic front view of a beverage cooling device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 1B is a schematic rear view of the beverage cooling device of Fig. 1A.

Figure 1C is an exploded view of the beverage cooling device of Figure 1A.

Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of the normal temperature circulation line of the beverage cooling device.

Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of the low temperature circulation line of the beverage cooling device.

Figure 4A is a schematic view of the flow path of the connecting tube of the beverage cooling device.

Figure 4B is a schematic view of another connecting tube flow path of the beverage cooling device.

Claims (9)

A beverage cooling device comprising: a body; a normal temperature cooling tank disposed on the body; a low temperature cooling tank disposed on the body; a cooling pipeline, the cooling pipeline comprising: a front section disposed at the normal temperature cooling tank The front section has a receiving end for receiving a drink; and a rear section is disposed in the low temperature cooling tank and communicates with the front section, the rear section has an output end for outputting a beverage; a coolant supply tank connected to the normal temperature cooling tank Supplying a cooling liquid; and a pre-cooling tank for cooling the cooling liquid, the pre-cooling tank connecting the low-temperature cooling tank to supply the cooling liquid. The beverage cooling device of claim 1, further comprising: a connecting tube, the two ends are connected to the cryogenic cooling tank and the pre-cooling tank, and the connecting pipe is disposed in the coolant supply tank. The beverage cooling device of claim 1, further comprising: a connecting pipe, the two ends are connected to the normal temperature cooling tank and the coolant supply tank, and the connecting pipe is disposed in the pre-cooling tank. The beverage cooling device of claim 1, wherein the cooling conduit is made of stainless steel. The beverage cooling device of claim 1, wherein the pre-cooling tank further comprises a uniform cooling unit for immersing in the cooling liquid. The beverage cooling device of claim 5, wherein the refrigeration unit is made of copper. The beverage cooling device of claim 5, further comprising: a compressor having a condensation end connected to the refrigeration unit. The beverage cooling device of claim 7, further comprising: a heat dissipating unit connected to the compressor, the heat dissipating unit absorbing heat energy of the compressor and dissipating outward. The beverage cooling device of claim 1, wherein the cooling liquid is water.