Classifications

• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B67—OPENING, CLOSING OR CLEANING BOTTLES, JARS OR SIMILAR CONTAINERS; LIQUID HANDLING
  • B67D—DISPENSING, DELIVERING OR TRANSFERRING LIQUIDS, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • B67D1/00—Apparatus or devices for dispensing beverages on draught
  • B67D1/04—Apparatus utilising compressed air or other gas acting directly or indirectly on beverages in storage containers
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B67—OPENING, CLOSING OR CLEANING BOTTLES, JARS OR SIMILAR CONTAINERS; LIQUID HANDLING
  • B67D—DISPENSING, DELIVERING OR TRANSFERRING LIQUIDS, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • B67D1/00—Apparatus or devices for dispensing beverages on draught
  • B67D1/04—Apparatus utilising compressed air or other gas acting directly or indirectly on beverages in storage containers
  • B67D1/0412—Apparatus utilising compressed air or other gas acting directly or indirectly on beverages in storage containers the whole dispensing unit being fixed to the container
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B67—OPENING, CLOSING OR CLEANING BOTTLES, JARS OR SIMILAR CONTAINERS; LIQUID HANDLING
  • B67D—DISPENSING, DELIVERING OR TRANSFERRING LIQUIDS, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • B67D1/00—Apparatus or devices for dispensing beverages on draught
  • B67D1/0042—Details of specific parts of the dispensers
  • B67D1/0081—Dispensing valves
  • B67D2001/0087—Dispensing valves being mounted on the dispenser housing
  • B67D2001/0089—Dispensing valves being mounted on the dispenser housing operated by lever means

Definitions

• the invention concerns a container device for distribut ⁇ ing a preferably drinkable liquid, such as beer, wine, mineral water or juice, under pressure from a gas, e.g. CO , comprising a liquid container with a combined gas and liquid valve and a coupling head which may be detachably coupled with the gas and liquid valve for dispensing liquid from the liquid container and adding gas via a reduction valve from a reservoir of liquefied gas in a high pressure container.
• a gas e.g. CO
• Such containers which are generally called casks or kegs, are widely used nowadays for distributing e.g. beer, which is maintained in the container under a C0 ⁇ pressure of about 3 bar, with a view to keeping the beer fresh and giving it its special fizzy and foaming character.
• the container is opened by mounting on its valve a special coupling head which is in turn connected with a dispensing valve via a line.
• the gas now also acts as a propellant gas, which however follows the beverage out of the container to a certain extent.
• the object of the invention is therefore to provide a container device of the type mentioned in the opening paragraph, which itself can contain the necessary gas amount for emptying the beverage without noticeable increase in the total volume of the container, and which is also easier and quicker to mount when it is to be used, than known before.
• the container device of the invention is characterized in that at least a high pressure container for liquefied gas constitues a com ⁇ ponent integral with the liquid container, whereby the transportable container can hold sufficient gas for emptying without its overall volume being notice ⁇ ably increased since the gas in liquified form only has a very small volume.
• the high pressure container may be a cylinder or ring shaped pressure container which is secured to the liquid container by means of joining method, such as welding, soldering, seaming or screwing.
• the transport container is hereby divided into two chambers, one of which is a low pressure chamber for the liquid and the other a high pressure chamber for the liquefied gas.
• the high pressure container may moreover according to the invention be a cylinder or ring-shaped pressure container, which is embedded in a jacket of e.g. foam plastics which surrounds the liquid container and is firmly connected with it, so that the high pressure chamber and its boundaries will be disposed completely outside the low pressure chamber, which is thus easier to clean.
• the container device may comprise one or more high pressure containers, each of which is adapted to a pressure of at least 60 bar, and the product of this pressure and the container volume in liters may be less than 250, preferably less than 200.
• the gas can hereby be contained in a liquefied state without the high pressure container or high pres ⁇ sure containers being subjected to official and repeated testing and approval requirements, since the sufficient gas amount for emptying the container of liquid is divided, if necessary, between several high pressure containers of this type.
• the reduction valve may form a component integral with the liquid container, so that mounting is facilitated considerably when the container is to be used.
• the outlet opening of the reduction valve and the gas and liquid valve may be positioned with mutual axis-spacing, and the coupling head may be equipped with a dispensing valve for the liquid and also be so adapted that in mounted state it partly connects the reduction valve with the gas inlet of the gas and liquid valve, partly connects the dispensing valve with the liquid outlet of the gas and liquid valve.
• the coupling head may be mounted on the transport container in a single operation, which at the same time establishes all the necessary gas and liquid connections for operating the container device and dispensing the liquid.
• fig. 1 is a lateral, partially sectional view of a first embodiment of a container device of the invention
• fig. 2 is a top view of the same
• fig. 3 is a side, partially sectionally view of a second embodiment of the container device of the invention.
• fig. 4 is a side, partially sectionally view of a third embodiment of a container device of the invention.
• fig. 5 is a top view of the same.
• fig. 6 is a side, partially sectionally view on an enlarged scale of a fragment of the container device according to the invention, where the connections between the coupling head and respectively the reduction valve and the combined gas and liquid valve are shown in detail.
• Fig. 1 shows a first embodiment of a container device according to the invention which comprises a liquid container 1 for a beverage, e.g. beer, wine, mineral water or juice, a high pressure container 102 for a liquefied gas, e.g. C0 2 , welded in said liquid con- tainer, as well as a mounted coupling head 3 which serves to interconnnect the liquid and high pressure containers.
• the liquid container 1 may be made of plas ⁇ tics, but is usually made of a metal, such as aluminium or stainless steel, and the high pressure container 102 may be made of a corresponding material.
• the liquid container 1 stands on a foot ring 4 and upwardly has a neck ring 5 in which a combined gas and liquid valve 6, which is not shown in fig. 1 but in fig. 6, is mounted.
• the high pressure container 102 is cylinder shaped and extends vertically through the liquid con ⁇ tainer 1, to which it is welded upwardly and downwardly so that the two containers 1, 102 in combination forms a firmly integrated unit.
• the liquid container 1 is a low pressure container with a relatively low working pressure, e.g. 3 bar, when the container is used for beer, while the gas container is a high pressure container proper which is filled with gas through a schematically shown filling valve 7, and which, when the propellant gas is CO ⁇ , is to withstand a test pressure of 190 bar.
• the pressure in the liquid container 1 falls below the pressure to which a reduction valve 8, which is welded on the high pressure container 102, has been adjusted, the liquefied gas in it will begin to evaporate and penetrate into the liquid container 1 via the reduction valve 8, the coupling head 3 and the combined gas and liquid valve 6 to replace the gas which follows the liquid during dispensing.
• the gas serves to keep the beverage fresh in the con ⁇ tainer and give e.g. beer its characteristic fizzy and foaming character.
• the volume of the liquefied gas is multiplied to such an extent that even a very small amount of liquefied gas will be sufficient for emptying a whole liquid container of liquid, and the welded high pressure container 1 can therefore be constructed with relatively small dimensions so that its wall thick ⁇ ness will be correspondingly small and it does not restrict the useful volume of the liquid container to any noticeable degree.
• the transportable container of the invention therefore does not generally speaking take up more room than corresponding conventional con ⁇ tainers, not withstanding that it itself holds and carries its own propellant gas.
• High pressure containers are subjected to the rules of the authorities, which i.a. require that the con ⁇ tainer is to be pressure tested, e.g. every five years. However, this does not apply in case that the product of volume in liters and pressure in bar is below a predetermined limit value, e.g. 250 or 200, a size which may vary slightly from country to country. Since, as mentioned above, the gas container has a relatively small volume and is nevertheless able to hold the neces- sary gas amount, so small gas containers can normally be used that the repeated pressure testing, which will be hard and difficult to carry out with such an inte ⁇ grated arrangement, is not necessary.
• a predetermined limit value e.g. 250 or 200
• the reduction valve 8 is welded upwardly on the high pressure container 102, as mentioned.
• the coupling head 3 may be mounted in a single operation, which at the same establishes all connections, as will be explained later in connection with fig. 6. In this case, mounting takes place by causing a hook 9 on the coupling head 3 to engage below a rearwardly facing edge 10 on the neck ring 5 and then tilting the coupling head downwardly until a detent 11 is caused to engage a pin 13, disposed on each side of the reduction valve, by means of a spring 12.
• the coupling head has moreover a dispensing valve 13 which can be activated by a rocker arm 15.
• the embodiment of the container device of the invention shown in fig. 3 is quite similar to the container de ⁇ vice shown in fig. 1, except that in this case the gas container 202 is shaped as a ring which is welded in the top of the liquid container 1.
• This structure has the special advantage that the gas container 202 can obtain a sufficiently large volume with even a very small container diameter since, on the other hand, the ring itself can be provided with a large diameter corresponding to the liquid container.
• the two containers may also be joined to an integrated unit in any other suitable manner which can establish a firm connection between the two components, e.g. soldering, seaming or screwing.
• Figs. 4 and 5 show a third embodiment of the invention where the high pressure container 302, which is ring- shaped in this case, is connected with the liquid con ⁇ tainer 1 by means of an outer jacket of e.g. foam plas ⁇ tics, such as foamed polyurethan which moulds the two containers 1, 302 to an integrated unitary structure. Then, the gas container 302 will be disposed completely outside the space in the liquid container 1 in which the beverage container is contained.
• This embodiment is particularly advantageous since the internal faces of the liquid container can be cleaned more easily and more carefully than in the embodiment described before, where also the high pressure container had faces which touched the beverage.
• the outer jacket 17 may moreover provide the entire container device with suitable protection during transport and handling and also serve as an insulation to keep the beverage cold. Apart from the above-mentioned amendments, this structure corresponds in all its respects to the embo ⁇ diment shown in fig. 3.
• Fig. 6 shows in more detail and on an enlarged scale the overall arrangement of the valve 6, the coupling head 3 and the reduction valve 8, which is welded on a ring-shaped high pressure container 202 in this case.
• the valve 6 is a combined gas and liquid valve which is generally called a tap and which has a gas passage 18 and a liquid passage 19, but may otherwise be of any suitable structure and will therefore not be des ⁇ cribed in detail here.
• Via a liquid channel 20 in the coupling head 3 the liquid passage is connected with the dispensing valve 14 which can be opened by a slight pressure on the rocker arm 15 so that a valve 21 is opened.
• the latter arrangement may also be established in many other ways, e.g. with a rotatable plug.
• the gas passage communicates with the reduction valve via a gas channel 22 in the coupling head 3.
• the structure of the reduction valve 8 is of a known type like the valve 6 and will therefore not be des ⁇ cribed more fully here.
• the coupling head is mounted easily and quickly by a single manipulation, thereby providing a seal with respect to the gas and liquid valve 6 by means of an O-ring seal 23 and with respect to the reduction valve 8 by means of another O-ring seal 24.
• all connections are hereby established automatically via the coupling head 3 so that the liquid container 1 is successively filled with gas from the gas container 202 as the beverage is dispensed from the valve 14.

Landscapes

• Devices For Dispensing Beverages (AREA)
• Filling Or Discharging Of Gas Storage Vessels (AREA)
• Containers And Packaging Bodies Having A Special Means To Remove Contents (AREA)
• Packages (AREA)
• Electrical Discharge Machining, Electrochemical Machining, And Combined Machining (AREA)
• Food Preservation Except Freezing, Refrigeration, And Drying (AREA)
• Feeding, Discharge, Calcimining, Fusing, And Gas-Generation Devices (AREA)

Priority Applications (3)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Publications (1)

Family

ID=8122905

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (13)

Cited By (2)

Families Citing this family (8)

Citations (2)

Family Cites Families (2)

• 1988
  • 1988-06-23 DK DK344188A patent/DK171915B1/da not_active IP Right Cessation
• 1989
  • 1989-06-09 DE DE8907059U patent/DE8907059U1/de not_active Expired
  • 1989-06-15 CA CA000602882A patent/CA1335984C/en not_active Expired - Fee Related
  • 1989-06-21 DD DD89329824A patent/DD283979A5/de unknown
  • 1989-06-22 DE DE68927641T patent/DE68927641D1/de not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 1989-06-22 ES ES8902186A patent/ES2014162A6/es not_active Expired - Fee Related
  • 1989-06-22 AT AT89907688T patent/ATE147364T1/de not_active IP Right Cessation
  • 1989-06-22 JP JP1507204A patent/JP2772089B2/ja not_active Expired - Fee Related
  • 1989-06-22 PT PT90945A patent/PT90945B/pt not_active IP Right Cessation
  • 1989-06-22 AU AU38575/89A patent/AU629225B2/en not_active Ceased
  • 1989-06-22 WO PCT/DK1989/000154 patent/WO1989012599A1/en active IP Right Grant
  • 1989-06-22 EP EP89907688A patent/EP0422085B1/en not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 1989-06-23 CN CN89104255A patent/CN1018993B/zh not_active Expired
• 1990
  • 1990-02-16 KR KR1019900700323A patent/KR900701645A/ko not_active Application Discontinuation

Patent Citations (2)

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