Method and device for cooling beverages

Abstract

The invention relates to a beverage dispenser (1000) for dispensing beverages, that comprises: a refrigeration circuit (41); a tank (10) for containing said coolant at a liquid state coming from a first duct (20) in the lower portion thereof and evaporating said coolant into a gaseous state, and for containing said coolant in a gaseous state in the upper portion thereof; a second duct (30) for collecting the coolant at the gaseous state from said tank (10); at least one duct (40) for circulating said beverage to be dispensed inside said tank (10) and according to a thermal exchange relation with the coolant at the liquid and / or gaseous state.

Description

SUBJECT OF THE INVENTION[0001]The present invention relates to a device and a method for cooling and dispensing beverages. In particular, the invention relates to a device and to a method for cooling and dispensing beer and other beverages in “flying pump” mode.TECHNOLOGICAL BACKGROUND[0002]Systems designed to dispense beverages, such as beer, sparkling wines, sodas, etc., while maintaining the beverages at a given temperature, which may vary from one beverage to another, have been known for a long time. In the case of beer for example, it is known that it freezes below a temperature of −1.5° C. and foams above 4° C., and that the tasting temperature depends on the type of beer (and therefore, depending on the type of beer, the temperature allows the beverage to reveal its taste, flavor and aroma). Typically, two methods are known for cooling beverages.[0003]The first method is that in which a coil or a tank containing a beverage is immersed either in an ice bath or in a water bath ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0017]means designed to reduce the pressure of said refrigerant, passing via a first line, said first line being designed to circulate said refrigerant in liquid form;

[0027]In a preferred embodiment of the invention, said tank comprises, inside, a cylinder welded to the bottom of said tank and open at the top, designed to collect the refrigerant in gaseous form in the upper part of said tank and discharge said refrigerant by the second line toward said compressor. This cylinder also makes it possible to raise, for a given volume of refrigerant, the level of the latter inside the tank so as to improve the heat exchange between the fluid and the beverage.

[0030]In another preferred variant of the invention, said at least one duct is inserted into a tube in order to form a double-walled duct so as to avoid any risk of food contamination in the event of the coil leaking.

Problems solved by technology

If the coil or the tank is immersed in an ice bath, the main drawbacks that may be observed are the low efficiency of heat transfer to the ice and its cost, and also the difficulty of obtaining and transporting blocks of ice of limited longevity.

If the coil or the tank is immersed in a water bath refrigerated by a conventional refrigerating unit, the main drawbacks of such an apparatus that may be observed are the need to have a tank of large size in order to contain the refrigerated water, the long time to fill the tank with water, (which is not easy for dispensing in “flying pump” mode) and the time to cool the volume of water and therefore the considerable delay between starting the apparatus and dispensing the first cooled beverage.

In this regard, the reader may refer to U.S. Pat. No. 3,712,514, the main drawbacks of which are the time to cool the tank, which must be entirely cooled before dispensing, the large dimensions of the lagged chamber containing the tank and evaporator, and the presence of air (with a very low thermal exchange coefficient) between the tank and the evaporator.

However, this system has the following drawbacks: the construction of such a system is complicated and expensive due to the presence of all the plates that are placed at a precise distance δ and are difficult to produce.

Consequently, due to the presence of zones that are difficult to access, it is practically impossible to clean the inside of the heat exchanger.

In addition, there is a high risk in this system of contaminating the beverage with the refrigerating gas, due to a sealing fault (and therefore a fault in a weld or a perforation in the zone separating the beverage from the gas).

Due to the shape of the latter, the heat exchanger cannot be easily lagged.

Furthermore, this system can cool only a single beverage duct at a time.

However, this compressor unit is very heavy, bulky and expensive;semi-sealed unit: in which the motor and the compressor are directly assembled, one against the other.

However, this compressor unit is very expensive and exists only in three-phase form and above 1.5 hp.

However, there is a risk in this compressor unit of said relay and the starting capacitor overheating when it is frequently started and stopped.

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