Supply device for beverage-dispensing machines

A system including at least two automatic coffee-dispensing machines (1a, 1b) and a supply device for the at least two automatic coffee-dispensing machines (1a, 1b), the supply device comprising:

• a receiving compartment adapted for insertion of at least two milk storage containers (5a, 5b), the milk storage containers are connectable to the at least two beverage automatic coffee-dispensing machines (1a, 1b) via foodstuff lines (4a, 4b, 4a′, 4b′),
• a cooling device (10) for controlling a temperature of milk, placed in the milk storage containers (5a, 5b), to a predeterminable temperature,
• a separate heat-conducting contact plate having a cooling coil and a separate heat-conducting contact surface (8a, 8b) for each of the milk storage containers which, when a respective one of the milk storage containers (5a, 5b) is inserted, the separate heat-conducting contact surface physically contacts a heat-conducting bottom wall (7a, 7b) of the respective milk storage container with the separate heat-conducting contact surface (8a, 8b) being smaller than the respective heat-conducting bottom wall (7a, 7b) to provide a heat-conducting contact, and to cool the contents of the milk storage container (5a, 5b) via the cooling coil;
• a separately controllable cooling circuit (9a, 9b) of the cooling device (10) that cools each of the separate heat-conducting contact surfaces (8a, 8b) to provide selective cooling for each of the milk storage containers (5a, 5b);
• each of the separate heat-conducting contact surfaces (8a, 8b) is provided with a temperature sensor (11a, 11b) for determining an actual temperature at the heat-conducting bottom wall (7a, 7b) of each respective one of the milk storage containers (5a, 5b), and a cooling power supplied by the cooling device (10) to each of the separate heat-conducting contact surface (8a, 8b) is controlled via a control unit (12) based on said temperature sensors (11a, 11b);
• and
• the control unit (12) is connectable to the at least two automatic coffee-dispensing machines and is configured to send a signal for blocking a product delivery for as long as the actual temperature deviates from a predeterminable desired temperature for each of the milk storage containers (5a, 5b).