Cooling duct for beverage machine
AssigneeKeurig Green Mountain, Inc.
InventorsSteven Mackey, Pranav Chopra, Scott Grubb, Thomas Fedorka, Qian Gao
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A beverage making machine having a tank may be arranged to carbonate and/or chill liquid in the tank. A heat sink used to transfer heat from the liquid may be positioned in a duct located in a housing of the machine. Air may flow through the duct from a duct inlet to a duct outlet to receive heat from the heat sink. A precursor liquid supply inlet, e.g., an opening of a water reservoir, may be located near the duct outlet, and the duct may be arranged to conduct any liquid mistakenly provided into the duct outlet to a bottom of the machine, avoiding contact with electronic components of the machine.
Claims21
A beverage making machine, comprising:
- a precursor liquid supply to provide precursor liquid used to form a beverage, the precursor liquid supply including an inlet opening to receive precursor liquid provided to the beverage making machine;
- a tank having an inlet coupled to the precursor liquid supply to receive precursor liquid into the tank, and an outlet to deliver precursor liquid from the tank to a dispensing station;
- a cooling system including a heat sink and arranged to remove heat from the precursor liquid in the tank;
- and
- a housing that at least partially surrounds the tank and that includes a duct with a flow channel extending from a duct inlet to a duct outlet positioned near the inlet opening, the heat sink being positioned in the flow channel for contact with air passing through the flow channel,
- wherein the duct is arranged such that any precursor liquid entering the duct outlet is directed to a bottom of the housing.
A method for operating a beverage making machine, comprising:
- providing a beverage making machine having a cooling system including a heat sink and arranged to remove heat from precursor liquid in a tank of the beverage making machine;
- providing precursor liquid into an inlet opening of a precursor liquid supply arranged to provide the precursor liquid to the tank;
- providing precursor liquid into a duct outlet of a duct of the machine, the duct arranged to conduct air into contact with the heat sink to remove heat from the heat sink;
- and
- conducting flow of the precursor liquid entering the duct outlet to a bottom of the housing while avoiding contact of the water with electrical components of the machine.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.