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US 2020/0024119 A1Published application
Sold out detection using a level sensor for a beverage dispenser
AssigneeThe Coca-Cola Company
InventorsDoug McDougall, Brian Johnson, Dick P. Welch
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A beverage dispenser and process of dispensing a beverage may include pumping a micro-ingredient from a micro-ingredient container via a fluid path toward a nozzle to dispense a beverage inclusive of the micro-ingredient. The micro-ingredient may be reverse pumped via the fluid path back to the micro-ingredient container to cause an air bubble in the fluid path to be pushed into the micro-ingredient container.
Claims20
A method of manufacturing a beverage dispenser, said method comprising:
- disposing a micro-ingredient container containing micro-ingredient to be dispensed by the beverage dispenser;
- disposing a two-way pump;
- and
- fluidly connecting a conduit between the micro-ingredient container and the two-way pump to enable the two-way pump (i) to pump micro-ingredient liquid contained within the micro-ingredient container through the conduit, and (ii) to pump the micro-ingredient and any air bubbles contained therein via the conduit into the micro-ingredient container.
1 more element
A method of dispensing a beverage, comprising:
- pumping a micro-ingredient from a micro-ingredient container via a fluid path toward a nozzle to dispense a beverage inclusive of the micro-ingredient;
- and
- reverse pumping the micro-ingredient via the fluid path back to the micro-ingredient container to cause an air bubble in the fluid path to be pushed into the micro-ingredient container.
A beverage dispenser, comprising:
- an ingredient container including an ingredient used to produce a beverage;
- a bi-directional pump configured to pump fluid in either of a forward direction or a reverse direction;
- a first conduit fluidly connecting said ingredient container and said bi-directional pump;
- a nozzle configured to output beverage ingredients from the beverage dispenser;
- a second conduit fluidly connecting said bi-directional pump and said nozzle;
- and
- a processing unit in communication with said bi-directional pump, and configured to command said bi-directional pump to pump in a forward direction or a reverse direction.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.