High speed reusable beverage container washing system with spinning beverage container holder
AssigneeMidea Group Co., Ltd.
InventorsDaniel J. Trice, Robert M. Digman
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A beverage container washing system may be used for rapid washing and/or sanitizing of beverage containers, e.g., for use in a retail environment to wash and/or sanitize customer-provided beverage containers prior to filling the beverage containers with purchased beverages, among other applications. Separate entrance and exit openings may be provided in some instances to minimize employee interaction with unwashed customer beverage containers, and a beverage container may be conveyed from the entrance opening to the exit opening past one or more stations using a holder that is capable of spinning the beverage container when the beverage container is disposed in at least one of the stations.
Claims20
An apparatus for washing a beverage container, comprising:
- a housing;
- a holder disposed within the housing and configured to hold a beverage container during a wash cycle;
- a plurality of stations disposed within the housing, the plurality of stations including a first station for loading the beverage container into the holder and a second station configured to perform an operation on the beverage container during the wash cycle;
- and
- a holder transfer assembly supporting the holder and configured to transfer the holder between the plurality of stations, wherein the holder transfer assembly is further configured to spin the holder and thereby spin the beverage container during at least a portion of the transfer of the holder between the plurality of stations.
An apparatus for washing a beverage container, comprising:
- a housing including an entrance opening and an exit opening that is separate from the entrance opening, the entrance opening configured to receive a beverage container prior to a wash cycle and the exit opening configured to provide access to the beverage container after the wash cycle;
- a holder disposed within the housing and configured to hold the beverage container during the wash cycle;
- a plurality of stations disposed within the housing, the plurality of stations including a loading station disposed proximate the entrance opening for loading the beverage container into the holder, an unloading station disposed proximate the exit opening for unloading the beverage container from the holder, at least one intermediate station between the loading and unloading stations and configured to perform an operation on the beverage container during the wash cycle;
- and
- a holder transfer assembly supporting the holder and configured to transfer the holder between the loading, at least one intermediate, and unloading stations, the holder transfer assembly further including:
- a holder support configured to rotatably support the holder;
- a holder support drive configured to move the holder support along a path extending between the plurality of stations;
- a pinion gear operably coupled to the holder to rotate with the holder;
- and
- a rack gear extending along at least a portion of the path extending between the plurality of stations and positioned to engage the pinion gear such that movement of the holder support along the path while the pinion gear engages the rack gear additionally rotates the holder.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.