Beverage dispensing valve with easy opening

A easy opening carbonated beverage dispensing valve comprising:

• (a) a valve body having a pressurizable inlet, an outlet, and a valve seat between the inlet and outlet;
• (b) a reciprocable poppet valve in said body, said poppet valve having a valve head normally seatable upon said valve seat, and a protruding nose extending from said valve head;
• (c) means for reciprocating said poppet valve rearward for opening the dispensing valve and enabling flow of beverage past the valve head and valve seat;
• (d) a balance cylinder to the rear of said valve seat and said valve head, said cylinder having a crosssectional area at least equal to a majority of the outlet area within said valve seat;
• (e) a balance piston on said nose of the poppet valve head, said piston being co-movable with said poppet valve and having means for fluid tightly sealing itself to said cylinder;
• (f) means for venting to atmosphere that part of the cylinder which is rearward of the piston;
• (g) said nose including a seal to which the rear of the piston is sealingly engaged, and retaining means for retaining the piston upon the nose and in engagement with the seal with a front end of the piston having a cylinder seal movably and sealingly engageable with the balance cylinder;
• and
• (h) in which the piston front end and cylinder seal are mounted relatively floppy about said protruding nose.

A method of dispensing carbonated beverage comprising the steps of

• (a) providing carbonated beverage at a normally closed valve head, said beverage being under a propellant pressure equivalent to or greater than the carbonation saturation pressure of the beverage;
• (b) balancing the pressure upon the valve head by venting the majority of the upstream area of the valve head to atmosphere;
• and
• (c) opening the valve by applying an opening force to the valve head, which opening force is sufficient to overcome the beverage pressure applied only upon a minority of the area of the valve head, and
• (d) developing the opening force upon the valve head by:
• (1) energizing an electric solenoid and pulling in a solenoid plunger;
• (2) elastically stretching an elastic connection of the plunger to the valve head until the force providing the stretching exceeds the force required to open the valve;
• and
• (3) popping the valve head open while taking in the elastic connection.

An electrically actuatable pre-mix carbonated beverage dispensing valve, comprising

• (a) a valve body having an inlet, an outlet, a valve seat, and a reciprocable poppet valve normally closing and upon the valve seat;
• (b) an electric solenoid having a coil fixed with respect to the body and a plunger movable with respect to the body and the frame;
• (c) a spring elastically connecting the solenoid plunger to the poppet valve;
• and in which
• (d) the spring is a pre-loaded closed coil helical tension spring having a second end outside of the plunger bore.

An electrically actuatable pre-mix carbonated beverage dispensing system comprising

• (a) a beverage dispenser having a plurality of pre-mix carbonated beverage dispensing valves, each dispensing valve having a normally closed poppet valve for on-off control of beverage flow;
• (b) means for supplying pre-mix carbonated beverage to each of said valves;
• (c) an electrical solenoid for each valve, each solenoid having a coil fixed with respect to a respective valve and a movable plunger within the coil;
• (d) a single voltage reducing and current limiting transformer for said solenoids;
• (e) an electrical switch for each solenoid, said switches being connected in parallel to an output side of the transformer;
• (f) a spring elastically and operatively connecting each solenoid plunger to a respective said normally closed poppet valve in each respective said dispensing valve;
• and
• (g) means on the upstream end of each poppet valve for at least partially balancing the pressure of pre-mix carbonated beverage against the poppet valve, so that each closed and balanced poppet valve can be snapped open by a respective spring elastically stretched by a respective solenoid.

An electrically actuatable pre-mix carbonated beverage dispensing valve, comprising

• (a) a valve body having an inlet, an outlet, a valve seat, and a reciprocable poppet valve normally closing and upon the valve seat;
• (b) an electric solenoid having a coil fixed with respect to the body and a plunger movable with respect to the body and the frame, said solenoid being mounted on a vertical axis and above the poppet valve, said plunger being free-falling downward by gravity to a normal position;
• (c) a spring elastically connecting the solenoid plunger to the poppet valve, said spring being free falling with said plunger;
• and
• (d) including a first class lever between the spring and the poppet valve, said lever having a generally vertical leg engaging the poppet valve, a fulcrum above the poppet valve, and a generally horizontal leg extending from the fulcrum to the spring.