Cooling bank control assembly for a beverage dispensing system
AssigneeLancer Partnership, Ltd.
InventorsJohn T. Hawkins, Jr., Stephen K. Verteeg
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A beverage dispensing system includes a cooling chamber filled with a bath of cooling fluid for cooling beverage fluids. A cooling unit, including an evaporator coil extending from the cooling unit into the cooling chamber, freezes the cooling fluid into a frozen cooling bank about the evaporator coil. Sensor units positioned at desired locations about the evaporator coil provide output corresponding to the size and shape of the frozen cooling bank. Also, a control unit reads the output from the sensor units and operates the cooling unit to regulate the growth of the frozen cooling bank. In addition, the control unit may read output from temperature sensors attached to dispensing valves or monitoring ambient temperature conditions.
Claims18
A beverage dispensing system, comprising:
- a housing;
- a container defining a cooling chamber;
- a bath of cooling fluid disposed within the cooling chamber;
- a cooling unit including an evaporator coil extending from the cooling unit into the cooling chamber, whereby the evaporator coil is submerged within the bath of cooling fluid to freeze the cooling fluid thereabout, thereby producing a frozen cooling bank;
- sensor units whereby each sensor unit is positioned within the cooling chamber at a different location about and at a desired distance from the evaporator coil to provide output corresponding to the size and shape of the frozen bank;
- and
- a control unit operatively linked with the sensor units and the cooling unit, whereby, responsive to the output of the sensor units, the control unit controls the operation of the cooling unit to regulate the growth of the frozen cooling bank.
A beverage dispensing system, comprising:
- a housing;
- a container defining a cooling chamber;
- a bath of cooling fluid disposed within the cooling chamber;
- a cooling unit including an evaporator coil extending from the cooling unit into the cooling chamber, whereby the evaporator coil is submerged within the bath of cooling fluid to freeze the cooling fluid thereabout, thereby producing a frozen cooling bank;
- a sensor unit, comprising:
- a first control probe immersed in the bath of cooling fluid and located a distance from the evaporator coil representing the minimum desired size of the frozen cooling bank,
- a second control probe immersed in the bath of cooling fluid and located at a greater distance from the evaporator coil than the first control probe representing the maximum desired size of the frozen cooling bank,
- a reference control probe immersed in the bath of cooling fluid, whereby the reference control probe monitors the cooling fluid;
- and
- a control unit operatively linked with the sensor unit and the cooling unit, whereby, responsive to the output of the sensor unit, the control unit controls the operation of the cooling unit to regulate the growth of the frozen cooling bank.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.