Vaccum transfer system and method for food grade product
OwnerMarcus J. Engleinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A vacuum transfer system for transferring food grade products. A biased ball in a cage with a substantially uninterrupted cage wall is utilized as a check valve. The ball may be biased by a weight to float in a predictable orientation relative to the cage. The biased ball assures that a certain portion of the ball will consistently engage with and aperture. The biased ball also minimizes chattering of the ball in the cage under high flow conditions.
Claims26
A system for handling a liquid food grade product comprising:
- a vessel;
- a vacuum transfer system adapted to draw the liquid food grade product into said vessel;
- and
- a cleaning system for cleaning and sanitizing said vessel and said vacuum transfer system, said cleaning system comprising:
- an inlet port adapted to be placed in fluid communication with a source of a cleaning fluid;
- at least one spray nozzle disposed in said vessel;
- and
- means for selectively placing said at least one spray nozzle and said vacuum transfer system in fluid communication with said inlet port,
- whereby cleaning fluid supplied from said source of cleaning fluid supplied to said inlet port may be selectively passed through the vacuum transfer system and sprayed into the vessel through said at least one spray nozzle, thereby cleaning, sanitizing and disinfecting said vacuum transfer system and said vessel in a single operation.
A cleaning system for cleaning, sanitizing and disinfecting a vessel and vacuum transfer system, the vessel and vacuum transfer system for handling a liquid food grade product, the cleaning system comprising:
- an inlet port adapted to be connected with a source of a cleaning fluid, said inlet port being in fluid communication with the vacuum transfer system;
- and
- at least one spray nozzle disposed in the vessel, said at least one spray nozzle being in fluid communication with said inlet port,
- whereby cleaning fluid from said source of cleaning fluid supplied to said inlet port passes through the vacuum transfer system and is sprayed into the vessel through said at least one spray nozzle, thereby cleaning, sanitizing and disinfecting said vacuum transfer system and said vessel in a single operation.
A system for handling a liquid food grade product comprising:
- vessel;
- a selectively activatable vacuum source;
- a vacuum transfer unit in fluid communication with said vessel and said vacuum source;
- valving means operably coupled to the vacuum source and the vacuum transfer unit for selectively (a) positively pressurizing said vessel to expel the liquid food grade product from said vessel and (b) drawing a vacuum in said vessel to draw the liquid food grade product into said vessel;
- and
- means for cleaning and sanitizing said vessel, said vacuum transfer unit, and said valving means.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.