Beverage dispensing apparatus with butterfly plates and a molded O-ring retainer
AssigneeAutomatic Bar Controls, Inc.
InventorsMojtaba Valiyee, Juha K. Salmela
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The present invention provides improved retention of O-rings and easier O-ring replacement by using an O-ring retainer in a bar gun. Furthermore, the assembly of the butterfly plates of the bar gun is improved by using molded ball bearing clusters that fit in recesses in the butterfly plates, thus eliminating the welding of the balls to the butterfly plates and the need to purchase such precise and intricately small balls. The O-ring retainer and molded ball bearing cluster are preferably made from bearing quality acetal plastic materials.
Claims21
An apparatus for dispensing a beverage, for use with pressurized sources of one or more fluids, comprising:
- a handle having at least one valve chamber, each valve chamber having an entry cavity and an exit cavity, the entry cavity being positioned on one side of a valve chamber seat, and the exit cavity being positioned on the other side of the valve chamber seat;
- a valve stem disposed in each valve chamber, each valve stem having a valve stem seat for a sealable engagement with a valve chamber seat in a valve closed position;
- an O-ring disposed around each valve stem;
- an O-ring retainer attached to the handle and configured to retain each O-ring in place around the valve stem, wherein the O-ring retainer is manually removable and manually replaceable to provide easy access to the O-ring without the need for tools;
- a butterfly plate disposed over each valve stem, said butterfly plate being configured to bias the valve stem toward a valve open position upon a manual input from an operator;
- means for biasing each valve stem toward the valve closed position;
- and
- means for fluidly coupling each exit cavity to a discharge opening.
An apparatus for dispensing a beverage, for use with pressurized sources of one or more fluids, comprising:
- a handle having one or more valve chambers;
- a fluid valve disposed in each valve chamber, each said valve having a valve stem;
- one or more butterfly plates each configured to bias one or more of the valve stems towards a valve-open position when the butterfly plate is pressed, thus opening a fluidic communication from each of said pressurized sources of the fluids to a corresponding discharge opening;
- an O-ring disposed around each valve stem;
- and
- an O-ring retainer configured to retain the O-ring in place around the valve stem, the O-ring retainer comprising a clip configured such that the O-ring retainer can be manually attached to the handle, and manually removed from the handle to provide easy access to the O-ring.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.