The present invention relates to a product dispenser for dispensing a stored product into a volume of liquid. The product may be either a liquid or a soluble solid and is particularly, but not exclusively, applicable to the drinks and pharmaceutical industries.
In the beverage field, concentrates are often added to base liquids to change their flavour, aroma and/or colour. Typically, different syrups are selectively added to carbonated water to provide a selection of different soft drinks such as cola, lemonade, orangeade, etc.
In bars mixers are added to various drinks to provide cocktails. In both cases, large volumes of the concentrate or spirits have to be stored and both accurate measuring and mixing has to be thoroughly effected before serving to the customer. This denies the customer the opportunity of mixing the drink to his preferred taste.
It is an object to the invention to provide an improved dispenser which allows the customer, rather than the server, to dispense and mix his own beverages.
A further object of the invention is to provide a dispenser which permits a patient to conveniently mix appropriate pharmaceuticals with a liquid.
According to the present invention there is provided a disposable product dispenser for dispensing product into a liquid prior to consumption, the dispenser comprising a quantity of product sufficient for a drink or dose and a holder for the product, wherein the holder is arranged to permit a user to release the product in a controlled manner and to mix the product with the liquid.
The present invention provides a dispenser which can purchased by a customer in a bar which enables the customer to mix a beverage, for example a soft water based drink, an alcoholic drink or coffee to his desired taste. The customer may simply purchase the dispenser containing a sealed and measured quantity of product and dispense this into a volume liquid, for example carbonated water or hot water, which may be freely available at a collection point.
Employing the present invention, the time consuming mixing of the drink is transferred from the vendor to the purchaser, providing a significant advantage to the vendor. Meanwhile, the purchaser can expect to receive product supplied, pre-packed in the dispenser, of the desired quality and quantity and maintained in a sterile environment prior to opening by the customer.
An additional benefit of the dispenser in accordance with the invention is that it may be arranged to provide the customer with a significant “play factor” when dispensing the product, depending on the nature of the product and the environment in which it is to be sold. For example the product, if a liquid, may be oil based and if dispensed into water can be arranged to provide interesting suspensions prior to complete mixing. The novelty factor which can be provided by a dispenser in accordance with the present invention can be of significant marketing importance, particularly in a bar or coffee house environment.
Another major advantage of a dispenser in accordance with the present invention is that it can be used to permit automated dispensing of a product.
A dispenser in accordance with the present invention may be used not only for the dispensing of beverages, but may also be used to supply pharmaceutical preparations to a patient and has application to the provision of any substance that requires mixing with a bulk volume of liquid, particularly if that liquid is for consumption by a human and it is important to know that the product has been maintained in a sterile environment.
The dispenser may advantageously be in the form of a spoon with a cage mounted on the handle of the spoon towards the bowl of the spoon. A product in the cage, for example coffee, can then released by a user into a cup of hot water.
A dispenser in accordance with the invention may comprise a mixing section having an-inlet and an outlet, means defining a first path, extending helically in one sense about an axis, means defining a second path extending helically in the opposite sense about said axis, both said paths being positioned to receive substantially equal amounts of fluid from said inlet and to discharge the fluids flowing there along to a common location adjacent said outlet, whereby to effect turbulent mixing.
Disposable product dispenser embodying the present invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which like numerals are used to indicate like parts and in which:
FIGS. 17 to 18 disclose an embodiment similar to that illustrated in
FIGS. 19 to 21 illustrate various embodiments of the present invention when applied to a straw;
FIGS. 22 to 23 illustrate the present invention applied to a mixing stick; and
FIGS. 24 to 38 illustrate various embodiments of a dispenser in accordance with the present invention, applied to a spoon.
As shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, a first embodiment of the invention consists of three components, a storage component 2 for a product, a mixing component 4 and a dispensing component 6.
The mixing component, which can be more clearly seen in FIGS. 4 to 7, comprises a hollow cylindrical body 8 of predetermined internal and external diameter. The body has an upper rim or collar portion 10 of reduced internal diameter sized to accommodate the lower end portion of the storage component, and has a lower rim or collar portion 12 of reduced external diameter to matingly engage an opening in the upper end of the dispensing component 6.
The body 8 has a central axially extending rod 14 with a pointed upper end 14A which extends into the region of the upper rim portion 10. The rod 14 is supported within the body 8 by a pair of arcuate flanges 16 and 18 which extend between the inner wall of the body 8 and the rod 14. Each flange subtends at an angle of 180° about the axis of the rod 14 and spirals downwardly in opposite senses about the axis of the rod 14.
Thus, the upper radially extending end of each flange 16 and 18 starts from a common line extending diametrically across the cylindrical body at junction with the lower end of the upper rim portion and the lower radially extending end of each flange terminates in a common line extending diametrically across the cylindrical body at the junction with the upper end of the lower rim portion. Thus, the axial length of each flange equals the distance between the upper and lower rim portions. In operation, when a liquid is discharged into the upper rim portion 10, half the liquid will be swirled about the rod 14 in a clockwise sense by one of the flanges and the other half of the liquid will be swirled around the rod 14 in an anticlockwise sense. The resulting two streams of liquid leaving the flanges will meet swirling around in opposite senses to ensure a high degree of turbulence in the resulting flow.
The free lateral faces of the two flanges at their lower ends lie in a common vertical plane to ensure that the liquid flowing down each flange breaks away from the surface of the flange as it is discharged therefrom.
The angular downward slope of each flange preferably lies in the range of from 40° to 60° but more advantageously lies in the range of from 45° to 55°.
The dispensing component which is more clearly shown in FIGS. 8 to 10 consists of an upper cylindrical support or collar 28 which has an internal diameter matching the external diameter of the lower rim portion 12 of the mixing component 4. Depending downwardly from the support 28 is an elongate hollow conical portion 29 decreasing in diameter with distance from the support 28. The conical portion is provided with two substantially flat faces 20 and 22 on diametrically opposite sides thereof.
Each flat face is provided with an axially extending row of six equally spaced openings 24 in the lower region thereof.
In operation, when the dispensing component is lowered into a body a liquid to a level in which all the openings 24 are submerged and a turbulent flow is introduced from the mixing component 4, the turbulent flow will emerge from all the openings 24 in a turbulent fashion to ensure a thorough mixing with the body liquid.
The storage component 2, as shown more clearly in FIGS. 11 to 14, has a lower collar 30 having an external diameter matching the internal diameter of the upper rim portion 10 which is arranged to receive the collar 30. Extending upwardly from the collar 30 is a generally elongate hollow bulbous portion 32 which is arranged to store the fluid which is to be discharged from the system.
The mouth of the collar 30 is bridged by a rupturable membrane (not shown) eg of plastics lined aluminium foil to seal the contents within the bulbous portion 32.
In operation, when the collar 30 is made to engage the upper rim portion 10 and urged downwardly, the pointed upper end 14A of the rod will pierce the membrane to release the contents into the mixing component 4 where turbulent mixing will occur. As the turbulent contents discharges from the mixing component 4, it enters the discharge component 6 to be released into a surrounding body of liquid through the openings 24.
The three components may be coupled together in a variety of ways, the couplings may be achieved by a force fit, adhesive or even a screw threaded connection.
The fluid may flow through the system under gravitational force or the flow may be assisted by making the bulbous portion 32 of flaccid or resilient material so that pressure can be applied to it to force the fluid therefrom.
A variety of different sized or shaped storage components can be fitted to a standard sized mixing component. Equally, different sized dispensing portions or ones having different sized apertures, can be fitted to the mixing portion.
While the three components can be provided as separate components for assembly at the point of sale, it is preferable to provide the system ready assembled with the particular size and shape combination dedicated to each different type of fluid to be dispensed.
In this situation, the assembly of the storage component with the mixing component would need to be in a semi complete state in order to prevent the pointed end 14A of the rod prematurely piercing the membrane. Thus, for example, a tear off ring (not shown) may be provided around the collar 30 to prevent the collar 30 from fully engaging the upper rim portion and so holding the membrane spaced from the pointed end 14A.
By subsequently tearing off the ring, the two components 4 and 6 can then be fully pushed together to cause the pointed end 14A to pierce the membrane and release the fluid.
If the coupling between the collar 30 and the upper rim portion 10 is of the screw threaded type, the components may be initially only partially screw threaded together and locked or clamped in that state by an encircling band of plastics. Tearing off the band allows the two components to be fully screw threaded together to again release the fluid.
Other means of achieving the same end will be apparent. For example, the collar 12 may be closed by a valve which can be opened by the rod 14 or some other separate means. The valve may be magnetically operated by an external magnet.
Referring now to
Prior to use, the jets 34 are covered by a seal 35. This ensures that the product in the bulb 33 is of the quantity and quality expected and the seal may indicate the product type or flavour.
Referring to
The dispenser of
Referring now to
As indicated above the device may equally well be used for dispensing pharmaceuticals. In this case, as illustrated at 41, the bulb 2 and mixing component 6 may be of a simple functional design, bulb 2 possibly containing sterile water, to be mixed with a pharmaceutical, thereby providing safe sterile water of a known volume to be mixed with the appropriate dosage of drug, as desired.
As illustrated at 42, the invention is equally applicable to chemicals and an appropriate liquid chemical could be contained in bulb 2 to be mixed in mixing component 4 with another chemical. The dispenser ensuring proper mixing of the chemicals prior to dispensing into a liquid.
Regardless of the application, the dispensing component 6 may comprise fins 39 to assist in manual stirring of the final composition. In either embodiment, the bulbs 2 would normally be sealed to maintain the contents in a sterile environment, the seal being pierced by insertion of the bulb 2 into the mixing component.
Referring now to
A further straw type dispenser is illustrated in
Referring now to the
In
Depending on the product to be dispensed, it may be advantageous to employ a dispenser in the form of a spoon. There are any number of possible configurations for such a spoon, but examples of particularly advantageous configurations are illustrated in
Referring to
Referring to
a, 28b, 29a and 29b show a further variation of the spoon 51, in which the product 60 is again retained in a cage 57 by meshes 58 and 59, but in this embodiment the cage has a hinged door 61.
a and 30b show the cage 57 sealed by a heat shrink sleeve 62. Prior to use, a tear strip 63 is used to remove the heat shrink sleeve 62.
Referring to
In a further alternative embodiment shown in
A variation of the
In the embodiments illustrated in
In a further variation, the two sections of spoon may be arranged to be rotated relative to each other to align vents 75, permitting the liquid to dissolve the product, as illustrated in
As an alternative to having the product to be dispensed towards the bowl portion of the spoon, as previously described, the product, as illustrated in
A further embodiment is illustrated in
As illustrated in
Various embodiments of the present invention have been illustrated by way of example, but many more variations will be apparent which fall within the scope of the appended claims. In particular, the invention has been described primarily with reference to beverage applications but the claimed invention is not limited to any particular application.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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0208747.6 | Apr 2002 | GB | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/GB03/01700 | 4/17/2003 | WO |