Patent Application
20090230149
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a nozzle for a beverage dispensing device and, more particularly, but not by way of limitation, to a multiple flavor beverage mixing nozzle capable of dispensing various mixing fluids, flavor syrups, flavor shots and other liquids from a single nozzle.
2. Description of the Related Art
A significant amount of income for food service establishments is derived from beverage sales. This is true for both “Fast-food” businesses and “upscale” restaurants, as well as convenience stores, snack bars, movie theater concession counters and other type of business where beverages are served.
Many of these establishments use beverage dispensing devices that mix the various components of the beverage at the location of dispensing, such as devices that dispense a beverage by placing a cup under a nozzle on the device. When the device is activated to dispense, for example, a cola beverage, the device simultaneously dispenses carbonated water and a cola syrup, which mix together to form the cola beverage in the cup.
One problem in this area is that beverage dispensing devices used to serve soft drinks and other non-carbonated beverages are large and take up significant amounts of space. Most beverage dispensing devices typically use a single nozzle to dispense each individual beverage. Each nozzle has its own individual dispensing bay in the beverage dispensing device which must be wide enough for the area under the nozzle to accommodate the width of the cups or glasses that the beverage will be served in. With cup sizes reaching 32 fluid ounces and larger, these spaces must be several inches in width to accommodate the largest size cups. When the amount of space necessary for each individual drink to be dispensed from a single nozzle is multiplied by the number of different drinks that the business wishes to serve from the beverage dispensing device, this can require a beverage dispensing device to have a large footprint if it wishes to dispense a wide variety of beverages.
As in most businesses, a food service establishment's expenses such as rent, build-out costs and utilities increase by the amount of space it occupies. Accordingly, the conservation of space in a food service establishment results is a savings to the business by reducing the necessary operating space, as well as freeing up counter space for other functions. One method in which space may be saved would be in decreasing the footprint of beverage dispensing devices.
This may be accomplished by using a multiple flavor beverage mixing nozzle. This nozzle would have the ability to dispense different mixing fluids, such as plain or carbonated water, as well as different syrups and flavors, such as cola syrup, root beer syrup, cherry flavoring and lemon flavoring. By using a single nozzle capable of dispensing multiple beverages to replace nozzles dispensing individual beverages, considerable space would be saved. Several different beverages could be dispensed in the same area or bay that previously only one beverage could be dispensed.
A problem inherent in beverage dispensing devices using multiple flavor beverage mixing nozzles is cross-contamination/color carry-over. This occurs when a dark colored beverage is dispensed prior to a light colored beverage. Residual amounts of the dark beverage may remain in an area common to both beverage delivery routes or areas in proximity to the dispensing route of the light beverage. When the light beverage is dispensed, the residual amounts of the dark beverage will mix with the light beverage, causing a discoloration and possibly a flavor alteration of the light colored beverage.
Another drawback of current beverage dispensing devices using multiple flavor beverage mixing nozzles is the inability to deliver a “flavor shot.” The capability of dispensing a small amount of a concentrated flavor syrup, such as lemon flavoring for hot or iced tea without combining with a mixing fluid, would be a significant advantage if it could be accomplished without affecting the color or taste of beverages to be dispensed after the “flavor shot” (unless they actually contain the lemon flavoring) due to the carry-over of the concentrated flavor syrup to the next dispensed drink, for the same reasons as previously mentioned. In addition, being able to mix the liquid used in a “flavor shot” with a mixing fluid such as carbonated or plain water to produce a beverage (such as lemonade using the previously mentioned lemon “flavor shot”) would be an additional benefit.
Another difficulty in using multiple flavor beverage mixing nozzles is achieving a minimum amount of carbonation while adequately mixing the mixing fluid and flavor syrup. If dispensed in a forceful manner, carbonated water will foam up and fizz, losing carbonation and creating a drink that is perceived as “flat.” However, if the syrup and carbonated water are not combined together properly to insure adequate mixing, stratification of the syrup and carbonated water will occur in the beverage which will effect the taste of the beverage.
Additional obstacles to using multiple flavor beverage mixing nozzles are: handling the range of viscosities of mixing fluids and syrups; syrup drops hanging off nozzles; the retaining of pungent flavors through permeation of component parts of the multiple flavor beverage mixing nozzle; accounting for the different physical properties in carbonated and plain water as to provide a smooth stream of fluid, the splashing of fluids and syrups on the user when dispensing; the need for gluing and sonic welding of component parts, the large number of parts needed to construct a nozzle capable of dispensing multiple flavor syrups and flavor shots, and the problem of mixing fluid continuing to flow or drip after the dispensing of the beverage.
Previous attempts to use multiple flavor beverage mixing nozzles have been unsuccessful in resolving all of the problems mentioned above, mainly because of the proximity of the flavor syrup dispensing exit channels to each other. Difficulty exists in maintaining adequate isolation of each of the conduits dispensing syrups or flavor shots to eliminate cross-contamination or color-carryover.
In accordance with the present invention, a method and apparatus for a multiple flavored beverage mixing nozzle, comprising an inlet cap with a fluid passageway for mixing fluids and a plurality of apertures for the placement of replaceable flavor syrup injectors with removable injector caps to keep separate the mixing fluid and flavor syrup; an inner body which allows for the seating of the fluid injectors and further defines a fluid pathway for the mixing fluid; a main body for encasing the inlet cap, inner body and flavor syrup injectors assembly and further defining a fluid pathway for the mixing fluid; a locking plate and a removable over-molded outer nozzle which creates an even circular flow of mixing fluid to mix in midair with the flavor syrups.
By seating the flavor syrup injectors in an inner body, which is attached to a lower nozzle and a mounting ring, only a few parts are necessary. By snap-fitting removable injector caps onto the syrup flavor injectors and seating the syrup flavor injectors within the inner body, a corset-effect is created thereby securing the injector caps onto the syrup flavor injectors. By using a locking ring to hold the parts together, the loosening of several screws allows for simple disassembly and minimal effort for the removal and replacement of the injectors, as well as allowing easy and thorough cleaning of the component parts. The use of molded parts to form the inner body that fit together to create injector seats and fluid pathways eliminates the need for gluing and sonic welding.
The use of a removable over-molded outer nozzle allows the user to easily remove the outer nozzle from the device for cleaning and eliminates the need for an o-ring or similar sealing method, which is difficult to remove and hard to clean.
By using individual, easily-replaceable, separated flavor syrup injectors for each beverage, many advantages are realized. By physically separating the flavor syrup injectors, each flavor has its own individual pathway, which eliminates the individual syrups coming in contact with each other and preventing carry-over and mixing of flavors that occurs in shared syrup pathways. This separation also allows for the dispensing of flavor shots. The effect of carry-over and mixing of flavors is more pronounced in a flavor shot because the syrup is not diluted with a mixing fluid, creating a more concentrated residue on surfaces the flavor shot contacts. Because of the separate syrup pathways created by the separated injectors, the syrup from the flavor shot does not come in contact with the syrup that forms the next dispensed beverage.
By using easily replaceable injectors, pungent flavor contamination is eliminated. A user may decide to change a beverage selection in a beverage dispensing device, for example replacing a cola beverage for a lemon beverage. The pungent flavor of the cola, which can leach into the surfaces it comes in contact with it and affect the taste of other dispensed beverages sharing that surface, cannot contaminate the lemon beverage since the lemon beverage would receive syrup from a new and separate flavor syrup injector.
Midair mixing of the mixing fluid and flavor syrup below the exit orifice of the nozzle is accomplished by using angled nozzles in the injector. The angle of the nozzles in the injector causes the syrup to be injected into the mixing fluid while avoiding contact with any part of the nozzle. Isolating the mixing fluid and flavor syrup until they mix outside of the nozzle and keeping the flavor syrup from coming into contact with the nozzle surface prevents any flavor syrup dispensed by the nozzle from having to share a common pathway with any other syrup. By doing so, residual amounts of a previously mixed beverage cannot combine with subsequently mixed beverages, thus preventing any alteration of the flavor or color. In addition, by creating a circular curtain of water and injecting a flavor into it at an angle in midair results in an efficient mixing of the flavor syrup and mixing fluid in a non-forceful manner, eliminating stratification of the beverage and reducing carbonation loss.
Problems presented by the different viscosities of syrups can be addressed by altering the size and amount of angled nozzles in the flavor syrup injector.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a multiple flavored beverage mixing nozzle that incorporates flavor syrup and flavor shot injectors for beverage dispensing devices, thereby reducing the size of the device.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a multiple flavored beverage mixing nozzle that is capable of dispensing multiple flavors while preventing carry-over and cross-contamination between different flavored syrups and flavor shots.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a multiple flavored beverage mixing nozzle that mixes the flavor syrup and mixing fluid in midair, so that a gentle but complete mixing of the syrup takes place without a loss of carbonation.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a multiple flavored beverage mixing nozzle that uses very few parts and does not require elaborate gluing and sonic welding to construct.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a multiple flavored beverage mixing nozzle that eliminates stratification between flavor syrups and mixing fluid.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a multiple flavored beverage mixing nozzle that eliminates dripping of mixing fluid after a beverage has been dispensed.
Still other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become evident to those of ordinary skill in the art in light of the following. Also, it should be understood that the scope of this invention is intended to be broad, and any combination of any subset of the features, elements, or steps described herein is part of the intended scope of the invention.
A detailed embodiment of the present invention is disclosed herein; however, it is to be understood that the disclosed embodiment is merely exemplary of the invention, which may be embodied in various forms. It is further to be understood that the figures are not necessarily to scale, and some features may be exaggerated to show details of particular components or steps.
As illustrated in
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The inlet cap 18 and the inner body 26 communicate with each other as components of the flavor syrup injector assembly 150. The spacing rings 58 align with the lower inlet cap apertures 41 by the seating of the flavor syrup injector 27, creating a defined fluid passageway 152 in the void created between the inlet cap 18, the inner body 26, and around the spacing rings 58. The fluid passageway 152 fluidly communicates with the fluid pathway 151 and the fluid passageway 127 below it, and the fluid conduit 69 above it.
The beverage dispensing nozzle 10 in operation would be attached to a beverage dispensing device by using suitable and well known means. The inlet cap 18 would receive a mixing fluid from a mixing fluid source (not shown). The mixing fluid enters the inlet cap 18 through the inlet port 70 and flows through the inlet cap 18 through the fluid conduit 38 to the fluid passageway 152. In the fluid passageway 152, the mixing fluid flows omnidirectionally outward away from the fluid conduit 38 towards the inner body spokes 50 and through the fluid pathways 151 between the inner body spokes 50 and the inner circumferential surface 101. The mixing fluid flows through and around the fluid passageway 127 past protruding shoulder 78 to its exit at the fluid exit orifice 121. The fluid path of the mixing fluid is shown in
The flavor syrup enters the appropriate flavor syrup injector 27 through the inlet port 40, which receives a flavor syrup from a flavor syrup source (not shown). The flavor syrup flows under pressure through the flavor syrup fluid passageway 82. The fluid pathway of the flavor syrup through the flavor syrup injector 27 is shown by a black dashed line 155. From the flavor syrup fluid passageway 82, the flavor syrup exits under pressure through the angled nozzles 85, which are angled towards the longitudinal axis of the beverage dispensing nozzle 10. The fluid pathway of the flavor syrup upon exiting the nozzle 85 is shown by a black dotted dashed line 156. The pathways of the mixing fluid and the flavor syrup intersect at a mixing point 157, where they combine to form the beverage. Additional different flavors are dispensed through other injectors which operate identically as described above.
Although the present invention has been described in terms of the foregoing preferred embodiment, such description has been for exemplary purposes only and, as will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art, many alternatives, equivalents, and variations of varying degrees will fall within the scope of the present invention. That scope, accordingly, is not to be limited in any respect by the foregoing detailed description; rather, it is defined only by the claims that follow.
