The present invention relates generally to beverage containers and more specifically to a pressurizable beverage bottle having a beverage dispensing system.
Water bottles are known in which the bottle has spaced apart double walls with a vacuum in the space between the walls to provide enhanced thermal insulation qualities. To transfer some or all of the contents of the water bottle to a separate drinking cup, the top of the bottle typically must be removed and the bottle tipped to pour fluid from the bottle into the cup. Opening the top compromises the thermal insulating integrity of the bottle. In addition, especially in the case of large bottles or bottles that are full, tipping the bottle to dispense the right amount of liquid without spillage can be problematic.
Urns and water jugs are known in which a large container has a built-in stopcock at the bottom of the vessel. A beverage is dispensed through the stopcock under force of gravity. Such vessels are not very portable and may not have good insulating qualities. In addition, because the stopcock must be at the very bottom of the vessel to permit the entire contents of the vessel to be dispensed, the vessel must be placed on an elevated platform with the spout hanging over the edge of the platform to allow a cup to be placed beneath the stopcock.
Beer kegs are known in which a large metal container includes a bicycle-type pump attached to the outside top of the keg. Actuating the pump pressurizes the contents of the keg, thereby permitting beer to be dispensed through a hose without opening or tipping the keg. The pump is a manually operated, direct action pump with a reciprocating piston and is coupled to the upper end of the keg. Such a pump adds bulk to the upper end of the keg.
Stainless steel growlers are known that include a bottle with a lid clamped to its upper end. A port for a CO2 cartridge is sometimes provided on the lid and is in communication with the interior of the bottle. The user can couple a CO2 cartridge to the cartridge port and inject food-grade CO2 into the bottle to pressurize the interior of the bottle. A tube in fluid communication with the interior of the bottle has a tap on its end by which the user can dispense a beverage under pressure. A disadvantage of these designs is that operation is completely dependent upon a charged CO2 cartridge, which must be purchased at extra cost. If no charged CO2 cartridge is available, there is no way to pressurize the bottle.
Containers of a type often used as garden sprayers are known that include an integral pump. A hose is mounted to the container in fluid communication with the interior of the container and has a nozzle at its free end. A fluid such as a pesticide or weed treatment is placed within the container, and the user operates the pump to increase pressure inside the container. The pump is a manually operated, direct action pump with a piston that reciprocates within a cylinder. The user operates the nozzle at the end of the hose to dispense fluid from the container under pressure. A disadvantage of this design is that the cylinder extends downward, well into the container, and occupies space within the container that would otherwise be available to hold fluid. In addition, the travel of the piston is lengthy, making the pump inconvenient to operate.
The present invention relates to a beverage bottle having a lid at its upper end. The beverage bottle may be of the type known as a “growler,” which is a bottle having a capacity greater than a typical water bottle. A pressurization system and a dispensing system are operatively associated with the lid. With a beverage in the bottle, a user can utilize the pressurization system to increase the pressure in the space within the bottle not occupied by the beverage to a pressure above that of the ambient. When the user activates the dispensing system, the pressure within the bottle attempts to equalize with the ambient pressure. This pressure differential forces the beverage through the dispensing system and out of the bottle. Thus the beverage can be dispensed without the user having to tilt or manipulate the bottle.
In a disclosed embodiment the pressurization system includes a piston reciprocally mounted within a cylinder in the lid. The piston is spring biased to a raised position. The user presses down on the piston to pump air into the bottle, increasing the pressure within the bottle. When the user releases downward pressure on the piston, the spring returns the piston to its raised position, ready to be pressed again.
In one embodiment the dispensing system includes a flexible hose having one end connected to the lid in fluid communication with the interior of the bottle. A stopcock is mounted on the free end of the hose. With the contents of the bottle under pressure, opening the stopcock at the end of the hose dispenses a quantity of the beverage through the hose without the user having to contact the bottle.
Referring now to the drawings, in which like numerals indicate like elements throughout the several views,
As seen in
The lid 14 includes a pouring spout 34 having a removable cap 36 that snaps or screws onto the end of the spout. The cap 36 is attached to the pouring spout 34 by a tether 38.
A flexible hose 40 has a first end attached to the lid 14. A stopcock 42 is attached to the opposite end of the hose 40. A hose retaining bracket 44 is attached to the lid 14 and includes a circular opening 46 into which an upper portion of the hose 40 can be received to hold the hose by an interference fit until needed.
A generally U-shaped handle 48 is pivotably mounted to the lid 14 and is movable between an upwardly extending position, as shown in
An elongated tube 49 extends downward from the lid 14. The tube is of a length such that, when the lid 14 is screwed onto the bottle 12, the lower end of the tube 49 terminates at a point spaced only slightly above the base of the chamber 24 of the bottle.
Referring to
Referring further to
At the lower end of the lid 14 near its periphery is a barb-type tube connector 70 for coupling the tube 49 to the lid 14. A passage 74 is axially formed through the tube connector 70 and has a vertical portion 75 extending upward through the lid 14 toward the upper end of the lid. Just short of the upper end of the lid 14, the passage 74 extends outward and downward to form a port 76. Threads 78 are formed on the cylindrical wall defining the port 76.
A hose fitting 80 has a threaded end 82 and a barb end 84. The male threaded end 82 of the hose fitting 80 screws into the threads 78 in the port 76. One end of the hose 40 fits onto the barb end 84 of the fitting 80.
Referring now to
On each side of the piston 90 the piston body 92 is vertically slotted in the shape of an inverted “U” to form a pair of vertically elongated arms 100 joined to the rest of the piston body 92 at their lower ends to form live springs. A tab 102 is formed at the upper end of each spring arm 100. Each tab 102 has a downwardly sloped upper surface and vertical side walls.
A piston ring 106 is mounted within a corresponding race on the lower outside wall of the piston body 92.
Referring now to
The piston 90 is reciprocally mounted within the bore 50 for vertical movement. The lower end 93 of the piston 90 rests atop the coil spring 110. The coil spring 110 normally biases the piston 90 upward to a raised position, as shown in
The tabs 102 of the piston 90 ride within the vertical channels 60 in the wall 51 of the bore 50. The piston 90 can be stowed in its depressed position by displacing the piston downward until the tabs 102 reach the bottom of the vertical channels 60. The user then rotates the piston 90 clockwise, as seen from above, causing the tabs 102 of the piston to move within the horizontal channels 62. The tabs 102 are thus out of alignment with the vertical channels 60 in the bore wall, preventing the piston 90 from moving upward. To return the piston 90 to its freely vertical moving state, the user rotates the piston counterclockwise until the tabs 102 are realigned with the vertical channels 60 in the wall of the bore 50. The piston 90 is thus once again freed for vertical reciprocal movement within the bore.
When the piston 90 is locked in its lowermost position, as shown in
Operation of the apparatus 10 to dispense a beverage will now be explained. The user removes the lid 14 and pours a cold or hot beverage of choice—for example, water, soft drink, beer, or hot coffee—into the bottle 12. The lid 14 is then replaced. The double-walled, thermally insulated, stainless steel bottle 12 keeps the beverage at or near the desired temperature for an extended period of time.
As shown in
The user then presses downward repeatedly on the button 92 and then releases it, as shown by the arrow 122 in
This press-downward-and-release action is repeated until the user feels resistance to further pumping, which indicates that the bottle 12 is pressurized. The user then stows the button 92 by pressing the button all the way down and rotating the button clockwise.
Pressurizing the bottle 12 forces fluid into the lower end of the tube 49, up through the tube to the passage 74 formed within the lid 14, into the discharge port 76, and thence into the hose 40.
A feature of the piston 90 of the disclosed embodiment 10 is that the diameter of the piston is large in comparison to the piston's vertical travel. The amount of air moved by a single stroke of the piston is equal to the area of the piston multiplied by the length of travel of the piston. Thus increasing the diameter of the piston allows the length of travel of the piston to be minimized while still moving the same amount of air per stroke. And minimizing the vertical travel of the piston permits the vertical profile of the lid to be minimized.
Once the bottle 12 is pressurized, the user can dispense a serving of the beverage as shown in
When the dispensing procedure is completed, the hose 40 can be stowed by pressing a section of the hose adjacent the stopcock 42 into the hose clip 44.
If the user simply wishes to pour a single serving of a beverage from the bottle 12 into a drinking cup, the cap 36 can be removed from the pouring spout 34 on the lid 14. The user then tilts the bottle 12 in the conventional fashion to pour the beverage from the spout 34 into the drinking cup under force of gravity. However, in most cases, particularly in the case of a larger capacity bottle 12, for example, 64 or 128 fl. oz., or a bottle that is full, the drink vessel 10 may be too heavy or cumbersome to maneuver to pour a desired volume of drink into a cup without spilling or overflowing. In this instance, the user can take advantage of the pressurizable feature of the drink vessel 10.
If desired, a beverage can be dispensed through the hose 40 without removing the end of the hose from the hose clip 44. The user simply places the container 124 beneath the stopcock 42 and operates the stopcock to dispense the beverage, as shown in
In a variation on the design, shown in
Optionally the exposed portion of the button 150 and adjacent portions of the lid 14 can be encapsulated in a flexible material to overlie the space between the button and the slot in the lid to protect the user against possible (but unlikely) pinching as the button is operated.
In lieu of a button 150 having a cam lobe 154, the button can exert a force on the upper end 156 of the piston 158 by way of a separate, intervening mechanical member, such as a push rod.
All of the embodiments disclosed above have an externally threaded bottle neck and a mating internally threaded lid. However, it will be understood that the lid with pressurization system can be used with an internally threaded bottle neck and an externally threaded lid.
Further, in place of threads on the bottle neck and lid, a clamp assembly operatively associated with the bottle and lid can be employed to clamp the lid securely to the upper end of the bottle. An alternate embodiment 210 of a pressurizable drink vessel is illustrated in
The bottle 212 is similar to the bottle 12 described above, with the exception that neither the neck nor the lid of the bottle is threaded. In addition, the handle is not shown in
The channels 284 can be oriented parallel to a diameter extending between the pouring spout 34 and the hose clip 44, as illustrated in
Referring to
Each link 294 of the clamp arrangement 280 has coupling pins 304 at each end. Connectors 306 extend upward from each coupling pin 304, and a lid-engaging member 308 joins the upper ends of the connectors.
A circumferential band 310 is mounted to the main body portion 222 of the bottle 212 (
Referring to
In
Referring now to
To remove the lid 214 from the bottle, such as to refill the bottle, the reverse sequence is followed. The user lifts the pads 302 of the levers 292, rotating the levers and displacing the loops 298 upward. This upward movement of the loops 298 releases the tension on the links 294 and permits the lid-engaging member 308 of each link to lift out of its associated channel 282 in the upper surface of the lid 214. The links 294 are then pivoted out of the way, as shown in
The pressurizable drink vessel 210 can have a carrying handle mounted to the lid, as with the pressurizable drink vessel 10, or it can have a carrying handle mounted to the circumferential band 310 affixed to the bottle 214.
Because all of the elements of the pressurization and dispensing systems of the foregoing disclosed embodiments are built into the lid, a conventional growler can be converted to one with a pressurization and dispensing system simply by replacing the lid.
As used herein, words such as top, bottom, left, right, horizontal, vertical, and the like are used with reference to the drawings for convenience of description. Unless stated otherwise, use of such words is not intended to limit the invention to any particular orientation.
Finally, it will be understood that the foregoing embodiments have been disclosed by way of example, and that other modifications may occur to those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the appended claims.
The present application claims priority of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/593,262, filed Dec. 1, 2017.
Number | Date | Country | |
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62593262 | Dec 2017 | US |