Patent Application
20170152131
Not Applicable.
Not Applicable.
The present invention relates to installable siphon heads for standard beverage bottles.
The basic technique of beverage siphon head bottles is well known in the prior art. The siphon's dispensing head is attached to a bottle which contains pressurized carbonated beverage. The siphon head has a control valve, a vertical pipe that descends to the bottom of the bottle and a dispensing nozzle. When the user opens the valve the beverage is forced out via the vertical pipe and the nozzle by the pressurized gas in the bottle. Siphon head bottles were manufactured and sold in large quantities in the past. However, they were sold as an attached siphon head and bottle units and already contained soda water. These bottles were made of reinforced glass and were returned to the seller after they were emptied and were refilled by the seller. Another kind of siphon head bottle is disclosed by Hinz in U.S. Pat. No. 3,324,903. Hinz's siphon head has a removable siphon head and could be refilled with tap water. The pressurized gas was then added by temporarily attaching the siphon head to a canister of pressurized gas. Siphon head bottles were also disclosed by Fassmann in U.S. Pat. No. 710,674, by Pletman in U.S. Pat. No. 3,372,392, by Roberts in U.S. Pat. No. 2,539,929, by Caitung in U.S. Pat. No. 2,678,947, by Aicart in U.S. Pat. No. 2,830,745, by Jurasek in U.S. Pat. No. 3,317,092, by Hinz in U.S. Pat. No. 3,324,903, by Hoffman in U.S. Pat. No. 3,351,415, by Kleveland in U.S. Pat. No. 3,415,426, by Hagan et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 4,617,973, by Hagan in U.S. Pat. No. 4,660,748, by Hagan in U.S. Pat. No. 4,671,436 and in U.S. Pat. No. 4,694,975, by Hagan et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 4,773,571, by Nagy in U.S. Pat. No. 4,860,932, by Hagan et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,046,645, by Sanders et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,588,562 and by Bargo in U.S. Pat. No. 8,328,053. Siphon heads were also disclosed in patent applications by Colan et al. in US 2005/0236439, and by Lindmayer in US 2006/0266773.
All these inventions disclose siphon heads with pipes immersed in pressurized carbonated beverages. At the ends of these pipes these siphon heads have valves which block the beverage outflow with blocking members which are pressed against the pipes' openings by resilient forces of springs or membranes. These valves are switched from a closed state to an opened state by overcoming the resilient forces and mechanically moving the blocking members away from the openings and creating gaps which allow the beverages to flow out from the openings. The blocking members are forced to move to open states by users' applied manual pressures which overcome the resilient bias forces of the springs or the membranes. Applying such manual pressures require complex mechanical structures which include levers, arms and other mechanical components. As a result, the mechanical structures of these siphon heads is mostly metallic, complex and require expensive manufacturing. The upshot is that these siphon heads are not suitable for inexpensive plastic mass production and are too expensive for installment on standard beverage bottles.
Currently, beverage bottles with carbonated beverages are sold with a simple screwed cap. The beverages contain pressurized carbon dioxide gas and the cap is screwed tightly to prevent the gas from escaping. However, when someone unscrews the cap in order to pour a drink, a significant amount of the pressurized gas escapes and when the bottle is recapped much of the gas pressure is lost. Beverage bottles are usually uncapped and recapped several times before they are emptied. But frequently the beverage loose almost all of the pressurized gas if the bottle was opened too many times and the beverage becomes stale. Recently, a company named Soda Stream developed a device which also fills bottles of tap water with pressurized gas supplied by a pressurized gas canister. The problem with their approach is the same as the problem of regular beverage bottles because they do not have a siphon head and therefore their soda water loose gas pressure whenever their bottles are opened.
First objective of our approach is to develop a reusable siphon head which can be installed on standard beverage bottles. The user just replaces the bottle's cap with our siphon head and then can pour the beverage while having only a relatively small amount of gas pressure lost in each use. The beverage remains pressurized and bubbly till the last drop. Our siphon head can then be reused many times by removing it from the emptied bottle and re-installing it on a new bottle. This process can be repeated and our siphon head can be reused many times. We do not attempt to provide pressurized gas with our siphon head. We utilize the pressurized gas that is already stored in each beverage bottle sold.
Second objective of our invention is to design installable siphon heads which have simple mechanical structure, which is suitable for inexpensive mass production manufacturing from plastics.
Third objective of our invention is to design installable siphon heads which have simple yet effective mechanical structure with minimal number of parts that are easy and inexpensive to assemble when manufactured.
Fourth objective of our invention is to design installable siphon heads which have pure plastics structure, which do not need metallic parts such as springs or membranes.
Fifth objective of our invention is to design installable siphon heads which have simple plastics structures but have valves with outflow blocking pressures that are much higher than conventional spring based valves. Thus, our installable siphon heads enable long term storage of carbonated beverage bottles without loss of gas pressure.
Sixth objective of our invention is to design installable siphon heads which have simple plastics structure that have valves which enable a smooth gradual opening and allow the user to easily and smoothly control the strength of beverage outflow stream. In comparison, valves in conventional siphon heads do not allow smooth outflow control because they have only sharp transitions between fully open and fully closed states.
Seventh objective of our invention is to design installable siphon heads which have simple plastics structure that have valves which do not need high manual forces to operate in comparison to conventional siphon heads which require relatively high manual forces to overcome their resilient springs' biases.
According to our objectives, our installable siphon head has a helical threaded opening which enables one to install it on standard beverage bottles. At the center of the helical threaded opening there is an attached pipe which descends vertically into the beverage bottle. The upper opening of the pipe is connected to a conical control opening (other kinds of control openings are also described) which opens its wider side up into the hollow chamber of the siphon head. The hollow chamber is connected also to a dispensing nozzle which is directed diagonally down. On top side of the siphon head there is a screw threaded opening into the hollow chamber. The screw threaded opening is exactly aligned opposite to the center of the conical control opening below. A screw screwed into the screw opening lands exactly at the center of the conical control opening. A conical plug pointing downwards which fits the conical control opening, is installed at the bottom side of the screw. The conical plug is made of elastic plastic material and is rotatably connected to a hollow cavity at the center of the bottom side of the screw. When one screws the screw downwards the conical plug presses onto the conical control opening and blocks any beverage outflow. The rotatable connection of the conical plug to the screw enables one to continue turning the screw even if the plug is already pressing the conical control opening, thus increasing the blocking pressure even further. Due to the leveraged operation of the screw one can apply very high blocking pressure of the plug on the conical control opening without much effort. This endows the siphon head valve with very efficient blocking of pressurized beverage, which allows long term beverage storage without pressure loss. In addition, one can smoothly control the beverage outflow by gradually releasing the blocking pressure of the plug on the conical control opening. On the upper side of the screw there is an attached rotating member which facilitates the manual turning of the screw by the user. The rotating member could assume the shape of a flat bar, a shape of a disk or any other shape which facilitates manual turning of the screw.
As can be observed from the drawings, our siphon head has simple plastics structure, which is designed to be wholly manufactured from plastic material and its structure is simplified such that it includes minimal number of parts (i.e. an installable siphon head main structure, a manual screw, a conical plug, a washer and a vertical pipe) and could be assembled very easily. For this reason, our installable siphon head introduces a simple yet efficient valve which utilizes a screwing mechanism to fasten a conical plug onto a conical control opening. This principle of operation is entirely different from other siphon head valves which rely on moving a blocking member which controls the flow by opening and closing a gap between the blocking member and a beverage pipe opening. Moving blocking members are incapable of exerting high pressure on the beverage openings they control because their moving mechanisms rely on springs or membranes to provide resilient pressing forces for their blocking members. One cannot use higher pressure springs or membranes because the amount of pressure the user has to apply in order to open the valve against the spring's bias is limited. In contrast, the amount of pressure that a screwing plug provides manually is much higher due to the leveraged mechanical operation of the screw, which does not need high manual effort from the user. As a result, screw based valves can apply much higher blocking pressure and therefore have much better blocking of pressurized liquids compared to conventional valves. This high blocking pressure is not hard to achieve manually by the user with a screw based valve since the screw has a leveraged operation which multiplies and converts the user's manually manufactured turning moment of the screw into a linear pressure of the screw's conical plug on the conical control opening. Thus, our installable siphon heads enable long term storage of carbonated beverage bottles without significant loss of gas pressure. Additional advantage of the screw based valve is its capability for smooth control of the beverage outflow stream by gradually opening and closing of the valve's screw. In comparison, valves in conventional siphon heads do not allow smooth beverage outflow control because they have only sharp transitions between fully open and fully closed states.
In conclusion, our installable siphon head has simple plastics structure, which is designed to be inexpensively manufactured from plastic material and its structure was simplified such that it includes minimal number of parts (i.e. an installable head structure, a manual screw, a conical plug, a washer and a vertical pipe) and could be assembled very easily. For this reason, our installable siphon head introduces a simple yet efficient valve which utilizes a screwing mechanism to fasten a conical plug onto a conical control opening. This principle of operation is entirely different from other siphon head valves which rely on a moving blocking member which controls the flow by opening and closing a gap between the blocking member and a beverage pipe opening. Moving blocking members are incapable of exerting high pressure on the beverage openings they control because their moving mechanisms rely on springs or membranes to provide resilient pressing forces for their blocking members. One cannot use higher pressure springs or membranes because the amount of pressure the user has to apply in order to open the valve against the spring's bias is limited. In contrast, the amount of pressure that a screwing plug provides manually is much higher due to the leveraged mechanical operation of the screw, which does not need high manual effort from the user. As a result, screw based valves can apply much higher blocking pressure and therefore have much better blocking of pressurized liquids compared to spring operated valves. This high blocking pressure is not hard to achieve manually by the user with a screw based valve since the screw has a leveraged operation which multiplies and converts the user's manually manufactured turning moment of the screw into a linear pressure of the screw's plug on the plug's opening. Thus, our installable siphon heads enable long term storage of carbonated beverage bottles without loss of gas pressure. Additional advantage of the screw based valve is its capability for smooth control of the beverage outflow stream by gradually opening and closing of the valve's screw. In comparison, valves in conventional siphon heads do not allow smooth beverage outflow control because they have only sharp transitions between fully open and fully closed states.
We propose two additional alternatives for the shape of the plug and the control opening. One alternative is to use a plug with planar bottom and control opening with a shape of a planar ring. A second alternative is to use a plug with convex shape and a control opening with matching concave shape. These alternatives are suggested in addition to the convex conical shape of the plug and matching concave conical shape of the control opening.
The assembly of the siphon head is quite simple. First the conical plug 108B is installed at the bottom of the screw 108A by pushing the resilient nail head 108D into the fitting cavity at the bottom of the screw 108A. Next, the screw 108A is screwed into the siphon head's main structure 101A via the screw threading 101G. Notice that the plug 108B has narrower diameter than the inner diameter of the screw threading 101G to allow it to pass through the threading 101G. Finally, the pipe 103A is attached to the siphon head's main structure 101A by installing the pipe's annular groove 103C onto the round flange 101E.
The present application claims priority from a provisional patent application: Ser. No. 62/260,267 filed on Nov. 26, 2015
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62260267 | Nov 2015 | US |
