The present disclosed subject matter relates to thermodynamics. More particularly, the present disclosed subject matter relates to fluid heating.
PCT Publication No. WO2009047772 to the inventor describes a steam generating mechanism incorporated within a water heating system having a body, at least one heating element, on/off switch and power supply, the steam generating mechanism comprising: a hollow tube having a first side and a second side provided close to the at least one heating element; a one way valve connected to said first side, wherein said one way valve allows water to enter into said hollow tube; a one directional pump connected to said second side, wherein the pump is capable of discharging steam generated within said hollow tube; a pipe fluidly connected to said one directional pump wherein said pipe passes through the body for discharging said steam outwardly.
An object of the present invention is to provide improved steam generating devices for the steam generating mechanism of Publication No. WO2009047772 as well as other systems and apparatuses.
According to a first aspect of the present disclosed subject matter, a steamer having a steam mode and hot liquid mode, incorporated within a drinking liquid appliance comprising: an electrical setup; at least one first tube, having one first end and one first exit and at least one second tube, having one second end and one second exit; at least one heating element, coupled with the electrical setup, wrapped around tubes selected from a group comprising of: the at least one first tube; the at least one second tube; and a combination thereof; a steam delivery apparatus, having a nozzle, wherein the steam delivery apparatus is coupled with the electrical setup configured to activate the steamer in the steam mode by rotating the apparatus, wherein the second exit is fluidically connected to the steam delivery apparatus; a valve coupled with the electrical setup configured to route fluid to the first end in the hot liquid mode and to the second end in the steam mode; and wherein fluid routed to the end yield hot liquid via a liquid nozzle connected to the first exit, and wherein fluid routed to the second end yield steam via the second exit.
In some exemplary embodiments, the steamer further comprises an exit valve, coupled with the electrical setup, configured to route steam to the first exit, in steam mode, and to route hot liquid, to the first exit, in hot liquid mode.
In some exemplary embodiments, the steamer further comprises a return valve, coupled with the electrical setup, configured to route fluid from the first tube to the second tube and exit trough the second end into a check valve configured to provide steam trough a third exit, in a power saving mode, and wherein the third exit is fluidically connected to the steam delivery apparatus.
In some exemplary embodiments, the exit valve is configured to provide hot liquid trough the first exit while steam is simultaneously provided through the third exit, in concurrent mode.
In some exemplary embodiments, the steamer further comprises a pump capable of pressurizing fluid trough an entry to the valve, wherein the pump is coupled with the electrical setup.
In some exemplary embodiments, the at least first tube and the at least second tube are casted within a heating block, wherein the first and second tubes are thermally connected to the heating block, wherein the at least one heating element is thermally connected to the heating block and wherein the heater has a heating capacity sufficient to convert water entering the second tube into steam leaving via the second exit.
In some exemplary embodiments, the tubes are casted within the heating block in a formation that provides optimal thermal connectivity, and wherein the formation is selected from a group comprising of: the second tube wrapped around the first tube; the second tube inserted within the first tube; the second tube and the first tube are parallel to one another; and a combination thereof.
In some exemplary embodiments, the steam delivery apparatus is connected to the steamer by a hinge and wherein the steam delivery apparatus can be inserted within a dent in the body of the steamer and being rotated outwardly.
In some exemplary embodiments, the steamer further comprises a protecting thermostats-based mechanism mutually operable with the electric setup.
In some exemplary embodiments, the protecting thermostats-based mechanism provides functions selected from a group comprising of: security function in which the system is disconnected from electricity; maintaining temperature of fluid inside the at least one first tube at about 65 degrees C.; maintaining temperature of fluid inside the at least one second tube at about 99 degrees C.; and a combination thereof.
In some exemplary embodiments, the steamer further comprises a plurality of indicators coupled with the electrical setup, wherein indicators of the plurality of indicators are configured to indicate a status of the steamer and wherein the status is selected from a group comprising of: steam mode; hot liquid mode; power saving mode; concurrent mode; power on; steamer ready; and a combination thereof.
In some exemplary embodiments, the steamer is an integral part of a water heating container selected from a group comprising of: an urn; a kettle; a coffee maker; an espresso machine; and a combination thereof and wherein hot liquid exits into the container.
According to another aspect of the present disclosed subject matter, a steamer having a steam mode and hot liquid mode, incorporated within a drinking liquid appliance comprising an electrical setup; a heating block having a first fluid passage and a second fluid passage, wherein the first and the second passages are formed as a maze inside the heating block and wherein the first passage has a first end and a first exit and the second passage has a second end and a second exit; at least one heating element, coupled with the electrical setup, thermally connected to the heating block, and wherein the heater has a heating capacity sufficient to convert fluid in the second passage into steam; a steam delivery apparatus, having a nozzle, wherein the steam delivery apparatus is coupled with the electrical setup configured to activate the steamer in the steam mode by rotating the apparatus, wherein the second exit is fluidically connected to the steam delivery apparatus; a valve coupled with the electrical setup configured to route fluid to the first end in the hot liquid mode and to the second end in the steam mode; and wherein fluid routed to the first end yield hot liquid via a liquid nozzle connected to the first exit, and wherein fluid routed to the second end yield steam via the second exit.
In some exemplary embodiments, the steamer of, further comprising baffles within the passages to provide optimal thermal connectivity with the fluid.
In some exemplary embodiments, the steamer further comprises an exit valve, coupled with the electrical setup, configured to route steam to the first exit, in steam mode, and to route hot liquid, to the first exit, in hot liquid mode.
In some exemplary embodiments, the steamer further comprises a return valve, coupled with the electrical setup, configured to route fluid from the first passage to the second passage and exit trough the second end into a check valve configured to provide steam trough a third exit, in a power saving mode, and wherein the third exit is fluidically connected to the steam delivery apparatus.
In some exemplary embodiments, the exit valve is configured to provide hot liquid trough the first exit while steam is simultaneously provided through the third exit, in concurrent mode.
In some exemplary embodiments, the steamer further comprises a pump capable of pressurizing fluid trough an entry into the valve, wherein the pump is coupled with the electrical setup.
In some exemplary embodiments, the steamer further comprises a protecting thermostats-based mechanism mutually operable with the electric setup, wherein the protecting thermostats-based mechanism provides functions selected from the group consisting security function in which the system is disconnected from electricity; maintaining temperature of fluid inside the at least one first passage at about 65 degrees C.; maintaining temperature of fluid inside the at least one second passage at about 99 degrees C.; and a combination thereof.
In some exemplary embodiments, the steamer further comprises a plurality of indicators coupled with the electrical setup, wherein indicators of the plurality of indicators are configured to indicate a status of the steamer and wherein the status is selected from a group comprising of: steam mode; hot liquid mode; power saving mode; concurrent mode; power on; steamer ready; and a combination thereof.
Unless otherwise defined, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this disclosed subject matter belongs. Although methods and materials similar or equivalent to those described herein can be used in the practice or testing of the present disclosed subject matter, suitable methods and materials are described below. In case of conflict, the specification, including definitions, will control. In addition, the materials, methods, and examples are illustrative only and not intended to be limiting.
Some embodiments of the disclosed subject matter described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings. With specific reference now to the drawings in detail, it is stressed that the particulars shown are by way of example and for purposes of illustrative discussion of the preferred embodiments of the present disclosed subject matter only, and are presented in the cause of providing what is believed to be the most useful and readily understood description of the principles and conceptual aspects of the disclosed subject matter. In this regard, no attempt is made to show structural details of the disclosed subject matter in more detail than is necessary for a fundamental understanding of the disclosed subject matter, the description taken with the drawings making apparent to those skilled in the art how the several forms of the disclosed subject matter may be embodied in practice.
In the drawings:
Before explaining at least one embodiment of the disclosed subject matter in detail, it is to be understood that the disclosed subject matter is not limited in its application to the details of construction and the arrangement of the components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The disclosed subject matter is capable of other embodiments or of being practiced or carried out in various ways. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein is for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting. The drawings are generally not to scale. For clarity, non-essential elements were omitted from some of the drawings.
The terms “comprises”, “comprising”, “includes”, “including”, and “having” together with their conjugates mean “including but not limited to”. The term “consisting of” has the same meaning as “including and limited to”.
The term “consisting essentially of” means that the composition, method or structure may include additional ingredients, steps and/or parts, but only if the additional ingredients, steps and/or parts do not materially alter the basic and novel characteristics of the claimed composition, method or structure.
As used herein, the singular form “a”, “an” and “the” include plural references unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. For example, the term “a compound” or “at least one compound” may include a plurality of compounds, including mixtures thereof.
Throughout this application, various embodiments of this disclosed subject matter may be presented in a range format. It should be understood that the description in range format is merely for convenience and brevity and should not be construed as an inflexible limitation on the scope of the disclosed subject matter. Accordingly, the description of a range should be considered to have specifically disclosed all the possible sub-ranges as well as individual numerical values within that range.
It is appreciated that certain features of the disclosed subject matter, which are, for clarity, described in the context of separate embodiments, may also be provided in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, various features of the disclosed subject matter, which are, for brevity, described in the context of a single embodiment, may also be provided separately or in any suitable sub-combination or as suitable in any other described embodiment of the disclosed subject matter. Certain features described in the context of various embodiments are not to be considered essential features of those embodiments, unless the embodiment is inoperative without those elements.
The steam heater may be placed under or inside the base of a kettle, in which case the block is typically heated at 1300-2300 Watts.
The entrance 131 of the tube 130 is typically 3-4 mm i.d.; however, the exit 137 is typically 1-3 mm i.d., more preferably 1-2 mm. However, the tube 130 may also have a constriction 134 before an expansion 136, all of these restrictions and expansions may serve to increase heat transfer from the tube 130 to water therein passing from the entrance 131 to the exit 137.
The water is fed to the heater 100 by a pump and/or by gravitation, the water entering the tube via at least one nozzle. One nozzle 142 has a sealed end 152, and openings facing inner walls of the tube entrance 131. Another nozzle 144 has an opening 154 that is as wide as the hole along the nozzle; yet another nozzle 145 has also openings facing the walls of the tube, but has less dead volume than nozzle 142. Nozzle 146 is screw-shaped, with holes along the thread, which may help make the flow of water more turbulent and thus increase the heating rate of the water passing through.
In preferred embodiments, the tube 130 includes at least one coil. In some embodiments, not shown, the steam heater includes a maze structure through which the water/steam passes; the maze may be constructed from two blocks of heating elements that match each other in grooves and ridges or one block only with a maze structure, which is sealed with a matching plate. Some embodiments may include more than one maze, for example a heating block may be sandwiched in between mazes, such that the water entering a first maze from its periphery goes to a centre point of the maze, having passed through the entire maze first, and then leaves the first maze through a passage which extends from said centre, throughout the heating block and into a centre of a second maze, the water then passing through the entire second maze before exiting as steam. Such heater may include therein the nozzles described above as well as similar nozzles, and baffles discussed below, to further facilitate heat transfer to the water passing through the maze.
Another embodiment is depicted in
The heater also includes an electrical system discussed below.
In the embodiment 300″ the nozzle 340″ is corkscrew-shaped, also blocked at end and with holes 344″, the corkscrew shape and the position of the holes allowing the water to become turbulent, and/or go a long and tortuous path, to facilitate heating of the water, and the water essentially impinges upon the inner walls of the tube 330″.
In another heater 300′″, nozzle 340′″ has a very small-bore end 342′″, open and directed to one spot on the wall. Such spot may be locally heated more than other areas of the tube 330′″.
Heater 300″″ includes in the tube 330″″ stationary baffles 360″″. The baffles 360″″ are preferably opposed to each other to create a narrow space through which the water passes in the tube 330″″.
In another embodiment 300′″″ shown in
As shown in
Preferably, the electrical setups are set to bring the steam to a certain temperature, in order to optimize the steam for its designated purpose, e.g. to prepare milk froth for coffee. The steam heaters may be incorporated in an electric kettle, or a percolator, or milk frothier, or a water bar such as Tami 4®, etc.
The exit nozzles 545b and 645b both have openings 555b and 655b facing upwards, such orientation may help prevent release of liquid from the heater since the liquid may be located mainly at lower parts of the tube 530, 630.
The steam heater with the tubes in horizontal orientation (630) has in preferred kettle embodiments a hollow base (under the body wherein water is normally heated). The heating element and tube is situated inside the base, such that the only access a user has is to a switch operationally coupled to the heater, to allow turning on the steam providing mode. In experiments with such embodiments, wherein the tube 630 was about 250 mm long and had an internal height of 8 mm (between the heating element 520 and the roof of the tube 530 on the inside, the width of the tube typically being somewhat narrower), tap water at about 25° C. was fed by a pump, at a flow rate corresponding to a pressure of about 5 bar. A sufficient amount of steam was produced within 10-20, enough to satisfactorily cream a cup of coffee.
Typically, the heating element 520, 620 has a power of 600-900 W to provide a desirable amount of steam in this embodiment.
While preferred embodiments have been described, the invention is only limited by the scope of the claims.
Referring now to
In some exemplary embodiments, the heating block 210A-C may be a metal block comprising tubes casted in it. At least one first tube 202 and at least one second tube 230 may be embedded may be casted in a formation that increases the thermal connectivity of the tubes with heating blocks 210A-C. In some exemplary embodiments, second tube 230 and first tube 202 may be wrapped around each other; second tube 230 and first tube 202 assembled parallel to one another; the second tube 230 inserted inside the first tube 202; combination thereof, or the like.
In some exemplary embodiments, the heating block 210A-C may be a metal block having in it channels for fluid passage. The channels may have a maze layout, formed in a way that provides optimal thermal connectivity between the heating block and the fluid passing in the channels. (Additional details were provided in the
In some exemplary embodiments, the at least one heating element 220 may be thermally connected to the heating block 210A-C, the second tube 230, first tube 202, a combination thereof, or the like. In some exemplary embodiments, pressurized fluid, such as water, may be routed trough entry 203 and valve 240, into the heating block by either a pump (not shown) or gravitation.
In the heating block 210A topology depicted in
The heating block 210B topology depicted in
The heating block 210C topology depicted in
In hot liquid mode embodiments, the fluid may be routed from entry 203 to exit 237 along the following path: valve 240 (AB); valve 240 (A), first tube 202; return valve 260 (AB); return valve 260 (A) exit valve 250 (A) and exit valve 250 (AB). Note: check valve 270 don't care.
In steam mode embodiments, the fluid may be routed from entry 203 to exit 237 along the following path: valve 240 (AB); valve 240 (B), first tube 202; exit valve 250 (A) and exit valve 250 (AB). Note: return valve 260 don't care and check valve 270 should be disabled
In power saving mode embodiments, the fluid may be routed from entry 203 to exit 272 along the following path: valve 240 (AB); valve 240 (A), first tube 202; return valve 260 (AB); return valve 260 (B); second tube 230 (reheating); check valve 270 in; check valve 270 out and tube 271.
In concurrent mode embodiments, the fluid may be routed from entry 203 and flow along the following path: valve 240 (AB); valve 240 (A), first tube 202; return valve 260 (AB) and return valve 260 (B) where the fluid splits in two directions. One direction, through exit valve 250 (B); exit valve 250 (AB) and exit as hot liquid via exit 237. The other direction, through second tube 230 (reheating); check valve 270 in; check valve 270; tube 271 and exit via exit 237 as steam.
It should be noted that, all the embodiments depicted in
Referring now to
In some exemplary embodiments, the steam delivery apparatus 900 may be a part of a kettle, an espresso machine, a samovar, an urn, or the like. When activated the steam delivery apparatus 900 can be used for delivering steam into a container, such as glass or a cup, filled with liquid, such as milk or water, in order to boil the liquid. Users may activate the steam delivery apparatus 900 by swiveling or tilting the steam delivery apparatus 900, around its axis (hinge) 999, away from its resting position. Upon swiveling or tilting apparatus 900, actuator 930 will be rotated, which will cause interlock 933 to come out of groove 931 (resting position), subsequently triggering the electrical setup 480 to activate the steam heater, of the present discloser.
In some exemplary embodiments, upon activation, steam may be supplied trough exits, such as exits 137, 237 and 272 of
In some exemplary embodiments, the steam delivery apparatus 900 may be deactivated (idle) by swiveling or tilting apparatus 900, back to its resting position or switching off the steam heater. Additionally or alternatively, the steam delivery apparatus 900 may be activated and deactivated manually by pulling down or pushing up cylinder 920. However it will be noted that in such embodiment spring 922 may be removed from the steam delivery apparatus 900. In some exemplary embodiments, the steam delivery apparatus 900 or a portion thereof may be provided in a way that allows users to dismantle it for cleaning and service.
Those skilled in the art will recognize that the method and system of the present invention has many applications, may be implemented in many manners and, as such, is not to be limited by the preceding and following exemplary embodiments and examples. Additionally, the functionality of the components of the preceding and following embodiments may be implemented in different manners. Further, it is to be understood that the steps in the embodiments may be performed in any suitable order, combined into fewer steps or divided into more steps. Thus, the scope of the present invention covers conventionally known and future developed variations and modifications to the system components described herein, as would be understood by those skilled in the art.
This patent application is a continuation-in-part of co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/402,864, filed Nov. 21, 2014, which in turn is a U.S. National Phase filing of PCT Patent Application No. PCT/IL2013/050442, filed May 21, 2013, which is based on and claims the benefit of the filing date of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/649,398, filed May 21, 2012, each of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Number | Date | Country | |
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61649398 | May 2012 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 14402864 | Nov 2014 | US |
Child | 15662989 | US |