GB2191760A - Valve arrangement in manual beer engine - Google Patents

Abstract

A beer engine normally intended to dispense beer by lifting beer against gravity. There is provided a valve operated by initial movement of the handle to open the beer line such that on closure of the valve when the handle is in the rest position the flow of beer through the engine under the action of gravity or pressure is prevented. The valve may take the form of a flexible plastics tube 13 squeezed between hammer 16 and anvil 17 when handle 7 is upright, and released on operation of handle 7 to operate pump 3. The valve may also be of the snap-over over-centre type, or an electromechanical valve triggered by a microswitch. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Beverage dispensing apparatus This invention relates to beverage dispensing apparatus and has particular reference to beer enginesforthe dispensing of beer.

It is well known to disperse beer by means of an engine which comprises a cylinder having a piston movable in the cylinder under an action of a movable and operable handle. The lever of the handle moves the piston in the cylinder normallyvertically, and the piston is provided with one or more flap valves so that beer can be pumped on the lift stroke. On the return stroke a second valve on the inlet of the cylinder closes and the flap valves open to permit beer to fill the upper portion of the cylinder.

It will be appreciated therefore that in beer engines there is in effect two separate oneway valves both closing in the same direction so that beer can flow through the engine in the direction of the nozzle or outlet of the engine but cannotflow in the reverse direction.

Normally beer engines are required to lift beer against gravity. There are occasions however when the beer is located at a higher level than the engine or the beer has a slight pressure when it enters the beer engine. In these circumstances where no action is taken beercoulddribblethroughtheengineasthere is no mechanism to prevent it so doing.

There has therefore been developed over a great number of years means to combat the unwanted flow of beer through the engine and outlet spout.

Essentially two mechanisms have been developed.

In the first, the flap valve controlling the flow of beer into the cylinder is provided with a spring which holds the valve closed. In the second case there is provided a closure valve on the outlet nozzle which is merely opened or closed as required by the barman dispensing beer.

Although the manually operated valve is presently satisfactory it does require the barman to remember to close it. The spring loaded valve places an extra work load on the barman since the handle has to be moved with sufficient pressureto move the spring loaded valve against the spring preventing beer overflow asweli as moving the beer. This causes additional effort on the barman dispensing beer.

By the present invention there is provided a beer engineforthedispensing of beer including a cylinder having a piston therein for the pumping of beer and a manuallyoperatablehandleformoving the piston to pump the beer, characterised in that there is provided a valve in the beer line connected to the cylinder, the valve being in a closed position when the handle is in the normal upright rest position and being linked to the handle so as to open on first movement of the handle to dispense beer.

The linkage may be a mechanical linkage. The valve may comprise a tube which can be pinched so asto become closed and which opens on removal of the pinching and which is squeezed by an obturator when the handle is in the upright rest position so as to close the tube.

The tube may be made of silicon rubber. It may be provided with a striker layer to withstand abrasion on closure.

The valve may be a snap open valve having an over-centre mechanism. The valve may be an electrically operated valve being controlled by a microswitch operated by means ofthe handle.

The valve may be positioned either priorto the beer cylinder or between the cylinder and the outlet spout.

By way of example the embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings of which : Figure lisa schematic part sectional view of a beer engine system in accordance with the present invention, Figure2 is a view of the embodiment of Figure 1 along the line of arrow 11, and Figure 3 is a cross sectional view of an alternative form of mechanism.

Referring to Figure 1, this shows a beer engine generally indicated by 1 connected by means of a tube 2 to a beer barrel (not shown). The beer engine comprises a cylinder 3 having an internai piston 4 connected by means of a piston rod 5 and a linkage 6 to a manually operated handle 7. The piston 4 has a pairofflap valves 8,9 and within the coupling 10 there is a non-return valve of a conventional type (not shown). The piston divides the cylinder3 into an upperchamber 11 and a lower chamber 12.

The output from the beer engine passes via a flexible tube 13to a conventional outlet spout 14for dispensing beer into a glass. Located on the portion 15 ofthe mechanism is a half round hammer 16 which squeezes the plastic tube 13 against an anvil 17. When the handle 7 is moved in a direction of arrow 18 it liftsthe mechanism 6,15so asto move the hammer 16 away from the anvil 17 and undo the pinch valve which results from the squeezing of the tube 13 between the hammer and the anvil.

Movement of the piston rod 5 resulting from movement of the mechanism causes flap valves 89 to close and the beer in the chamber 11 is displaced via a flexible tube 13 and is dispensed through spout 14. The return stroke ofthe handle 7 causes piston 4 to be pushed downwardly opening flap valves 8 and 9 and closing the non-return valve in the fitting 10.

Thus beer in the chamber 12 is transferred into chamber 11 .Asthe handle reaches its downward position hammer 16 squeezes tube 13 againstanvil 17 to close the tube by pinching it and thus preventing beer underthe pressure from escaping through the engine.

An alternative form of mechanism is shown in Figure3 in which the mechanism 19 connected to handle 20 which is moved in the convential way in the direction of arrow 21. An extension 22 acts to pinch plastic tube 23 against the anvil 24. The other portions ofthe mechanism remaining is in a conventional beer engine assembly.

Although both embodiments illustrate an arrangement in which the tube is closed between the beer engine and the spout by pinching the tube, it could be blocked by a suitabie valve located before the beer engine.

When the flexible portion of the tube is closed beer is unable to flowthrough the beer engine and escape from the dispensing head.

The plastics tube is probably made of non-toxic synthetic rubber aithough anyfood grade material would be suitable. Although the mechanism utilised has a mechanical mechanism it may be desirable to use an electrical valve operated by a micro switch which detects initial movement of the beer engine handle.

Claims (10)

1. Abeerengineforthedispensing of beer including a cylinder having a piston therein forthe pumping of beer and a manuallyoperatable handle for moving the piston to pump the beer, characterised inthatthere is provided avalve in the beer line connected to the cylinder, the valve being in a closed position when the handle is in the normal upright rest position and being linked to the handle so astro open on first movement of the handleto dispense beer.

2. A beer engine as claimed in Claim 1 in which the linkage is a mechanical linkage.

3. A beer engine as claimed in Claim 1 or 2 in which the valve comprises a tube which can be pinched so asto become closed and which opens on removal of the pinching and which is squeezed by an obturator when the handle is in the upright position so asto close thetu be.

4. A beer engine as claimed in Claim 3 in which the tube is made of silicone rubber.

5. Abeerengine as claimed in claim 3 or4 in which the tube is provided with a striker layer to withstand abrasion on closure

6. Abeerengine as claimed in Claim 1 inwhich the valve is a snap-open valve having an over-centre mechanism.

7. A beer engine as claimed in Claim 1 or 6 in which the valve is electrically operated and is control led by a microswitch operated by means of the handle.

8. A beer engine as claimed in anyone of Claims 1 to 7 in which the valve is positioned in the line between the beerengine and the source of beer.

9. A beer engine as claimed in anyone of Claims 1 to 7 in which the valve is positioned between the beer engine and the outlet spout.

10. A beer engine substantially as herein described with reference to and as illustrated by Figures 1 and 2 or Figure 3 ofthe accompanying drawings.