Beverage Cooling Control with Rotation and Vertical Reciprocation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for rapidly cooling packaged beverages on demand are inefficient, often requiring long cooling times and excessive energy consumption, with risks of freezing or violent degasification, especially when cooling from ambient temperatures.
Innovation Solution
A control procedure for an apparatus that rapidly cools beverages by submerging them in a thermally insulated tank with a liquid refrigerant at extremely low temperatures, using a combination of rotational motion and vertical reciprocating movement to collapse the vortex quickly, thereby enhancing heat exchange without freezing or dissociating carbon dioxide.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Temperature
If traditional refrigerators are used to cool beverages, then beverages can be kept at a refrigeration temperature, but substantial loss of frigories occurs and there is no guarantee of the specific temperature of the chosen beverage
Solution Approach 1:
The system pre-cools beverages to a controlled temperature before the user requests them. The refrigerator cools beverages in advance to a specific temperature range, and when a user requests a beverage, it is quickly retrieved and delivered without requiring the user to wait for cooling. This preliminary cooling action eliminates the need for continuous energy consumption to maintain individual beverage temperatures.
Solution Approach 2:
The system segments the cooling process from the storage process. Instead of continuously cooling all beverages in a traditional refrigerator, the system uses a rapid cooling chamber that cools individual beverages on-demand or in small batches, separating the bulk storage function from the rapid cooling function. This reduces energy loss by only cooling what is needed when it is needed.
2Loss of time
If rapid cooling methods are used to cool beverages on demand, then cooling time is reduced, but risk of freezing or violent degasification increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system incorporates temperature sensors and control systems that continuously monitor the beverage temperature during the rapid cooling process. When the beverage reaches the target temperature range, the cooling process automatically stops or modulates to prevent over-cooling and freezing. The feedback mechanism ensures precise temperature control while maintaining rapid cooling performance.
Solution Approach 2:
The rapid cooling chamber uses dynamic cooling conditions that change during the cooling process. The system starts with more aggressive cooling to quickly reduce temperature, then transitions to gentler cooling as the target temperature approaches. This dynamic adjustment of cooling intensity prevents freezing and degasification while achieving rapid cooling from ambient temperature.
3Temperature
If traditional refrigerators constantly compensate temperature losses, then beverages remain at adequate refrigeration temperature, but electric power is consumed even during idle periods
Solution Approach 1:
The system pre-cools beverages to a lower temperature than traditional refrigerators maintain. By cooling beverages to a lower temperature in advance, the system creates a larger temperature margin that allows beverages to remain at acceptable consumption temperatures even without continuous active cooling during idle periods.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses insulation and thermal management to retain the coldness of beverages during idle periods without active refrigeration. The well-insulated rapid cooling chamber and storage areas allow cold beverages to maintain their temperature passively, recovering and retaining the cooling energy already invested rather than continuously consuming new energy.
4Temperature
If beverages are cooled from ambient temperatures using conventional methods, then cooling is achieved, but cooling cycle is very slow due to high thermal inertia
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses a liquid refrigerant system with direct contact or near-direct contact cooling. The rapid cooling chamber introduces a cold liquid refrigerant that circulates around or through the beverage containers, providing much higher heat transfer coefficients than conventional air-based refrigeration. This hydraulic cooling method dramatically reduces cooling time by efficiently extracting heat from the beverages.
Solution Approach 2:
The system utilizes phase change of the refrigerant (evaporation and condensation) to absorb and release large amounts of heat rapidly. The refrigerant cycles between liquid and vapor phases, leveraging the latent heat of vaporization to efficiently cool beverages in a short time period, overcoming the thermal inertia problem of conventional systems.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach significantly reduces cooling times to under 20 seconds for beverages to reach a consumer-preferred temperature, minimizing energy consumption and preventing beverage damage, while ensuring safe operation with liquids like alcohol.
Implementation Method 1
a thermally insulated tank with a liquid refrigerant at extremely low temperatures
Implementation Method 2
a thermally insulated tank with a liquid refrigerant at extremely low temperatures
Data Source
Figure 1
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Figure 4
AI summary
An apparatus for the rapid cooling of packaged beverages that includes a thermally insulated immersion tank capable of containing a liquid refrigerant and an evaporator coil placed within the tank, where the container will be submerged while held by gripping means connected to a vertical rotation axis mounted on a vertically movable cart, both driven by driving means under the control of a control unit that commands a series of sequential steps such as driving the rotation of said axial rotation axis within a predetermined speed range and period of time followed by slowing down of the rotation of said axial rotation axis at a predetermined speed with a simultaneous vertical reciprocating movement of the container by means of the vertically movable cart for a predetermined period of time as many times as established by the control unit.