Beverage Dispenser Flow Control for Consistent Mixing Ratios
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing beverage dispensers face challenges in maintaining consistent flow rates and pressure differentials for gas-infused liquids and alcoholic concentrates, leading to inconsistencies in the reconstituted beverage ratio and quality, especially when multiple dispensing valves are used.
Innovation Solution
The beverage dispenser employs a flow control block with dual flow controls that receive and dispense gas-infused liquids and alcoholic concentrates at preselected rates, maintaining a predetermined pressure differential to ensure accurate mixing ratios, and includes a controller to adjust flow rates and pressures dynamically, ensuring consistent reconstituted beverage quality across multiple taps.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If multiple dispensing valves are used to serve multiple taps, then the beverage dispenser can serve multiple locations simultaneously, but maintaining consistent flow rates and pressure differentials becomes difficult leading to inconsistencies in reconstituted beverage ratio and quality
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides the beverage dispensing function into separate control paths for each dispensing valve, with individual flow controls and pressure sensors for each tap. This segmentation allows each tap to maintain its own consistent flow rate and pressure differential while serving multiple locations simultaneously.
Solution Approach 2:
Pressure sensors are positioned downstream of each flow control to detect actual pressure differentials, and this feedback is used by the controller to dynamically adjust flow control settings. This closed-loop feedback ensures consistent beverage mixing ratios even when multiple dispensing valves operate simultaneously.
2Productivity
If flow rates are increased to improve dispensing speed, then productivity increases, but pressure differentials become unstable causing chattering and flow inconsistencies
Solution Approach 1:
The system establishes a predetermined pressure differential as a baseline operating condition before dispensing begins. This pre-established pressure cushion allows the system to maintain stable flow conditions even at higher dispensing speeds, preventing chattering and flow inconsistencies.
Solution Approach 2:
The flow controls are designed to be dynamically adjustable based on real-time pressure feedback. This allows the system to optimize flow rates for high productivity while automatically compensating to maintain stable pressure differentials, preventing chattering even at increased dispensing speeds.
3Stability of the object's composition
If pressure is increased to maintain flow rate consistency, then flow stability improves, but the risk of gas breakout from the gas-infused liquid increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system carefully controls and adjusts pressure as a critical parameter, maintaining it within an optimal range that ensures flow rate consistency while staying below the threshold that would cause gas breakout from the gas-infused liquid. This precise parameter management resolves the contradiction between flow stability and gas retention.
Data Source
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AI summary
A beverage dispenser 10 includes a gas infusion device 22 configured to infuse a gas into a base liquid to form a gas-infused liquid, a mixing chamber 205 configured to mix the gas-infused liquid and a concentrate to thereby form a reconstituted beverage, a first flow control 210 configured to decrease pressure of the gas-infused liquid prior to mixing with the concentrate, and a second flow control 220 configured to decrease pressure of the concentrate prior to mixing with the gas-infused liquid. A restrictor device 74, 76 downstream from the mixing chamber 205 and configured to apply backpressure on the concentrate and the gas-infused liquid, and a dispensing valve 70 is configured to dispense the reconstituted beverage.