Beverage Dispensing Control With Adjustable Orifices and Real-Time Sensing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing beverage dispensing systems face challenges in accurately and efficiently dispensing beverages with different ingredient properties, leading to inefficiencies and waste, particularly when adjusting sugar content and carbonation levels, and require separate flavor chips for each beverage combination.
Innovation Solution
A dispensing system that uses computer-readable mediums and adjustable orifices to measure and adjust dispensing parameters such as flow rate, viscosity, pressure, pH, and temperature in real-time, allowing for the simultaneous dispensing of multiple ingredients and customization of beverages without the need for separate flavor chips, and determines if an ingredient is a non-Newtonian fluid for precise measurement and mixing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If traditional beverage dispensing systems use separate flavor chips for each beverage combination, then beverage variety is achieved, but device complexity and reconfiguration requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a universal dispensing system with a single flavor chip that can dispense multiple different beverages by dynamically adjusting dispensing parameters. The system uses a programmable controller to modify flow rates, timing sequences, and mixing ratios to create various beverages from the same concentrate containers, eliminating the need for separate flavor chips for each beverage type.
Solution Approach 2:
The system employs dynamic parameter adjustment during the dispensing process. The controller can change dispensing conditions in real-time based on the selected beverage type, allowing a single flavor chip to adapt its behavior for different beverages. This includes variable flow rates, adjustable mixing ratios, and flexible timing sequences that respond to user selections.
2Ease of manufacture
If beverage dispensing systems use fixed dispensing parameters, then manufacturing simplicity is maintained, but adaptability to different ingredient properties deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a system that changes dispensing parameters based on the specific ingredient properties being dispensed. The controller can adjust flow rates, pressure, temperature, and mixing ratios according to the characteristics of different concentrates (viscosity, density, flow properties). This allows the same hardware to efficiently dispense various ingredients with different physical properties without requiring manual reconfiguration.
3Productivity
If traditional systems dispense ingredients simultaneously without real-time measurement, then dispensing speed is maintained, but measurement precision deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent incorporates sensors and measurement devices that continuously monitor the dispensing process in real-time. Flow meters, weight sensors, or volumetric measurement systems provide feedback to the controller, which adjusts dispensing parameters to achieve precise ingredient proportions. This closed-loop control maintains high dispensing speed while ensuring accurate measurement through continuous monitoring and adjustment.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods for dispensing beverages are provided. Aspects relate to obtaining measurements regarding dispensing an ingredient (including the dispensing conditions of the ingredient) and determining whether to adjust dispensing conditions of at least one other ingredient. In one embodiment, at least one ingredient of a recipe is not dispensed based upon a dispensing measurement. The adjustment of one or more ingredients may comprise the use of adjustable orifices, which do not require separate measurements of ingredients before dispensing, but rather may measure ingredients' parameters (including dispensing conditions) as they are dispensed. Certain embodiments relate to devices and methods that may determine if an ingredient is a non-Newtonian fluid, and if so, may be configured to conduct measurements on such fluids, including, for example, the strain stress and strain rate as the fluid passes within a conduit.