Beverage Mixer with Removable Elements for Dead-Space-Free Cleaning
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing beverage dispensing devices, such as coffee machines, face challenges in design compactness, ease of cleaning, and adaptability to user needs, with dead spaces and complex internal structures making maintenance and cleaning difficult.
Innovation Solution
A device with a compact mixer design, featuring non-return valves and modular components that allow for easy assembly, disassembly, and cleaning, with the mixer arranged on the device's end wall for external access, and a system for injecting cleaning solutions through both liquid and gas paths to ensure thorough cleaning.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of moving object
If the mixer is integrated into the device housing with internal arrangement, then the device structure is compact, but the mixer becomes difficult to access for cleaning and maintenance
Solution Approach 1:
The mixer is segmented from the main device housing and mounted on the end wall as a separate, accessible component. This allows the mixer to be easily removed and cleaned without disassembling the entire device, resolving the contradiction between compact integration and maintenance accessibility.
2Reliability
If the mixer has a complex internal structure to achieve thorough mixing, then mixing performance is improved, but cleaning becomes difficult due to dead spaces
Solution Approach 1:
The mixing elements are extracted as removable inserts that can be taken out from the mixer housing for separate cleaning. This eliminates dead spaces where cleaning solution cannot reach, while maintaining the complex internal structure needed for effective mixing during operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The mixer design incorporates movable and removable components that can be reconfigured or removed based on operational needs. During cleaning, the dynamic configuration allows complete access to all internal surfaces, eliminating static dead spaces that would trap residue.
3Ease of operation
If check valves are installed to improve cleaning by eliminating dead spaces, then cleaning effectiveness is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The check valves are merged with the existing flow path structure rather than being added as separate, complex components. They are integrated into the inlet connections and flow channels, providing dead space elimination functionality while maintaining simplicity in the overall valve system design.
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
The solution provides a reliable, easy-to-maintain, and adaptable beverage dispensing system that ensures thorough mixing and cleaning, reducing dead spaces and simplifying the manufacturing, assembly, and maintenance processes while ensuring effective cleaning of all wetted parts.
Implementation Method 1
a cleaning solution is drawn in by a pump, passed through the cooler, and injected into the mixer on the liquid side
Implementation Method 2
The compressor 12 compresses the gas from a first pressure to a second, higher pressure (above atmospheric pressure)
Implementation Method 3
Inside the housing 17 of the mixer 04, the liquid is mixed with the gas
Implementation Method 4
at least one pump 07, at least one heat exchanger 08, in particular cooler 08
Data Source
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AI summary
The invention relates to an appliance for dispensing and/or preparing beverages and to a method for cleaning an appliance for dispensing and/or preparing beverages, comprising at least a first source of a liquid, at least a second source of a gas, at least one mixer and at least one outlet valve. The mixer is connected to the at least one first source of liquid and the at least one second source of gas, and has at least one housing and at least one element having at least one opening. The outlet valve is disposed at an output-side end of the housing and an output-side end of the mixer cooperates with an opening in a front wall of a housing of the appliance, and the least one element having at least one opening is withdrawn from the mixer through an opening in the front wall of the appliance housing.