Compact Pressure Relief Valve for Beer Kegs
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing pressure relief valves for containers with fluids under pressure, such as carbonated beverages, are often not compact and consist of multiple components that are difficult to recycle.
Innovation Solution
A compact pressure relief valve design featuring a closing body mounted resiliently via a spring, which moves from a closing to an open position when pressure exceeds a critical value, allowing for integration into a container's suction tube or neck, enabling both automatic and manual pressure release.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a pressure relief valve is designed with multiple separate components, then it can be manufactured with reliable individual parts, but the overall device becomes non-compact and difficult to recycle
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple separate components (closing body, spring means, sealing elements, and housing) into a single integrated pressure relief valve assembly that can be mounted as one unit in the suction tube. This merging maintains the functional reliability of each component while achieving a compact overall structure that is easier to recycle.
Solution Approach 2:
The closing body serves multiple functions: it acts as a seal against the suction tube opening, provides a mounting surface for the spring means, and forms part of the pressure relief mechanism. This multi-functionality reduces the total number of separate components needed while maintaining system reliability.
2Ease of manufacture
If the pressure relief valve is mounted in the suction tube, then the container itself need not be modified, but the valve must be designed to fit within the suction tube constraints
Solution Approach 1:
The pressure relief valve is designed with specific local adaptations for mounting in the suction tube, including a closing body with a shape that seals against the suction tube opening and a spring means configured to fit within the suction tube diameter. These local modifications enable easy container assembly without requiring changes to the container itself.
3Reliability
If the closing body is made resiliently mounted with spring means, then automatic pressure relief above critical pressure is achieved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The spring means is configured to automatically compress when pressure exceeds the critical value, causing the closing body to move from the closing position to the open position without requiring external control or complex actuation mechanisms. This self-service approach achieves reliable automatic pressure relief while minimizing device complexity.
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 and compact pressure relief mechanism that can be easily integrated into existing containers without modification, ensuring safe pressure management and easy manual release when necessary.
Implementation Method 1
a spring means such that, as a result of a pressure above a determined critical pressure, the spring means is compressed in order to move the closing body from a closing position to an open position
Data Source
AI summary
A container for a fluid under pressure, preferably a beer keg, including a neck and a fitting mounted thereon with a suction tube for drawing the fluid into the container. A pressure relief valve is mounted in an upper end of the suction tube or in the neck of the container. The pressure relief valve includes a closing body which is mounted resiliently via a spring and movable from a closing position to an open position by the spring being compressed.