Draft Beer Machine with Helical Quick Cooler for Faster Refrigeration
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional draft beer machines have a slow refrigeration speed and a short beer shelf life due to inefficient cooling capacity utilization, leading to beer spoilage and quality issues.
Innovation Solution
A double cooled draft beer machine design featuring a cold storage chamber with a refrigeration tube and beer pipe wound in a helical manner, directly adhering to each other, and a single chamber structure to enhance cooling capacity transfer and maintain a low temperature, eliminating the need for pre-cooling and allowing quick refrigeration.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Temperature
If the beer pipe is located inside the water tank and cooled by the compressor, then the beer can be refrigerated, but the refrigeration speed is slow and the discharged beer is not cooled immediately
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the cooling function into two independent parts: a cold storage chamber for storing the cask at low temperature, and a quick cooler with heat exchanger for rapid cooling of beer before dispensing. This segmentation allows each component to optimize its function - the cold storage chamber maintains beer freshness while the quick cooler provides immediate cooling capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The cold storage chamber pre-cools the cask and beer in advance, maintaining them at low temperature continuously. This preliminary cooling action ensures that when beer is dispensed, it is already cold and ready for immediate serving without waiting for the refrigeration system to cool it down.
2Device complexity
If the cask is placed outside the draft beer machine in normal temperature environment, then the machine structure is simple, but the beer shelf life is short and quality is affected
Solution Approach 1:
The patent places the cask inside the cold storage chamber, creating a nested structure where the cask is housed within the refrigerated space. This nesting arrangement ensures the cask is continuously kept at low temperature, extending beer shelf life and maintaining quality without significantly complicating the overall machine structure.
3Productivity
If the refrigeration tube and beer pipe are wound in helical manner and directly adhering, then the cooling capacity transfer is enhanced, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses helical winding of the refrigeration tube and beer pipe, creating curved spiral paths that maximize surface contact area between the two tubes. This curved configuration enhances heat transfer efficiency by increasing the contact length and surface area, while the regular helical pattern maintains manufacturing simplicity and ease of assembly.
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 design achieves faster cooling, reduces waiting time, and extends beer shelf life by efficiently utilizing cooling capacity, ensuring a consistent and fresh beer serving temperature.
Implementation Method 1
The refrigeration tube and the beer pipe are wound into a quick cooler of a round or an elliptic cylindrical shape, in an abreast and helical manner
Implementation Method 2
Inside the cabinet, there is a cold storage chamber used to hold the cask, and the evaporator can refrigerate the cold storage chamber
Implementation Method 3
there is a refrigeration circuit inside the cabinet, including a compressor, a condenser, and an evaporator
Data Source
AI summary
A draft beer machine comprising a cabinet, and a refrigeration circuit inside the cabinet, including a compressor, a condenser, and an evaporator. Inside the cabinet, a cold storage chamber is used to hold the cask, and the evaporator can refrigerate the cold storage chamber. A beer pipe is also inside the cabinet, and a beer tap is fixed to the outside of the cabinet. The outer end of the beer pipe is connected to the beer tap, and its inner end is used to connect to the cask. The cold storage chamber has a single chamber structure. Inside the cold storage chamber, there is a refrigeration tube. The refrigeration tube is connected to the refrigeration circuit and is in parallel with the evaporator. The refrigeration tube and the beer pipe are wound into a quick cooler of a round or an elliptic cylindrical shape, in an abreast and helical manner.