Abstract
An in-line drink dispensing system (1,16,17) for dispensing liquid such as water or other beverage. The system comprises a pump (6) in fluid connection with the system so that the pump can create a flow in the system and based on the current that the pump uses during operation a value can be determined and used for analyzing one or more statuses of the system.
Claims
1. A drink dispensing system (1, 16, 17), comprising: an inlet (2) for receiving liquid from a liquid source, an outlet (3) for dispensing controllable amounts of liquid, a pump (6) for regulating a flow of the liquid, said pump (6) being in fluid connection with the inlet (2) and the outlet (3), a controller determining a workload of the pump by measuring a current used by the pump during operation of the pump (6) at constant speed and by calculating an average value of the current used by the pump, whereby the controller controls the pump (6) based on the determined workload.
2. A drink dispensing system (1, 16, 17) according to claim 1, further comprising a cooling unit (4) for cooling liquid, wherein the cooling unit (4) is arranged upstream of the pump (6).
3. A drink dispensing system (1, 16, 17) according to claim 2, further comprising a bypass unit (18) arranged such that at least a part of the flow of liquid can bypass the cooling unit (4).
4. A drink dispensing system (1, 16, 17) according to claim 3, wherein the bypass unit (18) comprises a check valve (7).
5. A drink dispensing system (1, 16, 17) according to claim 1, further comprising a gas supply (5) for mixing the liquid with a gas, wherein the gas supply (5) is arranged downstream of the pump (6).
6. A drink dispensing system (1, 16, 17) according to claim 1, further comprising a user interface (19) connectable to the controller.
7. A drink dispensing system (1, 16, 17) according to claim 1, wherein the pump (6) is a bidirectional pump.
8. A refrigerator comprising a dispensing system (1, 16, 17) according to claim 1.
9. A method for managing a dispensing system comprising the steps of: receiving liquid from a liquid source, regulating a flow of liquid with a pump (6), dispensing liquid via an outlet (3), determining a value corresponding to a workload of the pump (6) by measuring a current used by the pump during operation of the pump (6) at constant speed and by calculating an average value of the current used by the pump, and controlling the pump (6) based on the value corresponding to the workload.
10. A method according to claim 9, further comprising the steps of receiving an input signal from a user interface (19) and based on the input signal from the user interface (19) controlling the pump (6).
11. A method according to claim 9, wherein the step of determining the value corresponding to the workload of the pump (6) is performed at certain times during each of two or more time intervals having different durations.
12. A method according to claim 9, further comprising the step of, based on the value corresponding to the workload of the pump (6), determining a time to start the pump (6).
13. A computer implemented method according to claim 9, further comprising the steps of, based on the value corresponding to the workload of the pump (6), halting an ice growth process.
14. A controller configured to cause the dispensing system to perform the method according to claim 9.
15. A drink dispensing system according to claim 1, further comprising a cooling unit (4) for cooling liquid, wherein the cooling unit (4) is arranged upstream of the pump (6) and a bypass unit (18) arranged such that at least a part of the flow of liquid can bypass the cooling unit (4), wherein the pump (6) regulates the flow of the liquid flowing through one of the bypass unit (18) and the cooling unit (4), or partly through the bypass unit (18) and partly through the cooling unit (4).
16. A drink dispensing system (1, 16, 17), comprising: an inlet (2) for receiving liquid from a liquid source, an outlet (3) for dispensing controllable amounts of liquid, a pump (6) configured as a sensor for regulating a flow of the liquid, said pump (6) being in fluid connection with the inlet (2) and the outlet (3), a controller measuring a current used by the pump during operation of the pump (6) at constant speed and by calculating an average value of the current used by the pump, whereby the controller controls the flow of the liquid through the pump (6) based on the average value of the current.
17. A method for managing a dispensing system according to claim 9, further comprising the step of redirecting the flow of the liquid through one of a bypass unit (18), a cooling unit (4), and or partly through the bypass unit (18) and partly through the cooling unit (4) when the value corresponding to the workload of the pump (6) exceeds a predetermined threshold value.
Description
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF FIGURES
(1) FIG. 1 illustrates an in-line drink dispensing system according to the invention
(2) FIG. 2 illustrates an in-line drink dispensing system wherein the pump circulates liquid through the by-pass line and the cooling container.
(3) FIG. 3 illustrates an in-line drink dispensing system wherein the liquid bypasses the cooling unit.
(4) FIG. 4 illustrates an in-line drink dispensing system wherein CO.sub.2 is added.
(5) FIG. 5 illustrates a part of an in-line drink dispensing system wherein the pump is arranged in the bypass unit.
(6) FIG. 6 to FIG. 8 illustrate a part of an in-line drink dispenser for controlling the temperature of the dispensed liquid.
(7) FIG. 9 illustrates a drink dispenser coupled to a reservoir.
(8) FIG. 10 illustrates an alternative arrangement of the pump.
(9) FIG. 11 illustrates a pump connected to a control unit.
(10) FIG. 12 illustrates a control unit.
(11) FIG. 13 illustrates a dispensing system comprising a pump, control unit and user interface.
(12) FIG. 14 illustrates an in-line drink dispensing system comprising a control unit and user interface.
(13) FIG. 15 illustrates signals between a pump and control unit in an in-line drink dispensing system.
(14) FIG. 16 illustrates a method for controlling an in-line drink dispensing system.
(15) FIG. 17 illustrates a refrigerator comprising a dispensing system according to the invention.
DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
(16) FIG. 1 illustrates a drink dispensing system 1 according to a first embodiment of the present invention. The system comprises an inlet 2 for receiving liquid. From the inlet 2, pipes are arranged for conveying the liquid in the system to the outlet 3. After the inlet 2, the pipe branches into two pipes, one of the pipes comprises a bypass unit 18 and the other pipe leads to the cooling unit 4. The bypass unit 18 comprises a check valve 7 in order to prevent liquid to flow in the wrong direction. The cooling unit 4 may be a cooling device, known to those skilled in the art, in which liquid can be chilled, stored, and dispensed at a later point in time. For example, the cooling unit 4 may comprise a number of electric fans which, on command, may circulate, inside a compartment of the cooling unit 4, a stream of cold air at a temperature below a freezing temperature and/or a stream of hot air at a temperature above the freezing temperature. After the cooling unit 4 the pump 6 is arranged. The pump is preferably a bi-directional pump that can pump the liquid in at least two directions. After the pump 6 the two pipes are merged into one pipe again. A gas supply unit 5 is coupled to the pipe after the merger of the two pipes. A gas supply pipe 8 may be coupled to one end of the gas supply unit 5 in order to provide gas into the gas supply unit 5. An outlet 3, for dispensing the liquid in to a container such as a glass, is coupled to the other end of the gas supply unit 5.
(17) The flow of liquid in this system starts at the inlet 2 where, the liquid can either pass via the bypass unit 18 or it can pass via the cooling unit 4 and pump 6, or a part of the liquid flow can pass the bypass unit 18 and another part of the flow can pass via the cooling unit 4 and the pump 6. How the liquid flows is dependent on how the pump is controlled and operated. For example if a user activates the system in such a way that the pump 6 is not activated, the liquid will flow from the inlet 2 via the by pass unit 18 and gas supply unit 5 to the outlet 3. However if the user activates the system in such a way that the pump 6 is operated in full speed, the liquid will flow from the inlet 2 via the cooling unit 4, the pump 6 and via the gas supply unit 5 to the outlet 3. Hence if the user wants to have cool liquid the user can interact with a user interface 19 not illustrated in FIG. 1 so that the control unit 12 sends an activation signal to the pump 6. The pump 6 will then start and thereby control the flow of liquid so that the liquid passes the cooling unit 4 so that cool liquid is dispensed at the outlet 3. A user can also activate the system in such a way so that the pump 6 operates at a speed so that the liquid flows both ways, via the bypass unit 18 and via the cooling unit 4.
(18) FIG. 2 illustrates the system 1 according to the first embodiment when the system 1 is performing an ice control check. The flow of the liquid is indicated by the arrows. When the pump 6 perform an ice control the pump 6 reverses the flow of liquid so that the liquid flows from the pump 6 via the cooling unit 4 and via the bypass unit 18 back to the pump 6, thereby creating a circular flow. By doing this, a narrow passage or obstruction in the flow path can be identified. If the ice growth has created an obstruction or narrow passage the pump 6 have to work harder in order to force the liquid pass this passage. This causes an increase in the current used by the pump 6. By measuring how much current the pump 6 is using it is possible to detect how much ice that is present in the cooling unit 4. A measuring unit 9 is used to measure the current the pump 6 is using. The current through the pump 6 is measured as a voltage over a small resistor in series with the pump 6. Preferably the resistor is not too small but also not too large since there will be a voltage drop over this resistor giving less power to the pump 6. For example, the resistor is preferably between 0.1 ohm and 10 ohm depending on the size and electronic characteristics of the pump being employed. The operational direction of the pump 6 is illustrated with the black and white arrows in the figure.
(19) FIG. 3 illustrates the system 1 according to the first embodiment when the system dispenses liquid which has not been cooled in the cooling unit 4. In this situation the pump 6 may work as a valve that shuts off the flow via the cooling unit 4 so that no liquid passes the cooling unit 4. Instead the flow of liquid passes the by pass unit 18 and then passes the gas supply unit 5 where it can be mixed with CO.sub.2 before the liquid is dispensed in to a container, such as a glass or the alike, not illustrated in the figure.
(20) FIG. 4 illustrates the system 1 according to the first embodiment when the system dispenses carbonated liquid which is cooled. The pump 6 is now forcing the flow of liquid towards the outlet 3 via the cooling unit 4 and gas supply unit 5 as indicated by the white arrows. An increase of the pressure is created after the pump 6 so that the liquid can be more efficiently mixed with gas such as CO.sub.2. The check valve 7 also stops the flow from taking the wrong direction.
(21) FIG. 5 illustrates a variation of the present invention wherein the system 16 comprises a cooling unit 4, a bypass unit 18 and a pump 6 wherein the pump 6 is arranged in the bypass unit 18. This embodiment may comprise one or more valves in order to control the flow so that a circular flow can be achieved. A measuring unit 9 comprising a resistance 10 is coupled to the pump. The flow in the system 16 is illustrated by the white arrows which indicate a circular flow which is used for ice control. Liquid is provided via the inlet 2 and a valve may be arranged at the outlet 3 in order to close or open the outlet 3 so that liquid can be dispensed. When the valve is open the liquid will flow from the inlet 2 to the outlet 3 via the cooling unit 4. Since the inlet is pressurized and the pump 6 is not operating the pressure will create the flow through the system 16 when the outlet 3 is open.
(22) FIG. 6 illustrates the system 16 in FIG. 5 wherein the system is dispensing room tempered liquid, for instance at 20° C. When the pump 6 is operating the flow will instead flow via the bypass unit 18 and the pump 6 so that room tempered liquid is dispensed. Due to the cooling module 4 constitutes a resistance with regards to the flow and since the pump 6 is operating most of the liquid will bypass the cooling unit 4.
(23) FIG. 7 illustrates the system 16 in FIG. 5 and FIG. 6 wherein the system 16 is dispensing liquid that is cooled by the cooling module to just above 0° C. This can be achieved by controlling the system 16 so that the whole flow of the liquid passes via the cooling unit 4. Preferably the pump 6 is turned off and therefore works as a valve so that the whole flow have to take the other way via the cooling unit 4. The pressure from the liquid source attached to the inlet 2 creates a pressure in the system so that the liquid flows from the inlet 2 to the outlet 3, when the outlet is open.
(24) FIG. 8 illustrates the system 16 similar to FIG. 5-7 wherein the system is dispensing liquid having a temperature somewhere between room temperature and 0° C., for example between 20° C. and 0° C. In this particular example illustrated in FIG. 8 the temperature of the dispensed liquid is 8° C. This is achieved by operating the pump 6 at a certain speed. The speed may be controlled by feeding the pump 6 with pulses of current or varying the voltage over the pump. Thereby a flow is present in both the cooling unit 4 and the bypass unit 18 so that two liquid flows is created before the cooling unit 4 and mixed after the cooling unit 4, when they have two different temperatures. Thereby the temperature can be controlled depending on the mix of these two flows. By changing the length of the electric pulses providing electricity to the pump 6, the speed of the pump 6 can be controlled. Longer pulses results in higher speed and shorter pulses results in lower speed. In this way it is possible to dispense liquid having a temperature between 0° C. and 20° C. If the pump 6 is running at full speed the temperature is about 20° C. If the pump 6 is totally shut off so it acts like a closed valve, the temperature of the dispensed liquid could be approaching 0° C., since all the liquid will go through the cooling unit 4. Of course the highest and lowest temperature is dependent on the temperature in the surroundings or on the temperature of the liquid that enters the system at the inlet 2, as well as the performance and capacity of the cooling unit.
(25) FIG. 9 illustrates a dispensing system 17 according to a second embodiment which is coupled to a reservoir 11 for supplying liquid into the system via the inlet 2. The system further comprises a pump 6 a control unit 12 and an outlet 3 for dispensing liquid. The pump is arranged in between the inlet 2 and reservoir 11 and the outlet 3 so that the operation of the pump 6 influences the flow of liquid in the system 17. In this arrangement the pump can be reversed so that the flow of liquid is reversed into the reservoir 11 via the inlet 2. During this operation the current of the pump 6 can be measured and based on the measured value the amount of liquid present in the reservoir 11 can be identified. In this way it is possible to keep track of when the reservoir 11 is full, half full or when the reservoir 11 is close to empty or empty. Depending on how much liquid that is left in the reservoir 11 this causes a resistance for the pump 6. It is the height of the water pillar that causes the resistance for the pump. The height of the water pillar is the horizontal distance between the inlet of the pump 6 and the surface of the liquid in the reservoir 11.
(26) FIG. 10 illustrates a variation of the present invention according to the system as illustrated in FIGS. 1-4. According to this variation the pump 6 has a different location. In this embodiment the pump 6 is arranged after the junction, where the pipe has branched up after the inlet 2, into one pipe for the bypass unit 18 and one pipe for the cooling unit 4, but before the cooling unit 4. It is also possible to achieve a circular flow by having the pump 6 in this location in order to control the ice in the cooling unit 4.
(27) FIG. 11 illustrates an arrangement of the pump 6 and control unit 12. The pump 6 may comprise a measuring unit 9 for measuring a current of the pump 6 when the pump 6 is operating. The pump 6 is connected to the control unit 12 either by wire 15 or wireless communication technology such as Bluetooth or infrared technology, so that the signals from the measuring unit 9 can be transferred to and analyzed by the control unit 12. An alternative arrangement of the measuring unit 9 is in the control unit 12 which is illustrated in that the measuring unit 9 is illustrated with dotted lines. The measuring unit 9 comprises a microprocessor for analyzing the input received from the pump 6 and/or measuring unit 9. As mentioned earlier the speed of the pump 6 is controlled by pulsing feed voltage to the pump, or varying the voltage.
(28) When the system is about to measure the workload of the pump 6, preferably three operating phases during which the pump may be operated differently, could be executed. The actual measurements are conducted in the last of these three phases as will be described below.
(29) Phase 1
(30) To lower the sound coming from the pump a ramp-up sequence may be used where first a series of short pulses is fed to the pump followed by a sequence of longer pulses. At the end the pump is fed continuously driving it at full speed. This phase takes approximately 0.5 seconds.
(31) Phase 2
(32) The pump is running at full speed for approximately 1 second, in order to stabilize the circulation flow.
(33) Phase 3
(34) In this phase approximately 250 values are measured of the current provided to the pump 6 and an average value is calculated. This is done to filter out disturbances on the signal. Also the time distance between each sample is changed to avoid synchronizing with any external disturbance source. The calculated value is preferably used to control two things, the distance between each check and finally if the ice growth process should be aborted.
(35) TABLE-US-00001 Read Value Action Idle time (s) < 180 Run 300 < 190 Run 200 < 194 Run 120 < 196 Run 80 < 198 Run 60 < 200 Run 40 < 202 Run 20 >= 204 Stop 1800
(36) It is not always necessary to run through all the three phases, any combination of them could be used or only one of them.
(37) FIG. 12 illustrates the control unit 12 comprising the micro processor 13 and the measuring unit 9. Furthermore the wire 15 can be divided into two wires, one for receiving an input or “feedback” from the pump and one for outputting a signal to the pump 6 thereby the operation of the pump 6 can be controlled. The control unit 12 is coupled to an electric source for supply of electricity via wires 14.
(38) FIG. 13 illustrates a dispensing system according to the second embodiment comprising a reservoir 11, wherein the system comprises a user interface 19 for interaction with a user. For this specific embodiment the control unit 12 may reverse the pump 6 and measure the current and based on that value calculate how much liquid that is left in the reservoir 11. If the reservoir is empty or nearly empty the control unit can send a signal to the user interface that light up a warning light such as a LED, or activates a warning signal, in order to indicate to the user that the reservoir 11 needs to be refilled.
(39) FIG. 14 illustrates the dispensing system according to the first embodiment further comprising a user interface 19. A user can via this user interface 19 interact with the dispensing system and select if for example he/she wants to have cold and carbonated water, or only cold water, or room tempered carbonated water and so forth.
(40) FIG. 15 illustrates a variation of the dispensing system according to the first embodiment wherein the control unit 12 is communicating and operating the pump 6 without input from a user, for example for ice control in the system. By running the pump 6 the liquid is circulated in the pipe via the bypass unit 18 and cooling unit 4. When ice start to build, the load on the pump 6 increase. By measuring the current through the pump 6 this change of load can be measured.
(41) FIG. 16 illustrates a method for managing a dispensing system according to the invention. In step 20 the system receives liquid from a liquid source and in step 21 the method regulates the flow by use of a pump and then in step 22 determining a value corresponding to a workload of the pump 6 and based on the value of the workload controlling the pump 6.
(42) FIG. 17 illustrates a refrigerator comprising an in-line drink dispensing system according to the present invention. In the figure the system is mounted in the door 23, however the different parts of the system can be arranged in different parts of the cabinet 24 and connected by pipes. Thereby it is possible to arrange the pump 6, the cooling unit 4, the gas supply unit 5 and bypass unit in different locations. The user interface is preferably mounted so that it is accessible on the outside of the door 23.
(43) In the above description the term “comprising” does not exclude other elements or steps and “a” or “an” does not exclude a plurality.
