The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 05, 2002
Filed:
Oct. 23, 2001
Harvey S. Fink, Bloomfield Hills, MI (US);
Thomas E. Mahany, Royal Oak, MI (US);
Lawrence J. Nolan, Livonia, MI (US);
Cosmo Tech Development, Inc., Farmington Hills, MI (US);
Abstract
Self-contained closed-loop cooling systems and related methods for rapidly cooling individual beverage containers of different sizes to a suitable target temperature, in the range of 35° F. to 50° F. Each system includes a chiller, a coolant circuit with a hyper-chilled supply reservoir, a refrigerant circuit for cooling the reservoir, and an electronic controller to operate the system upon operator command. The chiller is preferably formed like a barrel, with a cylindrical array of hollow chill elements arranged about a cylindrical area into which a beverage container, such as beverage bottle or can is placed. Then, very cold coolant from the coolant supply is pumped through the array of chill elements to rapidly cool the beverage container, which makes physical contact with the hyper-chilled elements, which are thus excellent heat absorbers. The chill elements are preferably separated from one another by keystone spacers, and are flexibly held in place with a plurality of coil springs. An ejection device may be provided to help remove the cooled container from the array. A housing structure is preferably provided to enclose the array of chill elements, and to support an operator interface panel. A system enclosure is provided therebelow to house the coolant supply reservoir and pump and the refrigerant circuit. The coolant in the reservoir is cooled by the refrigerant circuit, preferably down to 60° F. to 100° F. below the target temperature to which the container is to be cooled.