Filling valve with side by side arrangement of filling tube and vent tube

Abstract

 Filling valve in an industrial beverage bottling apparatus, comprising a filling nozzle with a vertical filling conduit, into which the beverage is poured for filling, and which is introduced in the bottle to be filled, a filling mouth, and a venting conduit, wherein said venting conduit terminates in a respective mouth or opening at a level (L1) that is lower than the level (L2) of the filling mouth, and on an outer wall of said venting conduit, in the lower portion thereof, there is applied a vertical-axis partially conical or substantially conical vertical-axis member, which is positioned under said filling mouth at a defined distance therefrom, so as to enable the beverage to be bottled to flow down.
Preferably, the conical or partially conical surface of said member features a concavity towards said filling conduit. The venting conduit further includes a plurality of vertical partitions.

Description

[0001] The present invention refers to an improved kind of filling valves, which are adapted to be used in conjunction with industrial bottle filling equipment for bottling various kinds of beverages, including both carbonated beverages, i.e. beverages charged with carbon dioxide, and so-called "flat", i.e. non-carbonated ones.

[0002] Owing to the particular kind of market, i.e. a typical mass-consumer one, and the particular kind of product, i.e. generally low-cost beverages, which the above-cited kind of equipment is involved in, it is absolutely necessary for this equipment to be able to fill considerable large numbers of bottles at a very fast output rate, thereby ensuring very high levels of productivity.

[0003] This kind of bottling equipment shall therefore be able to operate through almost continuous working cycles, i.e. under almost continuous-duty conditions, at very high filling rates and a minimum extent of interruptions in the working cycle thereof.

[0004] Among the occurrences that tend to limit the rate at which beverages in general can be filled into the individual bottles, a major one is certainly fact that, owing to the high velocity at which beverages are filled in the bottle and the shaking effect, i.e. turbulent-flow conditions which they undergo when ejected from the bottom filling nozzle and impinging frontally against the bottom of the bottle or the surface of the beverage that has already been filled in the bottle, there may occur a frothing, i.e. foam-building process. Of course, this frothing effect is strongly opposed by beverage producers in general, since the so generated foam generally fails to redissolve, i.e. peter out completely, so that part of it keeps remaining inside the bottle, thereby creating a feeling of an inadequately preserved or processed product in the consumer who notices such presence of foam.

[0005] In addition, the presence of foam inside a bottle being filled may act as a kind of "plug" that can obstruct the venting tube that is let into the same bottle to facilitate filling, so that it may affect, alter or slow down the venting function or even the recovery of excess beverage flowing into the bottle, which the same venting tube is due to ensure.

[0006] All such drawbacks force the flow velocity at which bottles are filled, i.e. the bottle filling rate, to be adequately limited, and this most obviously leads to an increase in bottle-filling cycle times and, hence, a corresponding reduction in the overall production efficiency of the bottle-filling plant.

[0007] It would therefore be desirable, and is actually the object of the present invention, to provide a filling valve for an industrial beverage bottling apparatus, which is provided with a kind of filling nozzle that is effective in doing away with the afore-indicated drawbacks and disadvantages, i.e. prevents such frothing or foam building from occurring or, anyway, significantly limits the extent to which such an occurrence takes place, and which is also capable of being most conveniently, easily and effectively sanitized.

[0008] The above-noted apparatus must also be easily and readily implemented using existing or readily available means and techniques, and shall further be competitive in its construction; moreover, it shall not introduce or require any significant modification in the function, operation and construction of existing plants.

[0009] According to the present invention, these aims, along with further ones that shall be described in greater detail further on, are reached in a particular kind of valve, and related filling nozzle, made and operating as recited in the appended claims.

[0010] Anyway, features and advantages of the present invention may be more readily understood from the description of an inventive apparatus that is given below by way of non-limiting example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

• Figure 1 is a diagonal perspective, top view of a nozzle of a filling valve according to the present invention;
• Figure 2 is a front elevational view of the nozzle illustrated in Figure 1, as symbolically associated to the respective filling valve;
• Figure 3 is a side view of the nozzle illustrated in Figure 1;
• Figure 4 is a see-through view of the nozzle shown in Figure 3;
• Figure 5 is a diagonal perspective, bottom view of the nozzle illustrated in Figure 1;
• Figure 6 is a top plan view of the nozzle illustrated in the preceding Figures;
• Figure 7 is an enlarged, perspective view of the lower portion of a simplified embodiment of the nozzle illustrated in the preceding Figures;
• Figure 8 is an outside front view of a different embodiment of the nozzle illustrated in Figure 2;
• Figures 9 and 10 are respective orthogonal views of the nozzle illustrated in Figure 8;
• Figures 11 and 12 are a top view and a front view, respectively, of a lower portion of the nozzle illustrated in Figure 1;
• Figures 13 and 14 are a front elevational plan view and a side elevational plan view, respectively, of an improved embodiment of the nozzle illustrated in Figure 1.

[0011] With reference to the above-cited Figures, a beverage bottle-filling valve 1 according to the present invention comprises a filling nozzle 2 provided with a filling conduit 3, which is in turn provided with a lower outlet mouth 4. In front of this outlet mouth 4, i.e. in a position therebelow, there is arranged a partially conical member 5, i.e. a member that is obtained by sectioning a conical surface with a cylindrical (not necessarily circular, as this shall be better explained further on) surface, i.e. with a surface that is obtained by a simple translation of a vertical straight line.

[0012] Furthermore, this conical member has its axis X extending parallel to and/or substantially aligned with the axis of said conduit 3, whose inner contour is cylindrical, too, albeit in the above-noted sense.

[0013] Said cylindrical surface sections said partially conical member vertically, as this can best be noticed in the representations appearing in Figures 7, 11 and 12, in which these last two Figures illustrate this member and said cylindrical surface as seen in a mutually orthogonal manner about the vertex 6.

[0014] Associated to said filling conduit 3 there is provided a venting conduit 8 extending parallel to said filling conduit, contiguously thereto. A portion of the outer surface of said venting conduit 8 forms said cylindrical surface generating the above-noted partial conicalness of said partially conical member 5.

[0015] Furthermore, said venting conduit 8 opens downwards at a level L1 that is significantly lower than the level L2 at which said outlet mouth 4 actually opens (see Figure 3).

[0016] As most clearly shown in the Figures, the distance of said partially conical member 5 from the outlet mouth 4, and the inclination thereof relative thereto, are such as to enable a gap, i.e. a hollow space to form between the base 9 of said member 5 and said outlet mouth 4 for the liquid to be bottled to pass therethrough.

[0017] Basically, the filling conduit 3 and the venting conduit 8 are parallel and contiguous to each other, in the sense that one delimits with a side portion thereof the other one; the first one is shorter than the second one, and the venting conduit 8 also constitutes the support on which there is applied said partially conical member 5 opening in front of the outlet mouth 4 of the filling conduit 3.

[0018] Exhaustive tests and experiments made in this connection have fully confirmed the fact that the conical character of the member 5 forces the beverage, which impinges thereagainst from above, to deviate from its vertical line of flow, thereby flowing on obliquely in a radiating mode, so that it will no longer hit the bottom of the bottle, but rather the side wall thereof. The contact of the beverage with the bottle, therefore, does no longer occur frontally, but slantwise. In addition, there is a reduction in the free flowpath of the beverage, since the side wall of the bottle is usually closer to the outlet mouth 4 than the bottom of the same bottle.

[0019] Moreover, the fact that the venting tube 8 debouches into the bottle at a lower level than the filling conduit 3 allows an additional advantage of both a functional and a practical nature to be derived, as this is more clearly described below.

[0020] If this venting tube is in fact arranged to open inside the bottle at the same level as the outlet mouth of the filling conduit, when the beverage flow is stopped, the amount of beverage downstream of the filling valve would not flow off to completely collect inside the bottle, but tends rather to remain, albeit in a small quantity, inside the filling conduit owing to a small overpressure building up inside the bottle due to liquid being already present in the venting tube.

[0021] When the bottle is then moved off the filling valve, this small amount of beverage downstream thereof is no longer opposed by a pressure existing therebelow, so that it immediately flows unhindered out of the conduit, and the bottle, and spills all over the bottling apparatus, thereby giving rise to a number of easily conceivable drawbacks. If the level of the outlet mouth of the filling conduit is on the contrary kept at a higher position than the lower mouth, i.e. the opening of the venting tube, when the beverage inlet flow stops, and this occurs as soon as the beverage level reaches up to said lower mouth of the venting tube, the beverage that is still contained in the filling conduit is no longer retained therein owing to the outlet mouth thereof being still free. Such amount of beverage is therefore free to flow off the conduit and enter the bottle, thereby filling up the volume comprised between the levels of the venting opening and the outlet mouth.

[0022] Of significant practical advantage is therefore the combination of:

• a venting tube running parallel and contiguous to the filling conduit,
• which extends to a lower point than the filling conduit nearby, and
• in the lower portion of which there can be easily mounted said partially conical member 5.

[0023] The inventive solution, as embodied by the use of said partially conical member 5, may be even given a broader, more general scope, in view of an application thereof also to filling nozzles that do not make use of a venting tube 8, i.e. in all those cases in which such venting tube 8 is provided separately from the nozzle itself. This is achieved by arranging a substantially conical member 15 under the respective filling conduit 3. In this case, the support of said member 15 may be provided with the use of means of a conventional kind, e.g. in the form of two small arms 16, 17 that join the base of said member 15 firmly with the outer wall of said filling conduit 13.

[0024] With reference to the various Figures, and in particular to Figure 11 that shows said partially conical member 15 (or even 5, if viewed frontally) as a separate item, the conical surface is advantageously provided with a slight concavity d facing upwards, so that the flow of beverage falling down from the filling conduit 3 thereabove is diverted in a gradual, and hence not abrupt, manner towards the side walls of the bottle, thereby contributing to further minimize frothing.

[0025] A situation may however still persist, in which, after the bottle has been removed from the filling valve, a small amount of beverage may remain not in the filling conduit itself, but in the lower portion of the venting tube.

[0026] So, in view of further improving the operating behaviour of the filling nozzle, the provision of said members 5 and 15 under the respective venting and filling mouths allows for an advantageous improvement: with reference to Figures 13 and 14, the upward-facing conical surfaces of the two partially conical members 5 and 15 are profitably used to apply respective upward-oriented surface baffles 20; each such baffle starts substantially with an edge thereof located above or close to the vertex 6 of the members 5 or 15, and extends radially by anyway following a continuous curvature, as this is shown schematically in the Figures. These curvatures are all oriented in the same direction, so that the surfaces of said surface baffles 20 extend according to an almost parallel pattern.

[0027] Figure 13A illustrates a projection - on a general horizontal plane extending orthogonally to the axis of the filling conduit - of said baffles 20; in this projection, the baffles are represented in the form of respective curves 30, 40, 50 extending in a substantially radial manner, when said baffles 20 are arranged on said partially conical member 5 and said substantially conical member 15, respectively.

[0028] The purpose of these baffles is to divert the flow of beverage falling down from the filling conduit 3 and 13, respectively, situated thereabove, and to also impart a rotary, i.e. whirling motion to such flow. The ultimate result is that the jet of beverage that issues in a radiating manner from said members 5 and 15 comes into contact with the side walls of the bottle also with a horizontal component, thereby further attenuating the turbulence of the bottle filling process and, hence, reducing frothing to a still greater extent.

[0029] A further improvement is achieved by providing inside the venting tube 8 - and especially in the lower portion thereof adjacent to the venting opening - some vertical, preferably parallel partitions 11 that are effective in subdividing the flowpath into a plurality of individual conduits having a very small cross-section area, as best shown in Figures 5 and 6.

[0030] The effect of such subdivision of the venting tube into a number of smaller conduits has the result that the liquid entered and held in these conduits is not released, i.e. does not fall off freely, but - owing to the capillarity effect - is rather retained thereinside for at least the short time interval needed for the filling nozzle to be inserted again in a new bottle.

Claims

1. Filling valve (1) for an industrial beverage bottling apparatus, comprising a filling nozzle (2) with a vertical filling conduit (3), in which the beverage is poured for filling, and which is introduced in the bottle to be filled, a filling mouth (4), and a venting conduit (8),
characterized in that

- said venting conduit extends along said filling conduit on a side thereof,

- said venting conduit terminates in a respective mouth or opening at a level (L1) that is lower than the level (L2) of the filling mouth (4),

- on an outer wall of said venting conduit, in the lower portion thereof, there is applied a partially conical member (5) having a vertical axis (X), which is positioned substantially under said filling mouth (4) at a defined distance therefrom, so as to enable the beverage to be bottled to flow down.

2. Filling valve according to the preamble of claim 1, characterized in that it comprises a substantially conical member (15) having a vertical axis (X) and positioned substantially under said filling mouth (4) at a defined distance (L2-L1) therefrom, so as to enable the beverage to be bottled to flow down.

3. Filling valve according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the conical or partially conical surface of said members (5, 15) features a concavity (d) towards said filling conduit (3).

4. Filling valve according to claim 3, characterized in that said venting conduit (8) includes a plurality of vertical partitions (11).

5. Filling valve according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the upward facing surface of said at least partially conical member (5) or substantially conical member (15) is provided with a plurality of upward-oriented surface baffles (20) extending to form a respective curvature, the sections on a common section plane of said baffles being curved lines (30, 40, 50) extending in a substantially radial manner.

Drawing