Liquid pumping device comprising a gear pump for beverage dispenser

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11259666-B2
Application number	US-201716092325-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 10, 2017
Priority date	Apr 12, 2016
Publication date	Mar 1, 2022
Grant date	Mar 1, 2022

Abstract

A liquid pumping device (1) for beverage dispenser comprising: -a housing (2) with a liquid inlet (3) and a liquid outlet (4); -a gear pump (5) positioned in the housing with the liquid inlet communicating with the gear pump; wherein a flowmeter (6) is fluidly positioned in the housing (2) preferably between the gear pump (5) and the liquid outlet (4).

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A liquid pumping device for a beverage dispenser, the liquid pumping device comprising:
a housing with a liquid inlet and a liquid outlet;
a gear pump positioned in the housing with the liquid inlet communicating with the gear pump, wherein the gear pump comprises a driving shaft arranged to protrude from a first side of the housing; and
a flowmeter fluidly positioned in the housing, the flowmeter comprises a measuring member rotatable by the a liquid flow passing through the flowmeter, the flowmeter further comprises a sensor for sensing a rotation-related parameter of the measuring member, and the sensor is positioned on a second side of the housing opposed to the first side.

2. The liquid pumping device according to claim 1 , comprising an electrical rotary motor connected to the driving shaft.

3. The liquid pumping device according to claim 1 , wherein the gear pump is configured to communicate with the flowmeter in the housing by a non-deformable intermediate conduit.

4. The liquid pumping device according to claim 3 , wherein the non-deformable intermediate conduit extends in an axial direction perpendicular to a plane of extension the gear pump extends in.

5. The liquid pumping device according to claim 1 , wherein the measuring member has a rotation bearing arranged in the same axial direction as an axial direction of a driving shaft of the gear pump.

6. The liquid pumping device according to claim 1 , wherein the measuring device comprises at least one magnet, and the sensor is a Hall sensor.

7. The liquid pumping device according to claim 1 , wherein the sensor senses a rotation-related parameter by a characteristic selected from the group consisting of induction, capacitive effect, ultrasounds, and infra-red.

Assignees

• Nestec Sa
• Nestle Sa

Inventors

• Perentes Alexandre
• Phan Minh Quan
• Ganshof Van Der Meersch Nicolas

Classifications

• F04D29/007

  especially adapted for liquid pumps · CPC title

• F04D13/028

  the driving means being a planetary gear · CPC title

• G01F3/10

  Geared or lobed impeller meters · CPC title

• F04D13/06

  the pump being electrically driven · CPC title

• A47J31/4403

  Constructional details · CPC title