Bottle supply system and bottle cap adapter

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9458002-B2
Application number	US-201514682565-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 9, 2015
Priority date	Apr 11, 2014
Publication date	Oct 4, 2016
Grant date	Oct 4, 2016

Abstract

A bottle cap adapter for supplying liquids, particularly viscous liquids, comprising: a body part; and a vent tube comprising a first opening and a second opening, the first opening being configured to be put inside a bottle in the vicinity of the bottom of the bottle, wherein the body part further comprises a first surface and a second surface, the first surface being perpendicular to the vent tube and the second surface being parallel to or tilted to the first surface, e.g., by an angle of 0° to 40°, wherein the body part further comprises a channel from the first surface to the second surface, wherein at least one part of the channel comprises a connector extending to the second surface, the connector being complementary to a connector of the bottle, wherein the body part is further configured to be coupled to a bottle supply system, and wherein the vent tube is at least partially located in the channel of the body part. Also a bottle supply system for supplying liquids, particularly viscous liquids, comprising: a top part configured to house a bottle cap adapter; a bottom part comprising a reservoir configured to receive an amount of liquid from a bottle inserted in the bottle cap adapter and comprising a pressure sensor configured to measure a fluid level in the bottle; and an output connected to the reservoir.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A bottle cap adapter for supplying liquids, comprising:
a vent tube comprising a first opening and a second opening, the first opening being configured to be put inside a bottle in the vicinity of the bottom of the bottle;
a body part, wherein the body part comprises:
a first surface and a second surface, the first surface being perpendicular to the vent tube and the second surface being parallel to or tilted to the first surface; and
a channel from the first surface to the second surface, wherein at least one part of the channel comprises a connector extending to the second surface, the connector being complementary to a connector of the bottle, wherein the body part is further configured to be coupled to a bottle supply system, and wherein the vent tube is at least partially located in the channel of the body part; and

a plunger being configured to seal the second opening of the vent tube during mounting of the bottle and configured to unseal the second opening during dispense of a liquid from the bottle to the bottle supply system, wherein the plunger is further configured to close a liquid-path in the body part during mounting of the bottle and configured to open the liquid-path during dispense of the liquid from the bottle to the bottle supply system.

2. The bottle cap adapter of claim 1 , further comprising a vent tube head configured to seal the first opening of the vent tube during mounting of the bottle and configured to unseal the first opening during dispense of the liquid from the bottle to the bottle supply system.

3. The bottle cap adapter of claim 2 , wherein the vent tube further comprises a shaft being configured to connect the vent tube head and the plunger such that the vent tube head is configured to seal and unseal the first opening of the vent tube synchronously with the sealing and the unsealing of the second opening and the closing and the opening of the liquid-path respectively.

4. The bottle cap adapter of claim 1 , wherein the body part comprises an upper part, a middle part and a lower part, wherein the upper part comprises the second surface, the lower part comprises the first surface and the middle part is located between the upper part and the lower part.

5. The bottle cap adapter of claim 2 , wherein the vent tube comprises an upper tube and a lower tube, wherein the upper tube comprises the first opening and the lower tube comprises the second opening of the vent tube.

6. The bottle cap adapter of claim 1 , wherein the body part further comprises an alignment-pin for aligning the bottle cap adapter with the bottle supply system.

7. The bottle cap adapter of claim 1 , wherein the second surface is tilted to the first surface by an angle of greater than 0° to 40°.

8. A bottle supply system for supplying liquids, comprising: a top part configured to house a bottle cap adapter, said bottle cap adapter comprising: a body part; and a vent tube comprising a first opening and a second opening, the first opening being configured to be put inside the bottle in the vicinity of the bottom of the bottle, wherein the body part further comprises a first surface and a second surface, the first surface being perpendicular to the vent tube and the second surface being tilted to the first surface, wherein the body part further comprises a channel from the first surface to the second surface, wherein at least one part of the channel comprises a connector extending to the second surface, the connector being complementary to a connector of the bottle, wherein the body part is further configured to be coupled to a bottle supply system, and wherein the vent tube is at least partially located in the channel of the body part; a bottom part comprising a reservoir configured to receive an amount of liquid from a bottle inserted in the bottle cap adapter and comprising a pressure sensor configured to measure a fluid level in the bottle; and an output connected to the reservoir.

9. The bottle supply system of claim 8 , further comprising a bubble purge port connected to the reservoir and configured to transport bubbles occurring in the liquid from the reservoir to a purge tube.

10. The bottle supply system of claim 9 , further comprising a holder being configured to hold and/or support the bottle when inserted in the bottle supply system.

11. The bottle supply system of claim 8 further comprising an alignment sensor configured to measure whether the bottle cap adapter is properly aligned with the bottle supply system using an alignment pin of the bottle cap adapter.

12. The bottle supply system of claim 8 further comprising a locking sensor and a slide plate, wherein the slide plate is configured to secure the bottle cap adapter to the bottle supply system and the locking sensor is configured to measure whether the bottle cap adapter is properly secured to the bottle supply system.

13. The bottle supply system of claim 8 further comprising a pin located in the center of the reservoir and/or being configured to actuate a plunger of a vent tube of the bottle cap adapter such that an opening of the vent tube is sealed or unsealed and that a liquid-path in a body part of the bottle cap adapter is opened or closed.

14. The bottle supply system of claim 8 , wherein the pressure sensor is located at the bottom side of the reservoir and wherein the pressure sensor is configured to measure a fluid level in the bottle by measuring the pressure given by the liquid column of the reservoir and the bottle.

15. The bottle supply system of claim 8 , wherein the second surface is tilted to the first surface by an angle of greater than 0° to 40°.

16. A system for supplying liquids comprising:
a bottle cap adapter, said bottle cap adapter comprising: a body part; and a vent tube comprising a first opening and a second opening, the first opening being configured to be put inside a bottle in the vicinity of the bottom of the bottle, wherein the body part further comprises a first surface and a second surface, the first surface being perpendicular to the vent tube and the second surface being tilted to the first surface, wherein the body part further comprises a channel from the first surface to the second surface, wherein at least one part of the channel comprises a connector extending to the second surface, the connector being complementary to a connector of the bottle, wherein the body part is further configured to be coupled to a bottle supply system, and wherein the vent tube is at least partially located in the channel of the body part, and
a bottle supply system comprising: a top part configured to house said bottle cap adapter; a bottom part comprising a reservoir configured to receive an amount of liquid from the bottle inserted in the bottle cap adapter and comprising a pressure sensor configured to measure a fluid level in the bottle; and an output connected to the reservoir.

17. The system of claim 16 , wherein the second surface is tilted to the first surface by an angle of greater than 0° to 40°.

Assignees

• Suss Microtec Lithography Gmbh

Inventors

• Treichel Oliver
• Kartal Suayib
• Mekias Kader
• Foley Aaron
• George Greg

Classifications

• B67D7/0288 Primary

  Container connection means (for dispensing beverages on draught B67D1/0829) · CPC title

• G03F7/16

  Coating processes; Apparatus therefor (applying coatings to base materials in general B05; applying photosensitive compositions to base for photographic purposes G03C1/74) · CPC title

• B67C9/00 Primary

  Devices for emptying bottles, not otherwise provided for {(during preparation of alcoholic beverages except beer C12G1/00)} · CPC title

• B67D7/3227

  relating to venting of a container during loading or unloading · CPC title

• B05C11/10

  Storage, supply or control of liquid or other fluent material; Recovery of excess liquid or other fluent material {(B05C1/0813, B05C5/0225, B05C17/002 and B05C19/06 take precedence)} · CPC title