Liquid supply pipes widely used in industrial equipment such as pipeline of a ship, piping of waste water sludge treatment facility, internal piping of construction plant equipment, beverage supply pipe in food and beverage equipment for the likes of beer, etc. are subject to the characteristics of internal liquid and environmental factors of the installation site, resulting in the inner walls being deposited with accumulation of foreign substances such as scales and bacteria, etc.
Specifically, when various liquid foods and beverages flow along the conduit for a long time, corrosion occurs on the inner surface of the conduit. Corrosion results when metal chemically or electrochemically reacts in contact with surrounding liquids or gases. Also, other definitions of corrosion can be expressed as follows.
a) To have a change in the conduit carrying water by external physical influences.
b) To have a certain substance approached by a chemically unstable substance which causes an electrical change, resulting in a chemical change at the approached region.
c) To render every substance with its very own electric potential to generate, when approached by a certain substance with a different electric potential, a magnetic reaction to produce foreign substances.
d) To have a certain substance, acted upon by oxygen, make changes (oxidation)
On the other hand, expressed comprehensively, corrosion can be defined as a phenomenon in which material deteriorates depending on environment.
On the inner surface of the conduit, a slime that is so-called water scale is deposited. In this way, the slime deposited on the inner surface of the conduit not only spoils the taste of the drinking liquid but also serves as a residence for bacteria to grow and contaminate the liquid.
Specifically, in ordinary water pipes and the like, slime occurs in the shape of scale deposited due to the corrosion inside the conduit, while the conduit for dispensing foods and beverages and other conduits are deposited with scale in the shape of another slime formation.
Korean Patent No. 10-0588047 shows a prior attempt to remove slime such as scale by injecting a slime removing agent or high-pressure cleaning water into the conduit.
However, the slime removal method according to the prior art not only has a low slime removal efficiency, but also dooms the human body to adverse health consequence due to the components of chemical agent when used for removing the slime, which also lead to environmental pollution issues.
Meanwhile, draft beer is generally provided to consumers in a glass from a completely sealed keg by operating a cock valve of a dispense unit with a conduit or tubing that connects to the keg.
Techniques for connecting a draft beer keg with a dispense unit or the a dispense unit itself are disclosed in patent documents including Korean Patent No. 10-0557418 and Korean Patent No. 10-0557424.
However, in the process of being discharged at a dispense unit through the tubing from the keg, the so-called “beer stone,” which is settled on the inside surface of the tubing or beer dispensing system, deteriorates beer, degrades its taste and causes contamination thereof.
In the past, efforts were made to inject solutions, which, however, not only suffer from declined efficiency of beer stone removal but also hardly serve as beer stone removers for human consumption.
At the same time, although the draft beer supply line including the conduit for connection between the keg and the dispense unit, and the internal structure of the dispense unit are particularly in need of regular disinfection and cleaning management for hygiene control, there has been no method suggested for managed regular cleaning of the internal structure of such draft beer dispense equipment.
In addition, there are difficulties that those products and methods suggested to solve the above-mentioned deficiencies prescribe the user to perform cleaning by following a proprietary process that the user is not accustomed to.
In addition, the conventional beverage dispensing head lacks a cleaning function, requiring manual cleaning of interior walls of the beer dispensing head and tubing with separate cleaning instruments, which is highly troublesome and costly due to the labor with cleaning tools and equipment.
Further, when the conventional cleaning apparatus performs cleaning of the tubing by separate cleaning instruments, it attempts to increase the efficiency of cleaning by utilizing a motor or a separate large chamber of chemical supply, which adds to the number of pieces of equipment and the run time.
Therefore, there is a demand for a solution to these deficiencies.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds