Flowable products like wine, juice, condiments and liquid chemical products, such as detergents have been dispensed from flexible pouches and are widely known as “bag in box” products. These products rely on typical gravity flow taps located in the bottom of the bag or pouch that is positioned in a box container. A number of undesirable issues occur with such dispensing of liquids using gravity flow that include product remaining in the pouch due to lack of head pressure or inability of the pouch packaging material to collapse around the product as it is being drained from the pouch. Also, the dispensing tap must be placed at the bottom of the pouch to drain the pouch completely. Further, as liquid is dispensed from the pouch flow becomes slower particularly, when the pouch is about empty. By having to position the dispensing tap at the bottom of the container containing the pouch, a wine glass, for example, has to be placed below the container which under a number of conditions is cumbersome and consumes space that might otherwise be used; for example, the box or carton must be placed at the edge of a table or counter top or the carton is elevated by hand over the glass using the persons free hand to manipulate the gravity dispense tap.
It would be desirable to have a fluid dispensing system wherein the tap could be positioned anywhere on the pouch such as the top or side of the pouch so that a variety of configurations could be used and still drain the pouch completely and wherein flow would be at a continuous rate even when the pouch is close to being empty thereby allowing the pouch or carton containing the pouch to be placed anywhere on a table or countertop without the need for elevating the carton over the glass or container while still having the ability to have the glass directly under the dispense tap. The unique pump evacuation system of this invention obviates the above problems with gravity fed pouches that are in a box or as stand-alone pouches.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds