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CA-3083088-C - LIQUID SALE MANAGEMENT DEVICE

CA3083088CCA 3083088 CCA3083088 CCA 3083088CCA-3083088-C

Abstract

There is provided a liquid sales management device (101) capable of being added to a liquid supply system (70), the liquid supply system supplying a liquid within a storage container (10) to a dispensing device (50) through a supply pipe (30) with the liquid pressurized in order to cool the liquid in the dispensing device, and dispensing the cooled liquid to a drinking container (40). The liquid sales management device includes an actual flow rate determining unit (110) that determines a actual measured flow rate of the liquid dispensed into the drinking container from the dispensing device, a cleaning mode detection unit (120) that detects a cleaning mode in the liquid supply system, and a consumption flow rate acquisition unit (130) that determines an actual consumption of the liquid with the number of times of the cleaning mode, a known liquid amount consumed with one operation of the cleaning mode in the liquid supply system, and the actual measured flow rate.

Inventors

  • Naoyuki Yamashita
  • Junichi Kitano
  • Takashi Wada
  • Kenji Kusunoki

Assignees

  • ASAHI BREWERIES, LTD.
  • ASAHI GROUP HOLDINGS, LTD.

Dates

Publication Date
20260505
Application Date
20181116
Priority Date
20171121

Claims (8)

  1. CLAIMS 1. A liquid sales management device capable of being added to a liquid supply system, the liquid supply system supplying a liquid within a storage container to a dispensing device through a supply pipe with the liquid pressurized in order to cool the liquid in the dispensing device, and dispensing the cooled liquid to a drinking container from the dispensing device, the liquid sales management device comprising: an actual flow rate determining unit including a flow rate sensor which detects the amount of liquid dispensed into the drinking container, and configured to determine an actual measured flow rate of the liquid dispensed into the drinking container from the dispensing device; a cleaning mode detection unit configured to detect a cleaning mode in the liquid supply system; and a consumption flow rate acquisition unit electrically connected to the actual flow rate determining unit and the cleaning mode detection unit, the consumption flow rate acquisition unit configured to determine an actual consumption of the liquid with the number of times of the cleaning mode, a known liquid amount consumed with one operation of the cleaning mode in the liquid supply system, and the actual measured flow rate.
  2. 2. The liquid sales management device according to claim 1, wherein the consumption flow rate acquisition unit includes a time information generation unit configured to generate time information on month, day, hour, and minute, and generate Date Re~ue/Date Received 2020-05-20 consumption flow rate information with the time information being added to the cleaning mode and the actual consumption.
  3. 3. The liquid sales management device according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising: a transmission unit electrically connected to the consumption flow rate acquisition unit, and configured to transmit information on the cleaning mode and the actual consumption to a communication line.
  4. 4. The liquid sales management device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising: an analysis unit configured to determine the remaining amount of liquid within the storage container by using the actual consumption and an initial filling amount in the storage container.
  5. 5. The liquid sales management device according to claim 4, further comprising: a transmission unit electrically connected to the analysis unit, and configured to transmit the remaining amount of liquid to a communication line.
  6. 6. The liquid sales management device according to claim 5, wherein the analysis unit orders a new storage container filled with the liquid at an initial filling amount through the transmission unit based on the remaining amount of liquid.
  7. 7. The liquid sales management device according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the cleaning mode detection unit is an empty liquid sensor configured to detect that an inside of the supply pipe is a gas, a 26 Date Rec;:ue/Date Received 2020-05-20 pressure sensor configured to detect a pressure of the supply pipe, or an on-off switch in a fluid flow path adjustment device mounted to the supply pipe, and the fluid flow path adjustment device is a device configured to be mounted in the supply pipe, and include a fluid stopper device which is configured to prevents a pressurized gas from being ejected from the dispensing device when the liquid within the storage container is exhausted and the storage container is replaced.
  8. 8. The liquid sales management device according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the liquid consumption is a total amount of a discharge amount of the liquid discharged from the liquid supply system and a lead-in amount to be supplied from the storage container to the liquid supply system in the cleaning mode. 27 Date Reyue/Date Received 2020-05-20

Description

DESCRIPTION TITLE OF THE INVENTION: LIQUID SALE MANAGEMENT DEVICE TECHNICAL FIELD [0001] The present invention relates to a liquid sales management device capable of being added to a liquid supply system, and particularly, to a liquid sales management device capable of ascertaining the amount of actually consumed liquid (actual consumption) including the amount of liquid consumed without being provided for drinking. BACKGROUND ART [0002] In a restaurant, a liquid supply system is generally used as a device for providing a liquid, for example, beer. When the beer is used as an example, the liquid supply system includes a carbon dioxide gas cylinder, a beer barrel filled with beer, a supply pipe, and a beer dispenser. The liquid supply system pressurizes the beer within the beer barrel with a carbon dioxide gas of the carbon dioxide gas cylinder, and pumps the beer from the supply pipe to the beer dispenser. The beer dispenser has a beer cooling pipe provided within a cooling tank, a refrigeration machine, and a dispensing outlet. The beer dispenser freezes a part of a cooling water within the cooling tank by the refrigeration machine, cools the beer while causing the beer to flow within the bear cooling pipe by a lever operation at the dispensing outlet, and dispenses the beer to a drinking container such as a beer mug. 1 Date Rec;ue/Date Received 2020-05-20 Thus, most beer within the beer barrel are consumed for serving to customers. [0003] Meanwhile, in the liquid supply system, there is a relatively long pipeline including the beer cooling pipe through which the beer flows from a beer barrel outlet to the dispensing outlet as described above, and contamination such as fur or scale adheres to the inside of the pipeline in accordance with the usage of the pipeline. The contamination causes to propagate various germs and generate unfavorable taste, and then leads to serve unpleasant beer. Therefore, from the viewpoint of hygiene management and quality management of provided beer, beer manufactures manage the hygiene and maintain the quality of the provided beer by giving guidance on cleaning the pipeline between the beer barrel outlet and the dispensing outlet to a user (for example, restaurants) of the liquid supply system in a regular manner, for example, whenever a business is over. As a simple example of this cleaning operation, there is water cleaning with which cleaning water (tap water) passes through the pipeline. PRIOR ART DOCUMENTS PATENT DOCUMENTS [0004] Patent Document 1: JP 5393389 B SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION PROBLEMS TO BE SOLVED BY THE INVENTION 2 Date Rec;:ue/Date Received 2020-05-20 [0005] The above-described water cleaning operation is performed by switching the liquid passing through the supply pipe from the beer to the washing water and pumping the washing water. By this water cleaning operation, the beer remaining in the pipeline between the beer barrel outlet and the dispensing outlet is exhausted and is discarded when the business is over. That is, a certain amount of beer not served for drinking is consumed by executing the water cleaning operation. [0006] After the water cleaning is performed in this manner, in preparation for the next beer supply, the cleaning water present in the pipeline between the beer barrel outlet and the dispensing outlet is replaced with the carbon dioxide gas by injecting the carbon dioxide gas into the pipeline, and the inside of the pipeline is in an empty liquid state. With a series of these operations, the water cleaning operation ends. [0007] Thus, the inside of the pipeline between the beer barrel and the dispensing outlet is in the empty liquid state by the end of the water cleaning operation. Therefore, when the next business starts, an operation of introducing and pumping the beer from the beer barrel into the pipeline in the empty liquid state (hereinafter, referred to as "leadin" operation) is performed. In this lead-in operation, since a mixed liquid in a state in which the beer and the carbon dioxide gas are mixed flows within the pipeline, the beer within this lead-in operation is also 3 Date Rec;.ue/Date Received 2020-05-20 discharged from the dispensing outlet. Therefore, a certain amount of beer not served for drinking is consumed even in the lead-in operation. [0008] Thus, a certain amount of beer is consumed by the water cleaning operation and the lead-in operation. Therefore, in the beer barrel filled with a predetermined amount of beer, the amount of beer actually consumed including the sales amount to be served to customers is not been clearly ascertained until now. [0009] Patent Document 1 determines whether or not a cleaning operation is performed in a liquid supply system, but does not attempt to ascertain the amount of actually consumed beer in consideration of the water cleaning operation and the lead-in operation as in the present application. [0010) The present invention has been made in order to solve such a problem, and an obje