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Beverage brewer with power driven tubular hot water dispense valve and method

  • US 8,327,755 B1
  • Filed: 06/03/2009
  • Issued: 12/11/2012
  • Est. Priority Date: 06/06/2008
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. In an electrical beverage brewer having, a start brew switch, a controller responsive to the start switch to operate a brew cycle, a water tank and a brew basket for holding beverage ingredient, the improvement being a water dispense system for selectively passing water from the water tank to the brew basket, comprising:

  • a rotary tubular valve with an elongate, non-straight, tubular body with an elongate interior swinging section joined at a non-straight angle to an exterior rotary section, said interior swinging section having an inlet opening and said rotary section having a central axis of rotation, and an outlet opening in fluid communication with the inlet opening and;

    means for mounting the tubular body to the water tank for rotation about an axis aligned with the rotary section, between an open position in which the inlet is in a relatively elevated position and a closed position at a lower elevation relative to the open position, said tubular body being mounted with the swinging section and inlet located within the water tank and at least a part of the rotary section located without the water tank with the outlet in fluid communication with the brew basket to pass water to the brew basket; and

    an inline, rotary, drive mechanism with a rotor having a rotary axis aligned with the central axis of rotation of the rotary section and axially linked, inline, with the rotary section to axially drive the rotary section and thereby move the swinging section between the open position and the closed position without applying lateral forces to the rotary section.

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