Carbonated beverage bottling apparatus

Claim 1

In the bottling of a carbonated beverage using apparatus of the type in which replenishment of the supply thereof in a closed storage container is made by the flowing of said carbonated beverage through an inlet conduit having a normally open pressure-operated valve and thereby restoring the depleted level of said carbonated beverage to a selected elevated level in said storage container at which a gaseous pressure source then causes the closing of said valve, the improvements to said apparatus enabling the bottling of said carbonated beverage at an elevated temperature, said improvements comprising discharge conduit means connected from said storage volume of said carbonated beverage in said storage container to an operative arrangement of hollow bottles incident to the filling thereof, bottle-venting conduit means operationally disposed in communication at opposite ends with the hollow interior of a cooperating bottle and the unfilled upper portion of said carbonated beverage storage container during said filling of said bottle, an operative connection to a gaseous pressure source for effectuating the prior delivery of said pressurized gas into said upper portion of said storage container for exerting a selected pressure upon said carbonated beverage filling said bottle through said bottle-venting conduit means, and pump means in said inlet conduit to said storage container downstream of said valve operatively effective to pump said carbonated beverage at approximately said same selected pressure of said gaseous pressure source through said valve in said open condition thereof during said replenishment of the supply thereof in said storage container, whereby said carbonated beverage filling a bottle is effectively under the pressure influence of said pump means at the bottle inlet and under the pressure influence of said pressurized gas at the bottle outlet and thus is maintained stable in relation to its carbon dioxide content even at said elevated temperature, and said pressures being selected to be approximately the same are effective to contribute to an optimum fast flowing rate in the carbonated beverage during the filling of said bottles.