The invention relates to a smart beer tap, which is capable of performing the dynamic flow regulation with a view to pour the beer from a beer keg into a glass in an optimum manner in terms of velocity and time depending on the temperature and pressure parameters according to the amount of beer and the amount of head demanded and which is also capable of sending to a remote server the data regarding the sales and the maintenance it has collected.

State of the Art

According to the state of the art, the beer present within a beer keg is dispensed by means of a line, which is connected on one end to the discharge end of said beer keg and on the other end to a tap, wherein said line is referred to as the beer line. Said system operates based on the beer line connected to the discharge end of the beer keg and on the pressure imparted by a carbon dioxide cylinder, which is connected to the beer keg, on the beer present within the beer keg. In other words, upon the opening of the tap positioned on the tap end of the beer line, the beer, which is driven within the beer keg by means of the pressure cylinder, is transferred via the tap to a glass, thereby achieving the discharge of the beer present within the beer keg from said beer keg to said glass.

The task of transferring the beer from a beer keg via a beer line connected on one end thereof to a tap is carried out either by manually opening and closing the tap in the manner described above where the glass is filled by the rule of the thumb paying regard to the beer-head balance or by commanding the tap to remain open for a certain duration of time according to the size of the glass intended to be filled.

The most important aspect in the transfer of the beer from a beer keg to a glass is to ensure the balance between the beer and the head transferred to the glass. The amount of the beer head is associated with the amount of flow, the temperature of the beer within the beer keg, the temperature of the beer line, the ambient temperature and the tap temperature. The desired temperature of the beer coming from the beer keg is provided either by keeping the beer keg in a cold environment and bringing the same into the place of use when it is to be used or by employing the various cooling methods on the beer line. Therefore, irrespective of the method employed, the amount of head may be balanced by increasing the flow rate, i.e. by accelerating the process of filling if the tap is cold when the beer taken from the beer keg to be filled in the glass reaches the tap; on the other hand, it may be ensured that beer does not form a beer head by reducing the flow rate setting, i.e. by performing the filling process in a slow manner in case the tap is warm. In addition, in order to ensure that the beer has the desired extent of head, it may be necessary to begin filling the glass at a low flow rate and then increase the flow rate to fill the beer in a rapid manner. This operation is performed manually by the bartender. In case the bartenders lack the adequate training level, it becomes possible that the amount of beer head is not balanced and that the overflow occurs during the filling of the beer.

Moreover, the beer sales in manual operation are performed by comparing the purchased kegs to the sales . The sales data are collected from the POS system or from the tabs. The purchasing information is tracked via the invoices. It could be a possibility that the tab or the POS system is abused by the bartenders or the waiters and the illegal sales occur to cause the losses for the enterprise.

The need for a smart beer tab, which eliminates the aforesaid disadvantages and/or problems, enables the beer within a beer keg to be checked in real time, enables the beer to be transferred from a beer keg into a glass in an optimum manner in terms of velocity and time depending on the temperature and pressure parameters according to the amount of beer and the amount of head demanded and is also capable of sending to an IP address the sales data so that said data may be monitored via a cloud based management platform, has made it necessary to perform an innovation and improvement in the relevant technical field.

Object of the Invention The object of this invention is to ensure that the beer present within a beer keg is poured from the beer line between the beer keg and a tap into a glass via said tap in an optimum duration by means of the dynamic flow rate control depending on the tap temperature and the ambient temperature and the pressure in the beer line. Another object of this invention is to ensure that the beer present within a beer keg is poured from the beer line between the beer keg and a tap into a glass via said tap with the desired extent of beer head depending on the tap temperature and the ambient temperature and the pressure in the beer line.

Another object of this invention is to enable the amount of beer flowing through the tap to be sent to an IP address via wired or wireless methods so that the sales data of the enterprise may be monitored.

In accordance with these objects, the subject of the invention is a smart beer tap wherein said smart beer tap is characterized in that it comprises

A tap ,

A tap open/close arm,

A tap flow rate regulating arm, which provides control over the increase and decrease of the flow rate setting of the beer poured from the tap, i.e. the amount of beer passing in unit time, by a command issued according to the temperature and pressure values ,

Tap and ambient temperature sensor for detecting the tap temperature and the ambient temperature,

A flow sensor fixed to the beer line side of the tap, which detects the pressure of the beer coming from the beer keg via the beer line and thus enables the amount of beer required to be dispensed from the tap to be determined according to the detected pressure, • An electronic card containing the wired or wireless communication interface that serves to send to an IP address the amount of beer passing through the beer line and the interfaces that serve to evaluate the feedbacks coming from the tap and ambient temperature sensor and from the flow sensor.

Brief Description of the Figures

Figure-1 is a perspective view of the smart beer tap. Figure-2 is a side view of the smart beer tap.

Reference Numbers of the Parts in the Figures :

The parts in the figures are assigned with the reference numerals with the designations indicated below:

1. Tap open/close arm motor

2. Tap flow rate regulating arm motor

3. Tap

4. Tap open/close arm

5. Tap flow rate regulating arm

6. Tap and ambient temperature sensor

7. Flow sensor

8. Electronic card

9. Smart beer tap

Detailed Description of the Invention

In Figure-1, a representative embodiment of a smart beer tap (9) , which is capable of performing the dynamic flow regulation with a view to pour the beer from a beer keg into a glass depending on the temperature and pressure parameters according to the amount of beer and the amount of head demanded, is shown in its most basic state. Accordingly, said smart beer tap (9) comprises the tap open/close arm motor (1) , tap flow rate regulating arm motor (2) , tap (3) , tap open/close arm (4) , tap flow rate regulating arm (5) , tap and ambient temperature sensor (6) , flow sensor (7) and electronic card (8) . In the smart beer tap (9) , which may be activated by means of an electronic card (8) that contains the operating algorithm and that is fixed to any region of said smart beer tap (9) and by way of determination of the amount of beer and amount of head demanded that is entered via a screen connected to said electronic card (8) , the temperature value and the pressure value of the beer coming from the beer keg, which are required for the operating algorithm, are enabled to be detected by means of the tap and ambient temperature sensor (6) fixed to any location of the smart beer tap (9) and the flow sensor (7) fixed to the beer line side of the tap (3) . As a result, the tap flow rate regulating arm (5) , which is fixed on the tap (3) and which is able to be directed in a variable manner by the variable tap flow rate values defined via the operating algorithm by evaluating together the tap and ambient temperature and flow pressure data detected by means of the tap and ambient temperature sensor (6) and the flow sensor (7) based on the desired amount of the beer head, i.e. based on the criteria such as low, high or medium, is activated by means of the tap flow rate regulating arm motor (2) . At the same time, by way of opening the tap open/close arm (4) , which is fixed on the tap (3) and which is activated by means of the tap open/close arm motor (1) , the beer is enabled to be poured from the tap (3) into the glass in an optimum manner at a variable flow rate depending on the tap and ambient temperature and the pressure value according to the amount of beer and the amount of head demanded. In other words, it is possible to control in a variable manner the flow rate of the beer to be poured by means of the tap flow rate regulating arm (5) , which is driven by the tap flow rate regulating arm motor (2) , wherein the flow rate may be controlled in a dynamic manner according to the variable state of the flow rate value, owing to the filling patterns defined on the algorithm based on the varying values of the tap and the ambient temperature according to the amount of beer head likely to be demanded, such as a low, high or medium amount of beer head. For example, in case a low amount of beer head is demanded and the tap is in a warm state, the requirement that the flow rate should be low is detected by the algorithm and the tap flow rate regulating arm (5) is opened by the algorithm in a way to permit a flow rate compatible with said detected requirement of low flow state, or in case a high amount of beer head is demanded and the tap is at a medium temperature, the requirement that the pouring process should be performed in a quick manner and that the quick filling state should be in place is detected by the algorithm and thus, the tap flo rate regulating arm (5) is opened by the algorithm in a way to permit a flow rate compatible with said detected requirement of high flow state. The electronic card (8) , which contains the wired or wireless communication interface serving to send to an IP address the amount of beer passing through the beer line and the interfaces serving to evaluate the feedbacks coming from the tap and ambient temperature sensor (6) and the flow sensor (7) and which enables said data to be processed, may be fixed to any region of the smart tap.