FR2644755A1 - Method of keeping a liquid out of contact with air in a partially full container, and preservation device using the said method - Google Patents

Abstract

Method of keeping a liquid 3 out of contact with air in a partially full container 4, into the empty internal space of which there is inserted a pouch 2 made of flexible material, characterised in that, on the one hand, the said pouch 2 is filled advantageously with a fluid at excess pressure, such as air in particular, and, on the other hand, in that the said pouch 2 is kept in contact with the free surface of the liquid 3 by appropriate means 5, 8 which are firmly secured to the container 4. The method according to the invention and the preservation device resulting from it are particularly intended for the preservation of a liquid, contained in a partially full container, out of contact with air and particularly when this liquid is a sparkling wine contained in any type of bottle.

Description

 The invention relates to a method for preserving a liquid protected from air in an opened container, and a preservation device implementing said method.

 The liquid can be wine, in particular gaseous, contained in a bottle of any type.

 There is known a container intended for the conservation of food liquids sheltered from air which is described in French patent FR-A-1,451,923; a pocket made of flexible material placed in the container is filled with a fluid as and when the liquid it contains is withdrawn, so as to occupy the same volume as the volume of the liquid previously withdrawn.

 The container described in this patent has serious drawbacks. First of all, and by definition, not all containers are suitable and it is for example impossible to store wine in an opened bottle, this one having only one opening; it would then be necessary to provide an additional opening on the bottle, serving to supply fluid to the pocket of flexible material.

 Furthermore, for large containers, the pocket must also be large, unless it is elastic, since it occupies, in the cited patent, all the volume of the liquid previously withdrawn.

 Finally, the conservation of gaseous liquids, such as particularly sparkling wines or lemonades, is not resolved by this patent which offers no solution with regard to the firm holding of the bag of flexible material against the surface of a liquid which degassed, putting considerable pressure into play.

 The invention aims to remedy these drawbacks by proposing a method for preserving a liquid protected from air in an opened container, in the empty interior space of which a pocket made of flexible material, characterized, d on the one hand, in that one advantageously fills said pocket with an overpressure fluid, such as particularly air, and on the other hand, in that one keeps said pocket in contact with the free surface of the liquid by suitable means which are secured to the container.

 The invention thus makes it possible to store a liquid protected from air in any container, since the bag of flexible material is introduced into it after each withdrawal of liquid, and this by means of the same opening as that usually used to collect it.

 It is clear that the dimensions of said pocket are adapted to each container and that the flexible nature of that makes it easy to introduce; firstly rolling said pocket on itself, making a small elongated cylinder, which is then passed through the opening of the container, in general but not necessarily circular. The bottom of the bag is then positioned at the level of the free surface of the liquid, then it is put under overpressure, for example by inflating it by an adequate means; the pocket then takes the form of the container located above the level of the liquid, by marrying the lateral flanks and providing a seal between the liquid and the air.

 It should be noted that the existence of this seal is sufficient for conservation and that it is not necessary to provide that the bag can occupy the entire upper volume of the container; it must then be held against the surface of the liquid, in order to prevent it from being expelled through the opening of the container, for example under the pressure exerted by the gases escaping from a gaseous liquid. Adequate means are therefore provided between the pocket and said container and are used for this maintenance.

 Unexpectedly, these means not only contribute to said maintenance but make it possible to reduce the volume of the bag to its minimum necessary, which in turn essentially depends on the geometry and the size of the free surface of the liquid.

Other characteristics and advantages of the method according to the invention will emerge more clearly from the description which follows of a particular and non-limiting preservation device implementing said method, with reference to the appended drawing in which:
FIG. 1 represents such a device, seen in longitudinal section, placed in a bottle, respectively before and after it is put under overpressure by a fluid such as advantageously air,
- Figure 2 is a perspective view of the bag of flexible material.

According to the figures, a preservation device 1 implementing the method according to the invention is characterized in that it comprises
a pocket 2 made of flexible, elastic, resistant material, and chemically inert with respect to the liquid 3 contained in the container 4,
a pipe 5 connected, at one of its ends 51, to an opening 21 provided for this purpose on said pocket 2, and at its other end 52, to a safety valve 6, controlling the opening or closing of said pocket 2,
a means 7 for pressurizing said bag 2, such as in particular an air blower 71,
- A safety plug 8, pierced so as to provide a passage for the pipe 5, and over which said plug 8 can then slide.

 In this form, the storage device 1 can very easily be used to store non-gaseous liquids, such as wines; rubber is then used for example to make the bag 2 and the pipe 5.

 I1 also exist several possibilities of connection between the end 51 of said pipe 5 and the opening 21 of said pocket 2: hollow screw joint, making it possible to easily change either pocket 2 or pipe 5, due to their aging. ; O-ring system which is rolled over a part of the pocket 2 covering, towards the opening 21, the end 51 of the pipe 5 until it is brought into a groove provided for this purpose on said pipe 5, which is thus secured to said pocket 2; finally, heat-shrinkable sheath system placed, during manufacture, around a part of the bag 2 covering, towards the opening 21, the end 51 of the pipe 5, said sheath then being heated so as to compress the opposite parts said pocket 2 and said pipe 5. All these connection systems are therefore possible and their use depends on the cost and the use of the preservation device 1; intensive use will require frequent exchanges of the bag 2, the rubber impregnating in the long run the odors and the color of the liquids to be preserved, and in particular wines, and it will then be advantageous to favor the easiest connection system To manipulate ; on the contrary, the cheapest system will be suitable for infrequent use.

 The use of the pipe 5 also facilitates the introduction of the bag 2 into the container 4, in particular if the latter is a bottle. It is also possible to reinforce the pipe 5 in its common part with the pocket 2, towards the end 51, by a rigid inner pipe, so as to increase the life of the seal located at this end 51, the latter undergoing repetitive constraints when handling the preservation device 1.

 The ease of introduction is also unexpectedly favored by the drilling of the plug 8 which makes it possible to center the deflated bag 2 on the free surface of the liquid 3.

Said bore also provides a means for adjusting the length of the pipe 5 introduced into the container 4 and which depends on the level of the liquid 3 therein; after introduction and centering of the bag 2, the plug 8 is put in place at the opening 41 of the container by sliding it over the pipe 5, then the bag 2 is inflated by means of a pump air connected to the end 52 of the pipe 5, this pump advantageously being an air insufflator 71. It is then possible for the end 51 of the pipe 5 to be pushed upwards from the container 4, and the plug must then be repositioned 8 along said pipe 5; it would in fact be more logical for this reason to first inflate the bag 2, then to put the cap 8 in place, but one would not then benefit from the previously mentioned centering function thereof.

 It should be noted that said plug 8 is not necessarily a safety plug, but it is the best way to ensure the stability of the preservation device 1.

 Finally, the safety valve 6 can be of any type, and, in particular, a flap valve 61, simple and known, will be very suitable. Advantageously, it is possible to use a screw safety valve, common in the field of surgery, very tight, and very practical to handle with an air blower 71 comprising at its end in a known manner a wedge cone.

 It is also evident that the shape of the bag 2 is of little importance in the case of the conservation of a non-gaseous liquid 3, since it is sufficient then that there is a substantially tight seal between said liquid. 3 and air, a function which mainly fulfills the part of the bag 2 in contact with the free surface of said liquid 3.

 This is no longer sufficient in the case of a gaseous liquid 3, and in particular of a sparkling wine, of the type of a champagne.

Indeed, the liquid / air seal must also be a gas seal, otherwise the sparkling wine will "fade" definitively. The characteristics of the preservation device 1 described below will relate more particularly to the case of the conservation of a sparkling or gaseous wine.

First of all, the shape of the pocket 2 is not indifferent and the preservation device 1 is characterized in that the pocket 2 made of flexible material comprises three parts
- an approximately flat bottom 22,
- A cylindrical intermediate part 23, of generator 24 orthogonal to said bottom 22 and whose perimeter 25 constitutes the directrix, said intermediate part 23 having a height h chosen so that, after the bag 2 has been overpressured, said part intermediate 23 is in positive support on the internal surface 42 of the container 4, then forming a tight seal 9 for the fluids and for the gases between the filled part 43 and the part 44 corresponding to the liquid 3 previously withdrawn from the container 4,
- An upper part 26 whose shape is substantially, and advantageously, homothetic to the upper form of the container 4, said upper part 26 being moreover provided with an opening 21, for example at its top, intended to be connected to the end 51 of the pipe 5, and making it possible to pressurize the bag 2.

 The flat bottom 22 is easily positioned in this way on the free surface of the liquid 3, and, after inflation of the bag 2, this arrangement makes it possible to maintain good flatness at the bag / liquid interface; the liquid 3 consequently rises very little in the container, not being compressed by the deformation of the bottom 22, which provides the unexpected advantage of not increasing the already significant pressure which exists at said interface following the degassing of the liquid 3 .

 The cylindrical intermediate part 23 consists, in the case where the container 4 is a bottle, in a part of tube with circular bottom, the height h of which is equal to at least 1 centimeter for a bottle of volume equal to 75 centiliters; the diameter of the bottom 22 is then equal to about 6 centimeters, and after inflation of the bag 2, said circular bottom tube forms a seal 9 very tight against the internal surface 42 of the container 4, near the free surface of the liquid 3.

 Advantageously, the upper part 26 is flared on top in the case where the container 4 is a bottle, so as to best fit the shape, and not to create unnecessary compression adding to the pressure, due to degassing liquid 3, and acting on the pocket 2. The latter, once inflated, has a pear shape and does not occupy the entire top of the bottle, as explained above.

 A very important characteristic of the bag 2 also consists in that the flexible material constituting the bag 2 is advantageously natural polyisoprene latex.

 Indeed, the rubber is very suitable for making the preservation device 1 when it is intended for non-gaseous liquids 3. However, a very annoying consequence of the processes for manufacturing a container 4, and in particular a glass bottle, is that there are always assembly joints between its different parts: for example, the longitudinal molding joint between the two parts a thick glass bottle intended to contain a sparkling wine. These imperfections of the internal surface 42 of the container 4 gives it a roughness more or less important that the rubber (in all its generality) does not manage to compensate; gas leaks ensue which can be very large and significantly reduce the shelf life of a gaseous liquid 3.

Natural latex, called polyisoprene, with chemical formula
C5H8, has all the required properties; its excellent plasticity makes it possible to obtain a sufficient seal 9 with respect to gas leaks, and it is known to easily prepare this natural rubber by molding it, around a matrix, by progressive soaking, then centrifugation (in the same way as for production of surgical gloves).

 Unexpectedly, the natural latex molding method makes it possible to obtain a very uniform pocket 2 without any zone of weakness, which may burst due to the combined pressures due to the inflation and degassing of the liquid 3 preserved away from the 'air.

 With the same objective of quality and resistance to pressure, the bottom 22 and the cylindrical intermediate part 23 are reinforced in thickness with respect to the upper part 26 of the bag 2; the bottom 22 and the part 23 are in fact the zones of the pocket 2 that are the most compressed, and in particular, the part 23 is supported positively on the internal surface 42 of the container 4, which is rough, and therefore attacks it. It should be noted that in a preferred embodiment of the preservation device 1, the thickness of the reinforced zones 22 and 23 is 50 hundredths of a millimeter against 35 hundredths of a millimeter for the upper part 26 (in the case of a 75 centiliter bottle ).

 The dipping of the pocket 2 is very advantageously suited to obtaining these reinforced zones, since the thickness of the pocket 2 is then proportional to the duration of the soaking; this is an important and complementary advantage of the use of a natural latex, which does not offer the use of synthetic rubbers.

 I1 emerges from the preceding description that the means developed to achieve the preservation device 1 used in the case of gaseous liquids 3 all tend to counterbalance the effects of degassing of these liquids 3. An additional characteristic of the bag 2 aims to remedy the same problem, by providing the advantage of leaving, after inflation of the bag 2, an empty intermediate zone 10 between the free surface of the gaseous liquid 3 and the bottom of the bag 2; in this way, degassing is possible in zone 10, annular for a bottle, and allows, unexpectedly, to produce a transition between the sudden pressure resulting from degassing of the liquid 3 and the inflation pressure of the bag 2.

 To do this, the diameter of the bottom 22 of said pocket 2 has a diameter substantially less than the diameter of the section of the bottle, and more generally, the bottom 22 has a shape similar to that of the section of the container 4.

 The bottom of the cylindrical intermediate part 23 then rounds off when the bag 2 is inflated, this rounded delimitation, with the free surface of the liquid 3 and the internal surface 42 of the container 4, said zone 10.

 Finally, note that, in the example already cited above of a preservation device 1 produced for a bottle of 75 centilitres, the internal diameter of which is typically 9 centimeters, the bottom 22 has a diameter of 5.5 or 6. ,2 inches.

 All the preceding precautions, taken in the design of the pocket 2 of the preservation device I are however not always sufficient, and it has been observed that hernias can occur along the pipe 5, which in particular testifies to the pressures considerable stakes in such a small volume.

 The invention overcomes this drawback by providing a thickness of the pipe 5 sufficient to avoid its deformations, which can occur both during and after the pressurization of the bag 2. For example, in the preferred example of the he invention, the hose is made of ordinary food grade rubber, its inside and outside section diameters being 5.5 millimeters and 11 millimeters, respectively.

 A last characteristic of the preservation device 1 according to 1invention consists in that it comprises a sleeve 11, surrounding the pipe 5 in its part 53 comprised between the top of the pocket 2 and the bottom of the safety cap 8, so as to maintain the bag 2 in contact with the free surface of the liquid 3 in the case where it degasses, then causing strong pressure on said bag 2.

 It should be noted that the use of this sleeve 11 is optional; this is particularly useless if there is very little gaseous liquid 3 in the container 4, or if it is a temporary storage, of fairly short duration, during which the liquid 3 has no time to degas.

 Unexpectedly, the sleeve 11 reinforces the pipe 5 in the part where it surrounds the latter, protecting it a little more against hernias, and more generally against any deformation inside the container 4.

 The use of the sleeve 11 implies that of a safety plug 8, which in this case has its most obvious use; during the conservation of a gaseous liquid 3, such as particularly a champagne, in a slightly opened bottle which has been refilled very quickly, the pressure due to degassing is maximum, and it is practically transferred entirely to the safety cap 8.

 Using the preferred embodiment of the device 1 according to the invention, it has been possible to store champagne for ten days in a barely opened bottle without significant and appreciable loss of its sparkling qualities; it turns out, in fact, that degassing stops itself, a balance being established between the pressures involved, so as to substantially regain that preexisting at the opening of said bottle.

 it is obvious that neither the method according to the invention, nor the resulting preservation device, are limited by the particular provisions described above, and that all the technical or process equivalents that can be brought into play in the spirit of the invention would not go beyond its ambit.

 The method according to the invention and the resulting preservation device are particularly intended for the conservation in the shelter of air of a liquid contained in an opened container, and in particular when this liquid is a sparkling wine contained in a bottle. of any type.

Claims (8)

 1 - Method for preserving a liquid away from air in an opened container, into the empty interior space of which a bag of flexible material is introduced, characterized, on the one hand, by filling advantageously said pocket of a fluid under pressure, such as particularly air, and secondly, in that said pocket is kept in contact with the free surface of the liquid by suitable means which are secured to the container.  2 - Preservation device implementing the method according to claim 1, characterized in that it comprises  - a pocket (2) made of flexible, elastic, resistant material, and chemically inert with respect to the liquid (3) contained in the container (4),  - a pipe (5) connected, at one of its ends (51), to an opening (21) provided for this purpose on said pocket (2), and at its other end (52), to a safety valve (6 ), controlling the opening and closing of said pocket (2),  a means (7) for boosting said pocket, such as particularly an air blower (71),  - A safety plug (8), pierced so as to provide a passage for the pipe (5), and on which said plug (8) can then slide.  3 - Preservation device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the pocket (2) of flexible material comprises three parts  - an approximately flat bottom (22),  - A cylindrical intermediate part (23), of generator (24) orthogonal to said bottom (22) and whose perimeter (25) constitutes the director, said intermediate part (23) having a height h chosen so that, after the pressurizing the bag (2), said intermediate part (23) is in positive support on the internal surface of the container (4), then forming a seal (9) tight for fluids between the filled part (43) and the part (44) corresponding to the liquid (3), previously withdrawn from the container (4),  an upper part (26) whose shape is substantially, and advantageously, homothetic to the shape of the container (4), said upper part (26) being moreover provided with an opening (21), for example at its top, intended to be connected to the end (51) of the pipe (5), and making it possible to pressurize the bag (2).  4 - Preservation device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the flexible material constituting the pocket (2) is advantageously natural polyisoprene latex.  5 - Preservation device according to claim 4, characterized in that the bottom (22) and the intermediate part (23) of the cylindrical pocket (2) of flexible material are reinforced, their thickness being greater than that of the upper part ( 26) of said pocket (2).  6 - Preservation device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the diameter of the bottom (22) of the pocket (2) of flexible material is substantially less than the inside diameter of the container (4), so that that, after the overpressure of said pocket (2), there appears an empty intermediate zone (10) between the pocket (2) and the surface of the liquid (3).  7 - Preservation device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the thickness of the pipe (5) is sufficient to avoid all the deformations that may occur during, or after, the overpressure of the bag (2) made of flexible material.  8 - Preservation device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that it comprises a sleeve (11), surrounding the pipe (5) in its part between the top of the pocket (2) and the bottom of the safety cap (8), so as to keep the pocket (2) in contact with the free surface of the liquid (3) in the case where the latter degassed, then causing strong pressure on said pocket (2).