Patent ID: 6158227
Filing Date: 2000-12-12
Classification: F25D,G01K

Abstract:
A temperature sensing, monitoring, and alarm apparatus for sensing temperature of a container and for estimating the temperature of the contents of said container, said apparatus comprising:(a) a flexible thermal sensor support, said flexible thermal sensor support detachably affixable to a beverage container;(b) a thermal sensor, said thermal sensor supported by said flexible thermal sensor support, said thermal sensor adapted to provide temperature data(c) a monitoring and alarm circuit, said monitoring and alarm circuit further comprisingdata transfer capability between said thermal sensor, and said monitoring and alarm circuit;(d) said monitoring and alarm circuit responsive to said temperature data from said thermal sensor to provide, as an output, at least one alarm signal, and wherein said monitoring and alarm circuit further comprises a microcontroller, said microcontroller comprisinga clock timer for generating clock data,a master signal generator to generate interrogation signals and to send said master signals to said thermal sensor,a data input device for receiving slave data sent by said thermal sensor in response to said master signal sent from said microcontroller, anda programmable computational sequence for evaluating said slave data from said thermal sensor and said clock data to generate at least one output signal,said at least one output signal operative to indicate a first alarm signal when a preset alarm condition has been computed to have been reached.