Patent ID: 7010900

Claim:
A bottling plant for filling bottles with liquid beverage filling material, said bottling plant comprising: a bottle filling machine being configured and disposed to fill bottles with liquid beverage filling material; said filling machine comprising: a rotor being configured and disposed to rotate around a vertical machine axis and having a peripheral portion; a plurality of filling positions disposed at said peripheral portion of said rotor; and each of said plurality of filling positions comprising: a bottle carrier being configured and disposed to provide bottles for filling; and a filling device being disposed above said bottle carrier and configured to fill a bottle disposed on said bottler carrier to a predetermined level of liquid beverage filling material; a bottle closing machine being configured and disposed to close filled bottles; a first conveyor arrangement being configured and disposed to move filled bottles from said filling machine to said closing machine; a bottle packing machine being configured and disposed to pack closed, filled bottles; a second conveyor arrangement being configured and disposed to move closed, filled bottles from said closing machine to said packaging machine; and a cleaning machine being configured and disposed to clean bottles prior to filling with a liquid beverage filling material; a third conveyor arrangement being configured and disposed to move bottles to said cleaning station from a supply of bottles; a fourth conveyor arrangement being configured and disposed to move cleaned bottles from said cleaning station to said filling machine; and said cleaning machine comprising: a body comprising an inner vaporization chamber, an inlet structure, and an outlet structure; said chamber having chamber walls; a heating arrangement being configured and disposed to heat said chamber walls to a temperature sufficient to vaporize cleaning medium droplets deposited on said chamber walls; said inlet structure comprising a first nozzle being configured and disposed in a first position to inject a jet of air in a first direction into said chamber; said inlet structure comprising a second nozzle being configured and disposed in a second position to inject a jet of cleaning medium in a second direction into said chamber transverse to the first direction to impinge upon the jet of air to generate air laden with droplets of cleaning medium; said first nozzle and said second nozzle being configured and disposed to direct the air laden with cleaning medium droplets against said heated chamber walls to vaporize the cleaning medium droplets to form a mixture of air and vaporized cleaning medium; and said outlet structure being configured and disposed to permit and control the flow of the mixture of air and vaporized cleaning medium from said chamber and into a bottle to be cleaned.