JPS61109521A - Electric coffee brewer - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electric coffee brewer with a coffee bean grinding function.

Conventional configuration and its problems Conventionally, a fully automatic coffee brewer in which the coffee bean grinding function and the dripping function are integrated, and which automatically switches to the dripping function after grinding the coffee beans, is shown in Figure 1. A configuration as shown in FIG. 3 is also known.

That is, the coffee boiler having the configuration shown in FIG. 1 has a container 1 in which a coffee bean grinding chamber and a filtration chamber for extracting coffee liquid and separating the extract and residue are integrated. 1 is equipped with a cutter 3 which is rotationally driven by a drive motor 2, and a filter 4 at the bottom for separating the extract liquid and the residue. The water stored in the container 5 is introduced into the water pipe 8 formed integrally with the heater 7 through the check valve 6, and the steam pressure generated by heating pushes up the hot water to the discharge pipe located above the container 1. 8' and pour hot water into the container 1 from this discharge pipe 8' to obtain coffee. Since centrifugal force is generated, if the entire filter medium is placed on the circumferential wall of the container 10, this filter medium will quickly break. Therefore, as mentioned above, the filter medium, that is, the filter 4, is relatively susceptible to the centrifugal force. It must be placed on the bottom of the container 1.

In addition, regarding the material of the filter 4, since paper, which is normally used for extracting coffee, is extremely easily damaged during grinding of coffee beans, a mesh filter 4 made of stainless steel wire is used. .

Generally speaking, in order to extract high-quality coffee, the grinding process must have an appropriate particle size and a small amount of fine powder (4B, z finer than nonyu). Therefore, for extraction, hot water that has been boiled is 92~96°
The condition is that the extraction is completed in about 3 to 4 minutes at a high temperature F of C. In order to complete the extraction in 3 to 4 minutes, the filtration capacity of the filter medium must be sufficient, and the coffee powder must be sufficiently swollen by pouring hot water to form an appropriate filtration layer on the coffee powder itself. The key is to pour the hot water quietly and continuously without stirring the entire filter layer. On the other hand, pulverization with the above-described configuration results in a high-speed pulverization state in a closed space as shown in pulverization engineering, and generates an extremely large amount of fine powder. In addition, during extraction, the filtration area of the filter 4 is narrow, coffee powder clogs the filter 4 during grinding, and the filtration capacity is extremely poor due to the large amount of fine powder.
It took 7 to 12 minutes to brew a cup of coffee.Furthermore, the hot water supply system described above could not be expected to raise the temperature sufficiently, resulting in the hot water supply and extraction temperature time characteristics shown in Figure 2. It is. 2. In this figure 2, the curve A shows the hot water temperature, the curve at the mouth shows the brewing temperature, and the curve C shows the brewing time.As mentioned above, the coffee boiler shown in Fig. 1 The coffee extracted by the device was extremely tasteless and cloudy due to the presence of fine coffee powder.

The coffee boiler shown in FIG. 3 is constructed independently of a coffee bean grinding chamber 9 and a filtration chamber 10i which extracts coffee liquid and separates the extracted liquid from the residue by a filter medium such as a whole paper filter. A drive motor 1 is installed in the bean crushing chamber 9.
A part of the peripheral wall of the coffee bean grinding chamber 9 is provided with a porous portion 13 for discharging the ground coffee powder, and a transfer tube 14 connects the porous portion 13 and the filtration chamber 10. It is something that communicates with
Once the coffee beans are ground to an appropriate particle size in the coffee bean grinding chamber 9, they are sequentially discharged from the porous section 13 onto the filter medium 16 installed in the filtration chamber 1o. Coffee was extracted using the same principle as the conventional example shown in Figure 1.

In the configuration shown in Fig. 3 above, improvements can be seen in the generation of fine powder during pulverization and the filtration ability of the filter medium compared to the conventional example shown in Fig. 1, but the hot water supply temperature and extraction time during extraction have the same problems. In addition to this, there are also extremely serious problems in terms of operability during use. Usually, coffee beans contain a lot of oil and fat, and the ground coffee powder becomes sticky and easily adheres to the side wall of the coffee bean grinding chamber 9. Therefore, all of the beans ground in the coffee bean grinding chamber 9 are not discharged to the filtration chamber 10, but remain partially attached to the inner wall of the transfer pipe 14.

In the next extraction, the generated steam enters the transfer pipe 14 and condenses, so that the adhering coffee powder does not easily come off, and is transferred while the coffee beans are being repeatedly ground and coffee is extracted. The pipe 14 would become clogged and the discharge function would stop. In order to solve this problem, it is necessary to remove and clean the coffee bean grinding chamber 9 each time it is used, but in this case, it is troublesome to forget it, and there are many parts to be cleaned, so it is extremely difficult to clean. It was time-consuming. Furthermore, since the ground coffee powder is discharged at high speed, - the filter medium 1 disposed in the summer slimming chamber 10
5, some of the coffee powder is repelled and scattered, entering the gap between the filter medium 15 and the filtration chamber 1Q, resulting in many cases such as coffee powder being mixed into the extract when coffee is extracted. The problem was that they had money.

Purpose of the Invention In view of the above-mentioned conventional problems, the present invention makes it possible to obtain high-quality coffee with the inherent flavor of coffee, and
The purpose of the present invention is to provide an electric coffee boiler that can compactly store the functional parts necessary for automatically carrying out the process from grinding coffee beans to extracting coffee without creating wasted space. do.

Structure of the Invention In order to achieve the above object, the present invention heats water in a tank in a heating section and circulates the water in the tank, and when the water temperature in the tank reaches boiling temperature due to the circulation, the entire water temperature is sensed. The hot water supply to the tank side is switched to the hot water supply to the filtration chamber side using a heat-responsive member that operates. The entire tank for storing water is located within the legs, and the raw material crushing chamber and filtration chamber are located between one leg and the other at the top of the main body, and the bottom of the filtration chamber is located between one leg and the other. The part where it is located is used as a storage area for the coffee receptor.With this configuration, it is possible to obtain high-quality coffee with a strong aroma and the inherent flavor of coffee. All of the functional parts necessary for automatically performing extraction can be stored compactly without creating any unnecessary space.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. In Figures 4 to 7, 21 is a crushing filter container;
The pulverization filter container 21 includes a substantially cylindrical raw material pulverizing chamber 24 containing a cutter 23 that is rotationally driven by a drive monitor 22, and a filtration chamber accommodating and extracting the coffee beans pulverized in the raw material pulverizing chamber 24. 25 are formed integrally and arranged side by side, and the raw material crushing chamber 24 and the filtration chamber 2!5 communicate with each other via a porous portion 26 provided in a part of the peripheral wall of the raw material crushing chamber 2. Further, the bottom part 27 of the raw material crushing chamber 24 is formed in a forest shape, and the porous portions 26 are arranged so as to cut a circle drawn by the peripheral wall of the raw material crushing chamber 24.
When the coffee beans are ground, the coffee beans are appropriately stirred and ground uniformly, and once they have a suitable particle size, they are immediately discharged to the filtration chamber 25. In addition, the filtration chamber 25 has a porous portion 2
By providing a rib 28 having a substantially triangular cross section annularly from the height touching the lower edge of 6, when a paper filter medium 29 is provided, the coffee powder that is crushed and discharged will be removed from the filter medium 29.
and the gap between the filter chamber 25 and the filter chamber 25 to prevent it from entering easily. Further, by providing a second filter 30 at the bottom of the filtration chamber 25, coffee powder entering through the gap between the filter medium 29 and the filtration chamber 26 is prevented from being mixed into the coffee liquid. As the filter medium, in addition to the paper filter medium 29, a mesh-like filter medium 31 made of metal or resin can also be used.

Reference numeral 32 denotes a lid of the crushing and filtering container 21, and this lid 32 has a dome-shaped protrusion 34 having an inclined surface 33 in a portion located above the raw material crushing chamber 24, and a portion located above the filtration chamber 25. A hot water receiver 35 for dispersing hot water during hot water supply.
A hole 36 for discharging steam is formed. Reference numeral 37 denotes a coffee boiler main body having a substantially mouth-shaped configuration, and the coffee boiler main body 37 has a drive motor 22 on the left leg 38, controls the operating time of the drive motor 22, and turns on electricity after the operation is completed. A timer device (time switch) 40 for switching from the drive motor 22 to a heater 39, which will be described later, is housed therein, and the right leg 41 is formed with a tank 42 for storing water. This tank 42 is connected to the heater 3 via a check valve 43 provided at the bottom.
9 and is connected to a water pipe 44 integrally molded therein. Further, the center portion of the coffee boiler main body 37 is a coffee receiver 45.
It is a space for storing the left and right legs 3.
8.41'iz A sloped surface 46 is formed on the connecting earth bridge part to facilitate attachment and detachment of the coffee receiver 46,
This prevents the steam generated from the coffee accumulated in the coffee receiver 45 from condensing.

Further, the crushing filter 21, which integrally forms the raw material crushing chamber 24 and the filtering chamber 25, is detachably attached to the coffee boiler main body 37.

Reference numeral 47 denotes a dome-shaped tapping chamber made of a transparent heat-resistant resin and for reducing the discharge steam pressure.The upper surface 48 of the tapping chamber 47 has a cylindrical weight lower portion 49 and its outer periphery. A steam discharge hole 50 is provided at the bottom surface 51, and a discharge port 52 with one end open toward the top surface and the other end connected to the water pipe 44 and a drain port 53 are provided. Further, below the water outlet S3, it is rotatably supported by the coffee boiler main body 37, and is always rotated in the direction of the filtration chamber 25 by the lever spring 54.
That is, all the positive guides 55 are biased in the direction indicated by the arrow, and the hot water flowing out from the outlet 53 can be selectively guided to either the tank 42 or the filtration chamber 25 via the open end 61. In addition, the hot water guide 55 has a notch 6.
There are 6.

57 is a thermally responsive member disposed near the bottom of the tank 42;
This thermally responsive member 57 is made of a shape memory alloy, and when the water temperature in the tank 42 is low, it is in a compressed state due to the expansion pressure of the bias spring 68, but when the water temperature reaches the shape memory temperature, The alloy 57 stretches and pushes the hook 59 down in the direction of arrow B of the integrally formed rod sob. The shape memory alloy 57 is made of N-knee engineered alloy, has high rust resistance, and is harmless.

The hook 59 of the rod 60 is connected to the hot water guide 65 at the point where the open end 61 of the hot water guide 65 is located on the tank 42 side.
It is engaged with and locked in the notch 56 of. Also rod 60
One end protrudes, and by pushing this protrusion 62, the engagement between the hook 59 of the rod 60 and the notch 56 of the hot water guide S5 can be released at any time. 63 is a lid of the coffee boiler body 37, and this lid 63 serves to prevent dust etc. from entering the appliance body.

The operation of the groove bottom will now be described.

First, the lid 63 is opened and the open end 61 of the hot water guide 55 is held on the tank 42 side, then the lid 32 of the crushing filter container 21 is fully opened, the required amount of coffee beans is put into the raw material crushing chamber 24, and the filter medium 29 is attached to the side wall of the filtration chamber 25, and the required amount of water is supplied to the tank 42 to close the lid 32.
and 63 are closed.Next, after setting the time switch 40i to a predetermined time, when electricity is started, the drive motor 22 is activated and the coffee beans are completely ground. The ground coffee beans are then sequentially discharged into the filter chamber 25 through the porous portions 26. When this discharge is completed, the drive motor 22 is stopped and the power supply to the heater 39 is switched. When this heater 39 is energized, the water filled in the water pipe 44 is heated,
Eventually, it begins to boil locally. At this time, the water filled in the water pipe 44 does not flow backward due to the presence of the check valve 43 on the tank 42 side due to the boiling pressure and is ejected into the hot water receiving chamber 47 through the outlet 52, but this ejection pressure is Lower weight 49
The hot water is weakened and separated into steam and hot water, and the hot water drips into the hot water guide 55 through the hot water outlet 53 and is returned to the tank 42 again. Let it drain. When this operation is continuously repeated, the water temperature in the tank 42 gradually rises.

Initially, the temperature of the water spouted from the discharge port 62 is 8o~9°C, but as the water temperature in the tank 42 rises, the temperature of the water spouted from the discharge port 52 also rises, and eventually reaches a boiling point of nearly 100'C. state. By setting the water temperature in the tank 42 at this time to the memory temperature of the shape memory alloy 57, the shape memory alloy 57 expands against the force of the bias spring 68 and moves the rod 60 downward. As a result, the engagement between the hook 59 of the rod 60 and the notch 56 of the hot water guide 55 is released, and as a result, the hot water guide 55 rotates, and the open end 61 of the hot water guide 55 is rotated.
is located above the filtration chamber 25. This results in 100°
The hot water heated to C is dispersed by the hot water receiver 34 and dripped onto the coffee grounds. In addition, in the early stage when the hot water is circulating through the tank 42 and the water pipe 44, the boiling that occurs in the water pipe 44 is intermittent boiling, so low-temperature hot water is spouted from the discharge port 52 intermittently, but continuously. When the temperature reaches a boiling point, an extremely large amount of 100°C heat is continuously ejected from the discharge port 62. Therefore, a predetermined amount of hot water is continuously supplied to the filtration chamber 25.

Figure 8& shows the temporal changes in the temperature of hot water spouted from the discharge port 52, the water temperature in the tank 42, and the extraction temperature in the filtration chamber 25 based on the above-mentioned operation, and Figure 8b
? i. This figure shows the temperature changes over time when coffee is extracted without circulating the intestines.

When coffee is extracted after circulating the hot water, as shown in Figure 8B, the time required for the coffee to be made will be longer, but one end 62 of the rod 60 is
Push down the hook 59 of the rod 60 and the hot water guide 55.
By releasing the engagement with the notch 56 and applying electricity in this state, coffee can be extracted in the conventional time.

Effects of the Invention As described above, according to the present invention, when coffee beans are ground, once the coffee beans are ground to an appropriate particle size, they are sequentially discharged into the filter chamber through the porous portion, so that they are repeatedly ground. The particle size becomes constant and the generation of fine powder is extremely reduced.

When extracting ti coffee, pouring hot water allows the ground coffee beans to swell sufficiently, which improves filtration performance and, as a result, improves the extraction efficiency of soluble components contained in coffee powder. can be done.

In addition to being able to continuously supply the required amount of hot water in a short period of time, it also provides ideal coffee extraction conditions, that is, coffee powder with the appropriate particle size, and is boiled immediately after grinding to remove unnecessary components such as limescale 92 using hot water
Because coffee can be extracted at ~96°C and the extraction can be completed in 3 to 4 minutes, the coffee has a strong aroma that could not be obtained with conventional electric coffee boilers, and retains the original flavor of coffee. You can get high quality coffee with.

Furthermore, in the present invention, a drive motor is disposed within one leg of the main body configured in a substantially mouth shape, and a tank for storing water is disposed within the other leg. A raw material grinding chamber and a filtration chamber are provided at the top of the main body, located between the legs, and the lower part of the filtration chamber is used as a storage area for the coffee receiver, so it is possible to handle everything from grinding coffee beans to making coffee. Functional parts necessary for automatically performing extraction can be stored compactly without creating wasted space.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figure 1 is a side sectional view of a conventional fully automatic electric coffee brewer that integrates the coffee bean grinding chamber and the filtration chamber, and Figure 2 is
The diagram shows the coffee brewing temperature and time characteristics of the coffee brewer.
FIG. 3 is a side sectional view of a conventional fully automatic electric coffee brewer in which a coffee bean grinding chamber and a filtration chamber are arranged side by side, and FIG. 4 is a perspective view of an electric coffee brewer showing an embodiment of the present invention. , FIG. 5 is an exploded perspective view of the same coffee boiler, FIG. 6 is a vertical sectional view of the same coffee boiler, FIG. 7 is an enlarged sectional view of the main part of the same coffee boiler, and FIG. FIG. 8 is a coffee extraction temperature and time characteristic diagram during circulation operation in the same coffee boiler. FIG. 8 is a coffee extraction temperature and time characteristic diagram when no circulation is performed. 22... Drive motor, 23... Cutter, 24... Raw material crushing chamber, 25... Filtration chamber, 26... Porous section, 37... ...Coffee boiler body, 38...Left leg, 39...
Heater (heating section), 41...Right leg section, 42...
... Tank, 43 ... Check valve, 44 ...
・Water tube, 45...Coffee receptor, 55...
... Intestinal guide, 67 ... Heat-responsive member, 61.
°...Opening end of the hot water guide. Name of agent: Patent attorney Toshio Nakao and 1 other person No. 3
Figure 7.1
Nozuka
Regret Fig. 6 Fig. 7 5θ 4a

Claims (1)

[Claims] A raw material crushing chamber has a drive motor disposed within one leg of the main body configured in a substantially square shape, houses a built-in cutter that is rotationally driven by the drive motor, and has a porous portion in a part of the cylindrical peripheral wall. and filtration chambers arranged in parallel so as to communicate with the raw material grinding chamber through the porous portion are integrally formed, and these are arranged in the upper part of the main body, such that the filtration chamber is located in the upper part of the central space of the main body. A tank for storing water is disposed in the other leg of the main body, and the bottom of the tank is connected to the part that connects the two legs via a check valve. It communicates with one end of a water pipe buried with a heater that heats water, and the other end of the water pipe faces a hot water guide whose open end moves freely to the tank and filtration chamber, and the central space of the main body is connected to a coffee receiver. It serves as a storage part for a container, and when the water temperature in the tank reaches boiling temperature due to circulation, the water temperature is sensed and activated, and the hot water guide is operated to supply hot water from the tank side to the filtration chamber side. An electric coffee brewer equipped with a switching thermally responsive member.