JPH09173213A - Apparatus for automatically discharging coffee in determinate quantity - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent fins from running idle when stirring coffee powder and to enable to discharge coffee as much as desired in a determinate quantity by constructing a coffee discharging structure with fine and a rim which is concentrically adjacent to a cylinder section of coffee bean powder container. SOLUTION: Coffee powder is put into a coffee bean powder container 15 beforehand, and also filled around a screw 4. When a desired number of cups are conveyed to a control circuit 14, a motor gear 16 is rotated according to the number of cups, and a coffee discharging structure 1 is rotated counterclockwise when looked down. Then, three fins 3 rotate to carry the coffee powder to the screw 4, and the powder is discharged from a discharge spout 15 through a throwing hole 10 to a filter box 8. At this time, the fins 3 stir the coffee powder and a rim 2 stirs the powder in an area apart form the fins 3, therefore the coffee powder is enabled to be discharged in a quantity corresponding to a rotation of the coffee discharging mechanism 1 without producing a cavity in the powder.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a coffee constant amount automatic discharging device for automatically supplying a predetermined amount of coffee powder or beans to a coffee maker.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An automatic coffee quantitative discharging device for automatically measuring the amount of coffee powder or beans according to a desired number of cups and discharging it into a filter box of a coffee maker,
It is known from European Patent Publication No. 536714 B1. In this known device a coffee discharge mechanism is disclosed which has a cone with a trapezoidal cross section with a curved blade on the underside. The curved blade extends obliquely from the center side of the cone toward the outside, and when the cone rotates, its tip passes near the discharge port of the coffee discharging mechanism. Coffee powder is placed on the cone. When the cone rotates, the curved blade also rotates in conjunction, and when the tip of the curved blade coincides with the discharge port of the coffee discharging mechanism, coffee powder is discharged. A desired amount of coffee grounds is discharged by controlling the rotation speed of the cone.

[0003]

Since the coffee grounds are not less viscous, the coffee grounds around the curved blade are agitated following the rotation of the cone.
The coffee powder in the area away from the curved blade is
It's not stirred. Eventually, there will be no coffee ground around the curved blade, and there will be a cavity of coffee ground covering the cone. Therefore, the known discharging device has a disadvantage that the coffee powder is not quantitatively discharged as the rotation amount of the cone increases.

[0004]

According to the present invention, a coffee discharging mechanism has at least one fin and a rim, and the rim is provided concentrically and closely to the cylindrical portion of the coffee ground bean container. . When the coffee discharging mechanism rotates, the fins and the rim also rotate. The fins agitate coffee grounds around the fins and the rims agitate coffee grounds in areas remote from the fins. Therefore,
Even if the amount of rotation of the fin increases, the coffee powder is quantitatively discharged even if the cavity is not formed by the coffee powder.

[0005]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION An automatic coffee quantitative discharging device according to the present invention comprises a coffee ground bean container, and a coffee discharging mechanism having a fin, a screw and a rim concentrically adjacent to the cylindrical portion of the coffee ground bean container. Install on the filter box. The rim has an inner short tubular portion and an outer short tubular portion that is shorter than the inner short tubular portion, and the inner short tubular portion and the outer short tubular portion are joined at an upper end portion, and the outer short tubular portion The part has teeth. "Concentrically adjacent to each other" means that the cylindrical portion of the coffee ground bean container is placed so as to be sandwiched between the inner short tubular portion and the outer short tubular portion of the rim. The teeth on the outer short tubular portion of the rim are mechanically coupled to the motor via external reduction means.

[0006] Coffee powder is previously put in the coffee powder bean container. The rotation from the motor is decelerated by the deceleration means and transmitted to the coffee discharging mechanism. The rim, the fins and the screw of the coffee discharging mechanism rotate. As the coffee powder is stirred by the fins and the rim, it falls on the screw. Coffee powder is discharged to the filter box by the rotation of the screw. Since the fins stir the coffee grounds around the fins and the rim stirs the coffee grounds in an area away from the fins, the coffee grounds are transferred to the filter box in an amount corresponding to the rotation of the coffee discharge mechanism. Is discharged.
By controlling the rotation of the motor, the coffee grounds are discharged quantitatively.

The coffee automatic discharging device according to the present invention can also automatically discharge coffee beans by using substantially the same coffee discharging mechanism as described above. At this time, it is the coffee beans that are placed in the coffee ground bean container. Also, the coffee discharge mechanism may be attached to a mill box for crushing coffee beans.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a coffee discharging mechanism according to the present invention and a part of a coffee maker.

The coffee discharging mechanism 1 includes three fins 3,
It has a screw 4, a column 5 and a rim 2. In FIG.
Two fins are illustrated, and the remaining one fin is omitted for convenience of illustration. The three fins are arranged at equal intervals. It is preferable that three or more fins are arranged at equal intervals in this way, because the coffee discharging mechanism 1 can be balanced when it rotates. The three fins 3 are connected to the upper portion of the column 5, and the screw 4 is connected to the lower portion of the column 5. Further, the base end side of the three fins 3 is connected to the support column 5, the tip end side is connected to the rim 2, and each fin is connected to the support column 5.
From left to right is curved to the left. It is preferable that the fins are curved, because the coffee powder can be fed so as to be squeezed toward the screw 4 on the base end side. Further, in the case of the present embodiment, since the coffee discharging mechanism 1 rotates counterclockwise when the coffee discharging mechanism 1 is viewed from above, it is preferable that the fin 3 is left-handed to scrape coffee powder. The rim 2 has an inner short tubular portion and an outer short tubular portion that is shorter than the inner short tubular portion. The inner short tubular portion and the outer short tubular portion are joined at their upper ends, and The outer short tubular portion has a rim gear 2a.

The coffee discharging mechanism 1 is rotatably mounted on a coffee ground bean container 15. The coffee ground bean container 15 includes an upper cylinder part having a relatively large outer circumference for containing coffee powder, a lower cylinder part having a relatively small outer circumference for discharging coffee powder, the upper cylinder part and the upper cylinder part. It has a shoulder part which connects with a lower side cylinder part. The coffee discharging mechanism 1 is rotatably mounted on the coffee ground bean container 15 so as to sandwich the upper cylinder part of the container between the inner short cylinder part and the outer short cylinder part of the rim 2. Place. The fins 3 preferably extend in parallel with and in close contact with the shoulder portion of the coffee ground bean container 15. This is so that the coffee powder near the shoulders can also be stirred by the fins 3.

The rim gear 2 of the coffee discharging mechanism 1
The a is engaged with the reduction gear 11a of the reduction means 11. The other reduction gear 11b of the reduction means 11 engages with the motor gear 16 attached to the shaft 13 of the motor 12. The motor 12 is electrically connected to the control circuit 14.

A cover 7 of a filter box 8 which is a part of a coffee maker has a coffee powder feeding hole 10 and a pouring hole 9
Having. The coffee ground bean container 15 is fixed and placed substantially above the coffee ground introduction hole 10 by mechanical means (not shown). The outlet of the pouring pipe 6 for pouring the hot water is placed substantially above the pouring hole 9 by being fixed by other mechanical means (not shown).

Coffee powder is previously put in the coffee ground bean container 15. Coffee powder is also packed around the screw 4. The user informs the control circuit 14 of the desired number of cups via an intention transmitting means such as a touch panel. The control circuit 14 applies a control current to the motor 12 to rotate the motor gear 16 according to the desired number of cups. The deceleration means 11
The reduction gear 11 is linked to the other reduction gear 11b.
a also rotates. Corresponding to the rotation of the reduction gear 11a, the rim gear 2a of the rim 2 causes the coffee discharging mechanism 1 to rotate counterclockwise when the coffee discharging mechanism 1 is viewed from above. The reduction gear ratio between the motor gear 16 and the other reduction gear 11b is 10: 1.
The speed reduction ratio between a and the rim gear 2a is also 10: 1. As a whole, the rotation speed of the motor 12 is reduced to 1/100. Generally, since the rotation speed of the motor is high, it is difficult to directly control the rotation of the coffee discharging mechanism. The rotation of the coffee discharging mechanism can be easily controlled through the speed reducing means.

The rotation of the coffee discharging mechanism 1, that is, the rotation of the three fins 3 conveys the coffee powder to the screw 4. The coffee powder packed around the screw 4 is discharged from the discharge port of the coffee powder bean container 15 to the filter box 8 through the coffee powder input hole 10. Since the fins 3 agitate the coffee powder around the fins and the rim 2 agitates the coffee powder in the area away from the fins 3, the coffee powder does not form a cavity and the coffee powder is discharged from the coffee. The filter box 8 is discharged by an amount corresponding to the rotation of the mechanism 1. A desired amount of coffee grounds is discharged according to the number of rotations of the motor 12.

[0016]

According to the coffee quantitative automatic discharging device of the present invention, it is possible to quantitatively discharge only the amount of coffee powder desired by the user. Since the coffee discharging mechanism according to the present invention has the rim, the coffee powder can be agitated without the fins spinning. Further, since the rotation of the coffee discharging mechanism corresponds to the discharged coffee powder, it is possible to control the discharge amount of the coffee powder to obtain the strong coffee or the thin coffee according to the user's preference. In this case, the user may inform the intention transmitting means of the user.

The coffee constant amount automatic discharging device according to the present invention can also automatically discharge a constant amount of coffee beans by using substantially the same coffee discharging mechanism as described above. At this time, it is the coffee beans that are put in the coffee ground bean container, and the coffee discharging mechanism will be attached to a mill box for pulverizing the coffee beans.

A shutter may be provided between the discharge port of the coffee ground bean container and the coffee powder input hole of the filter box. By opening the shutter only when the coffee grounds are discharged, the coffee grounds will not spill into the filter box when the coffee grounds are not discharged.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall schematic view of a coffee discharging mechanism and a part of a coffee maker according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Coffee discharging mechanism 2 Rim 2a Rim gear 3 Fin 4 Screw 5 Strut 6 Pouring pipe 7 Cover 8 Filter box 9 Pouring hole 10 Coffee powder input hole 11 Reduction means 11a, 11b Reduction gear 12 Motor 13 Shaft 14 Control circuit 15 Coffee Powder bean container 16 Motor gear

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A coffee constant amount automatic discharging device having a coffee discharging mechanism and a coffee ground bean container, wherein the coffee discharging mechanism has at least one fin and a rim,
An automatic coffee quantitative discharging device, wherein the rim is provided concentrically with and close to the cylindrical portion of the coffee ground bean container.