JP2002170156A - Drink percolator - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a drink percolator capable of reducing the cost by selectively producing regular coffee having transparency and espresso coffee having creaminess. SOLUTION: When the regular coffee is selected, the rotation speed of a pump drive motor 21 of a hot water pump 20 is lowered so that the hot water feed quantity per unit hour into a cylinder 11 of drink percolator 10 is reduced, thereby reducing the drink percolating pressure in the cylinder 11. On the other hand, when the espresso coffee is selected, the rotation speed of the pump drive motor 21 is heightened so that the hot water feed quantity per unit hour to the cylinder 11 is increased, thereby increasing the drink percolating pressure.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a beverage extracting device mounted on a cup-type beverage vending machine.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a coffee extract is extracted from ground coffee beans and hot water or steam by a beverage extraction device, and the coffee concentrate is added as it is or added to sugar, milk, etc., and provided to a user in a cup. A cup-type beverage vending machine is known, and as the beverage extraction device, a regular coffee extractor that extracts a regular coffee undiluted solution using hot water, and using steam, has fine bubbles called crema. An espresso coffee extractor for extracting an espresso coffee stock solution is known.

[0003] The above-mentioned regular coffee brewing machine has a cylinder, a piston capable of sealing the upper opening of the cylinder, a filter made of paper or the like covering the lower opening of the cylinder, and is raised at the time of the selling operation to come into close contact with the lower end of the cylinder. A filter block for supporting the filter, an undiluted solution discharge pipe extending from the filter block, and a hot water pump are provided. The raw material is charged into the cylinder, and the upper opening of the cylinder is closed with a piston. Is supplied under a constant pressure to filter and extract the regular coffee stock solution from the raw material and hot water to the filter block side via the filter. The undiluted extract is then fed to a mixing ball, cup, etc. in the next step via an undiluted extract discharge pipe.

[0004] The espresso coffee brewing machine has a cylinder, a piston, a filter, a filter block and an undiluted solution discharge pipe as well as a regular coffee brewing machine, a steam pump, and an upper opening of a cylinder into which raw materials are charged. After sealing the espresso coffee, the espresso undiluted solution is filtered and extracted from the raw material and the steam by supplying steam at a constant pressure into the cylinder by a steam pump.

[0005] The pressure applied to the raw material in the cylinder during the extraction of the undiluted solution (undiluted solution extraction pressure) is relatively low in a regular coffee extractor, and the undiluted regular coffee undiluted solution has a transparent feeling without bubbles. Is done. On the other hand, in the espresso coffee extractor, the undiluted liquid extraction pressure is increased by steam, thereby producing an undiluted espresso coffee liquid with crema.

[0006] Furthermore, there is also known an espresso coffee extractor in which regular coffee is produced by adding hot water to the extracted espresso coffee stock solution.

[0007]

However, the conventional regular coffee brewing machine cannot produce espresso coffee with crema, and when regular coffee is produced by the espresso coffee brewing machine, crema is present. Even if hot water was added to the espresso coffee, the crema remained, so that a clear and transparent regular coffee could not be obtained. Therefore, in order to selectively generate and provide transparent regular coffee and espresso coffee with crema, it is necessary to add a regular coffee extractor and an espresso coffee extractor to a beverage vending machine, which is costly. Had become high.

[0008] Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a beverage extraction apparatus capable of selectively producing transparent coffee having a transparent feeling and espresso coffee having crema, and reducing the cost.

[0009]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, in the present invention of claim 1, raw materials are charged into a cylinder, the upper opening of the cylinder is closed, and then hot water is supplied into the cylinder by a hot water pump. A hot water pump control in which a hot water pump varies a supply amount of hot water into a cylinder per unit time by a hot water pump in a beverage brewing apparatus that filters and extracts an undiluted solution through a filter that covers a lower opening of a cylinder by supplying pressure. It is characterized in that means are provided.

According to the present invention, by adjusting the hot water supply amount per unit time from the hot water pump into the cylinder at the time of undiluted solution extraction by the hot water pump control means, the pressure of the extracted undiluted solution in the cylinder is changed to provide a transparent feeling. You can make regular coffee and espresso coffee with crema separately.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the hot water pump control means controls a rotation speed of a pump drive motor of the hot water pump. According to the present invention, by controlling the rotation speed of the pump drive motor, the amount of hot water supplied into the cylinder per unit time can be changed, thereby changing the pressure of the undiluted solution.

[0012]

1 to 3 relate to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 is an explanatory view schematically showing a beverage extraction device in a partial cross section, and FIG. 2 is a control of a hot water pump. FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the system, and FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the control operation of the hot water pump.

Referring to FIG. 1, first, a beverage vending machine 1
The main components in the description will be described. Reference numeral 10 denotes a beverage extraction device. The beverage extraction device 10 is made of a cylinder (excluding an upper portion), a piston 12 capable of sealing an upper opening of the cylinder 11, and a paper covering the lower opening of the cylinder 11. The filter 13 includes a filter 13 in the form of a strip, a filter block 14 that rises during the selling operation and is in close contact with the lower end of the cylinder 11 to support the filter 13, and an extraction stock solution discharge pipe 15 extending from the filter block 14. Reference numeral 16 denotes a new use surface of the filter 13 for each sales operation.
A filter supply roller for supplying below, a filter 17 for the filter
This is a waste container for discarding the used surface and raw material residue.

Reference numeral 30 denotes a raw material canister 30 for storing coffee beans, 31 denotes a coffee mill for grinding coffee beans, and 32 denotes a raw material chute for feeding the raw materials ground by the coffee mill 31 into the cylinder 11. Note that the upper part of the cylinder 11 is partially enlarged in the horizontal direction so that the raw material chute 32 is enlarged.
Is in communication with

Further, reference numeral 40 denotes a hot water tank for storing hot water at about 95 degrees, 41 denotes a hot water supply pipe for supplying hot water from the hot water tank into the cylinder 11, 41a denotes a hot water supply solenoid valve, and 42 denotes a hot water supply pipe. A hot water storage bowl for temporarily storing a predetermined amount of hot water to be supplied to the cylinder 11, a hot water pump 20 for pressurizing the predetermined amount of hot water stored in the hot water storage bowl 42 into the cylinder 11, and a hot water supply pipe 43 The hot water nozzle 43 is attached to the piston 12 so as to penetrate the piston 12 in an airtight manner.

Referring to FIG. 2, hot water pump 20 has a pump drive motor (hereinafter, simply referred to as “motor”) 21, and this motor 21 responds to a control signal from hot water pump control unit 24. O through the motor drive circuit 23
N / OFF control and rotation speed control described later are performed. Therefore, the hot water pump control section 24 and the motor drive circuit 23 constitute hot water pump control means. The power supply 22 of the motor 21 is connected to the motor drive circuit 23. Further, the hot water pump control unit 24 controls the motor 21 based on a control signal from the main control unit 50 of the beverage vending machine 1.
The main control unit 50 controls customer service in the vending machine 1,
It controls the sales control, coin mech control, etc., via each terminal control unit.

Next, the basic operation of the beverage brewing apparatus 10 will be described. First, when a product selection button (not shown) of the beverage vending machine 1 is pressed by the user, a predetermined amount of coffee beans is carried out from the raw material canister 30 to the coffee mill 31, where the coffee beans are ground. Bean raw material is fed into the cylinder 11 from the upper opening in the open state via the raw material chute 32. Next, the piston 12 is lowered, and the upper opening of the cylinder 11 is sealed. Then
The hot water supply electromagnetic valve 41 a is opened for a predetermined time, a predetermined amount of hot water is sent from the hot water tank 40 to the hot water storage bowl 42, and the hot water is sent to the hot water pump 20. Hot water pump 20 pressurizes and supplies this hot water into cylinder 11 via hot water nozzle 43. As a result, the internal pressure of the cylinder 11 rises, and the coffee concentrate is filtered and extracted from the ground bean raw material and the hot water to the cylinder block 14 via the filter 13. The undiluted extract is then fed to the cup 2 or a mixing ball (not shown) through the undiluted extract pipe 15.

In the beverage extracting device 10 described above, the internal pressure of the cylinder 11 (the undiluted solution extraction pressure) at the time of extracting the undiluted solution,
By selectively switching between the low-pressure mode and the high-pressure mode as described below, a stock solution of regular coffee (hereinafter “RC”) can be produced by the former, and a stock solution of espresso coffee (hereinafter “EC”) can be produced by the latter. .

That is, referring to FIG. 2 and FIG. 3, when RC is selected by the user from the standby state of hot water pump 20 (S1), that is, the sales standby state (S2), main controller 50 controls hot water. An RC selection signal is sent to the pump control unit 24. As a result, the hot water pump control unit 24 changes the voltage applied from the power source 22 to the motor 21 to 12 V through the motor drive circuit 23.
(S3), whereby the rotation speed of the motor 21 becomes the low mode (as opposed to the high mode described later) (S4). on the other hand,
When EC is selected (S2), the main control unit 50 sends an EC selection signal to the hot water pump control unit 24, whereby the hot water pump control unit 24 sets the voltage applied from the power supply 22 to the motor 21 to 24V ( S5) The rotation speed of the motor 21 is set to the high mode (S6).

When the rotation speed of the motor 21 is in the low mode,
The amount of hot water supplied from the hot water pump 20 into the cylinder 11 per unit time is smaller than that in the high mode, and therefore, at the time of hot water supply (S7), the undiluted solution extraction pressure of the cylinder 11 is in the low pressure mode, thereby providing a sense of transparency. A certain RC stock solution is obtained. On the other hand, when the rotation speed of the motor 21 is in the high mode, the amount of hot water supplied from the hot water pump 20 into the cylinder 11 per unit time is larger than that in the low mode, and therefore, when the hot water is supplied (S7), The extraction pressure is set to the high pressure mode described above, whereby an EC stock solution with crema is obtained. As described above, in the present embodiment, it is possible to separately produce a transparent RC and an EC having a crema by one beverage extraction device 10.

In the above example, the switching of the rotational speed of the motor 21 is performed by changing the applied voltage. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, pulse control such as PWM control or other known methods may be used. Can be. In addition, by setting the rotation speed of the motor 21 not only in the high / low mode but also in a mode such as an intermediate mode, it is possible to more finely adjust the beverage extraction pressure and generate various undiluted undiluted solutions.

[0022]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, the hot water pump control means reduces the amount of hot water supplied into the cylinder per unit time at the time of undiluted solution extraction, thereby extracting the hot water in the cylinder. Espresso coffee with crema can be produced by lowering the undiluted solution pressure and producing a transparent coffee without bubbles and by increasing the hot water supply amount per unit time by increasing the hot water supply volume per unit time. Can be generated. Therefore, regular coffee and espresso coffee can be generated by one beverage extraction device, and the cost can be significantly reduced as compared with the case where the regular coffee extraction machine and the espresso coffee extraction machine are provided side by side.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, by controlling the number of revolutions of the pump drive motor of the hot water pump, the amount of hot water supplied into the cylinder per unit time can be changed, thereby changing the pressure of the extract solution. it can.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory view schematically showing a beverage extraction device in a partial cross section.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a control system of the hot water pump.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a control operation of the hot water pump.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF REFERENCE NUMERALS 1: cup-type beverage vending machine, 10: beverage extraction device, 1
1 ... cylinder, 12 ... piston, 13 ... filter, 14
... Filter block, 15 ... Extraction liquid discharge pipe, 20 ... Hot water pump, 21 ... Pump drive motor, 22 ... Power supply, 23 ...
Motor drive circuit, 24 hot water pump controller, 40 hot water tank, 41 hot water supply pipe, 43 hot water nozzle

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A raw material is charged into a cylinder, the upper opening of the cylinder is sealed, and then hot water is supplied to the cylinder by a hot water pump under pressure, whereby the undiluted solution is filtered through a filter covering the lower opening of the cylinder. A beverage extraction device, comprising: a hot water pump control means for varying a supply amount of hot water into a cylinder per unit time by the hot water pump. 2. The beverage brewing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said hot water pump control means controls a rotation speed of a pump drive motor of the hot water pump.