JPH0116491B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a coffee mill configured to grind coffee beans by rotating cutters.

In a coffee mill, a cutter is placed inside a case in which coffee beans are stored, and this cutter is rotated by a motor to grind the coffee beans and obtain coffee powder. In the past, the time required to mill coffee beans to a state suitable for extraction of coffee liquid is relatively short, and therefore, even if the milling time differs by only a few seconds, the particle size of the coffee beans obtained by the mill can be increased. It has the property of changing. For this reason,
When changing and setting the milling time depending on the amount of coffee beans, etc., it is desirable to set the milling time as accurately as possible. However, such coffee mills have conventionally been configured to energize the motor only while a manual switch is turned on, or to set the energization time of the motor to an arbitrary time using a clockwork timer. According to
This makes it possible to obtain coffee powder milled to a desired coarseness. However, the former configuration using a manual switch has the disadvantage that the mill time (motor energization time) is influenced by the operator's intuition and is not constant; The problem was that it became inaccurate, and the Yabari mill time became inconsistent.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a structure that performs a milling operation of grinding coffee beans using a cutter, but allows the milling operation to be performed accurately for a desired amount of time, and also to simplify the operation. To provide a coffee grinder that can be used to obtain a coffee grinder with almost no risk of erroneous operation.

Hereinafter, an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a coffee maker having a mill mechanism will be described with reference to the drawings.

First, the overall structure of the coffee maker will be described according to FIG. Reference numeral 1 denotes a container body, which includes a mill mechanism 2, a drip mechanism 3 which is a hot water supply mechanism that drips hot water into ground coffee powder to produce coffee liquid, and a cup 4 that stores the generated coffee liquid. These will be explained in detail below. That is, a motor storage part 5 and a cup mounting table 6 are formed on both left and right sides of the lower half of the container 1, and a case mounting part 7 and a water storage tank 8 are formed on both left and right sides of the upper half.
are formed respectively. Reference numeral 9 denotes a heating plate disposed in close contact with the lower surface of the heat insulating plate 6a attached to the cup mounting table 6, in which an electric heater such as a sheathed heater 10 and a heating pipe 1 are buried in parallel, and one end of this heating pipe 11 Extend the part upwards to the water storage tank 8.
The water supply pipe 12 is connected to a water outlet (not shown), and the other end is extended to the upper part of the case mounting part 7 to form a hot water supply pipe 13. Reference numeral 14 denotes a case attached to the case attachment part 7, which is common to both the mill mechanism 2 and the drip mechanism 3 described above. The drive shaft 16 is rotatably and watertightly inserted therethrough. A cutter 17 for grinding coffee beans is attached to the upper end of the drive shaft 16, and a joint 18 is attached to the lower end, and this joint 18 is connected to the joint 20 of the motor 19 arranged in the motor housing 5. It's forcing me. 21 is a frame-shaped filter support 22 inside the case 14, and a cutter 17 is connected to the watertight member 23.
This is a filtration filter mounted below the coffee grinder, which receives the coffee powder ground by the cutter 17. Reference numeral 24 denotes an extraction port formed in the bottom wall 14a of the case 14, which corresponds to the cup mounting table 6 from above. Reference numeral 25 denotes a lid removably attached to the upper opening of the case 14, which has an annular wall 25a protruding from its approximate center and a pouring hole located inside the wall 25a. 2
5b is formed. Reference numeral 26 denotes a lid body, which is removably attached to the case mounting portion 7, which is the top opening of the container body 1, and the top opening of the water storage tank 8. Reference numeral 27 denotes a temperature regulating bimetal switch attached to the lower surface of the heating plate 9, by which the temperature of the heating plate 9 is controlled to a predetermined value.

Now, FIG. 2 shows only the portions of the electric circuit configuration of the above-mentioned coffee maker that are directly related to the gist of the present invention, and will be described below. That is, 28 is an AC power supply, and a triax 29 as a switching element and a series circuit of the motor 19 are connected between both terminals of the AC power supply. 30 is a pulse generator, which consists of a shaping circuit 31 that shapes the output of the AC power source 28, and a frequency dividing circuit 32 that divides the frequency of the output of this shaping circuit 31, and the frequency dividing circuit 32 has a frequency of, for example, 1 Hz. The configuration is such that it outputs a counting pulse Pc. Reference numeral 33 denotes a set switch that is turned on only in the manual operation state, and only when this switch is turned on, a high level signal is applied to one input terminal of the AND circuit 34 via line _L1 .
The AND circuit 34 is connected to the other input terminal to receive the counting pulse Pc,
Therefore, this AND circuit 34 is the set switch 33
The counting pulse Pc is passed only during the ON operation period. 35 is a hexadecimal up counter that constitutes a counting means, which adds and counts the counting pulses Pc inputted through the AND circuit 34, stores the counting results, and outputs the counting contents as a digital signal Sn. do. Reference numeral 36 denotes, for example, a two-digit digital display made of a seven-segment light emitting diode or the like, which receives the digital signal Sn and displays a corresponding numerical value. 37 is a start switch that is turned on only during manual operation.
When this is turned on, a high level signal is applied to the control terminal 38a of the transfer gate 38 via the line _L2 . The transfer gate 38 exhibits a low impedance only when a high level signal is input to its control terminal 38a, allowing the signal to pass through. 39 is a down counter with a preset function constituting a counting means, and when a digital signal is input to its data input terminal D, this presets a numerical value corresponding to the input digital signal, and also presets a numerical value corresponding to the input digital signal. The configuration is such that the preset value is subtracted from the preset value each time a pulse is input. moreover,
This down counter 39 is configured to output an operation command signal So consisting of a high level signal during a period when the count value is other than "0", for example.
The output terminal P of the down counter 39 is connected to the gate of the triac 29 via a buffer amplifier 40. Also, down counter 3
9 data input terminal D is transfer gate 38
The clock input terminal ck is connected to the output terminal of the AND circuit 41. One input terminal of the AND circuit 41 is connected to receive the counting pulse Pc, and the other input terminal is connected to receive the operation command signal So. The set switch 33, start switch 37, and digital display 36 described above are arranged on the side of the container 1, for example, as shown in FIG.

Next, the operation of this embodiment having the above configuration will be explained. When producing coffee liquid, water storage tank 8
For Case 1, add enough water for the desired number of people.
4 respectively store coffee beans in corresponding amounts, first, a power switch (not shown) is turned on, and a set switch 33 is turned on and kept in the on state. Then, the counting pulse Pc from the pulse generator 30 is output to the AND circuit 34.
is applied to the up counter 35 via the up counter 35, which adds and counts the counting pulse Pc, and the content of the count is output as a digital signal Sn. At this time, the numerical value corresponding to the digital signal Sn is displayed on the digital display 36 as "0" →
Since the numbers are displayed in increasing order as "1" → "2" → "3"..., the operator can release the ON operation of the set switch 33 when the display reaches an arbitrary value such as "10". do. When the ON operation of the set switch 33 is released in this way, the line
When the high level signal is no longer output to L ₁ , AND
Since the circuit 34 prevents the counting pulse Pc from passing, the up counter 35 stops the counting operation and stores the counted value "10" as the counting result, and also stores the counted value "10" corresponding to the counted value "10". Outputs the digital signal Sn. Therefore, at this time, the digital display 36 continues to display "10". After that, when the start switch 37 is turned on, the transfer gate 38 enters a state where the signal is allowed to pass, and the up counter 35
The digital signal Sn stored in the down counter 3
9, the down counter 39 receives the input digital signal Sn.
In addition to presetting the numerical value "10" corresponding to
An operation command signal So is output from the output terminal P. Then, this operation command signal So is sent to the buffer lamp 4.
0 is turned on and the motor 19 is energized, so the cutter 1
7 is rotated and grinding of the coffee beans in the case 14 is started. At the same time, the operation command signal So is applied to one input terminal of the AND circuit 41, and the counting pulse Pc applied to the other input terminal of the AND circuit 41 passes through it. The down counter 39, which receives the counting pulse Pc at its clock input terminal ck, starts a subtractive counting operation. Such a subtraction counting operation is started with the preset value "10" as a reference, and the counted value is "10" → "9" → "8"...
...and gradually decrease. When the count value of the down counter 39 reaches "0", a low level signal is output from the output terminal P instead of the operation command signal So, so the triax 29 is turned off and the cutter 17 is rotated. stops, and at the same time the grinding of coffee beans is completed,
The AND circuit 41 becomes inactive, and the input of the counting pulse Pc to the down counter 39 is stopped. Therefore, the time it takes for the count value of the down counter 39 to go from "10" to "0" is 10 seconds because the output cycle of the count pulse Pc is 1 Hz.
Therefore, the time for grinding coffee beans (mill time) as described above is controlled to 10 seconds. After the coffee beans are ground in this way, the cup 4 is placed on the cup mounting table 6.
When the cup 4 is placed on the heat insulating plate 6a, the upper opening of the cup 4 corresponds to the extraction port 24 of the case 14. Then, when a hot water supply operation switch (not shown) is turned on, the sheathed heater 10 is energized via the bimetal switch 27 and starts to generate heat.
Based on this, the cup 4 is preheated by the heat insulating plate 6a, and the water supply pipe 12 is connected to the water storage tank 8.
The water supplied through the heating pipe 11 is heated to produce hot water. The hot water thus generated rises up the hot water supply pipe 13 due to its boiling pressure, is supplied to the inside of the wall 25a of the lid 25 from the hot water supply port 13a at the tip thereof, and is fed into the case 14 from the hot water pouring hole 25b. The hot water is then supplied dropwise to the hot water supply (drip). Further, the hot water supplied into the case 14 passes through the coffee powder and the filter 21 to be extracted as coffee liquid, and the coffee liquid flows down from the extraction port 24 of the case 14 and is stored in the cup 4. Then, when all the water in the water storage tank 8 is consumed, the coffee liquid extraction is completed.

Note that the functional parts shown in FIG. 2 may be configured by a microcomputer.

In addition, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above and shown in the drawings, and can be implemented with appropriate modifications without departing from the gist thereof.

According to the present invention, the following effects can be obtained in a coffee mill configured to drive cutters by a motor to grind coffee beans. That is, if a desired value is memorized by operating the set switch and then the start switch is operated, the cutter driving motor is energized for the time corresponding to the memorized value as described above.
It is possible to precisely mill coffee beans using a cutter for a desired amount of time, and especially in this case, the time required for the milling operation can be set in detail using the period of the periodically outputted counting pulse as the minimum unit. , the settings become even more accurate. Moreover, since the mill operating time can be selected as desired simply by operating the set switch, the operation is simplified and there is almost no possibility of erroneous operation.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

The drawings relate to one embodiment of the present invention.
The figure is a longitudinal sectional view of the coffee maker, and FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the electrical configuration of the main parts. In the figure, 17 is a cutter, 19 is a motor, 29 is a triax (switching element), 30 is a pulse generator, 33 is a set switch, 35 is an up counter (counting means), 37 is a start switch,
39 is a down counter (counting means), Pc is a counting pulse, and So is an operation command signal.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In a device that grinds coffee beans by rotating a cutter, a switching element that is turned on during the input period of an operation command signal to energize a motor for driving the cutter, a pulse generator that periodically outputs counting pulses, and a set switch. Counting the counting pulses only during the operation period and storing the counting results, and counting the counting pulses in response to the operation of the start switch, and performing the operations for a period until the counted value has a predetermined relationship with the stored result. A coffee mill comprising: counting means for applying a command signal to the switching element.