JPH0570451B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to a tea dispensing device that can easily extract tea of any concentration. It is also applicable to coffee extraction.

(Prior Art) A common method for preparing Japanese tea is to put tea leaves in a teapot, pour hot water over the teapot, and then strain the tea leaves at an appropriate time while pouring them into a teacup. Therefore, the concentration of extracted tea must depend solely on the sense of the person who brews the tea.
There is a huge variation in the concentration and flavor of brewed tea. In addition, the above operations are troublesome, and in recent years the demand for Japanese tea has reached a plateau.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, and provides a tea serving device that can brew tea of a desired concentration with simple operation. The purpose is to

Another object of the present invention is to provide a tea serving device that can automatically brew tea of a desired concentration.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a tea serving device that can be used not only to brew Japanese tea and black tea but also to brew coffee.

(Means for Solving the Problems) The present invention supports a tea bag and a tea bag that stores water and boils the water, and allows the hot water in the tea bag sent by a fuel pump to pass through the tea bag. A brewing plate for extracting tea, a brewing pot for receiving the tea extracted in the brewing plate, a circulation pump for passing the tea in the brewing pot back through the tea bag on the brewing plate and returning it to the brewing pot, and a circulation pump for returning the tea in the brewing pot to the brewing pot. It is characterized by having a tea supply valve that discharges the water.

A concentration sensor may be provided in the tea circulation path of the circulation pump, and the circulation pump may be stopped when the tea concentration in the circulation path reaches a predetermined concentration.

The concentration of tea may be arbitrarily converted by converting the comparison level of the concentration sensor output.

(Function) The hot water in the kettle is sent to the brewing tray, passes through the teabag, and is extracted as tea, and is once received in the brewing pot. The tea in the brewing pot is passed through the tea bag on the brewing tray by a circulation pump. As the tea circulates in this way, the concentration of the tea increases, and when the desired concentration is reached, the circulation pump is stopped. Tea of a desired concentration in the brewing pot can be received into a teacup or the like by opening the tea supply valve.

By providing a concentration sensor in the tea circulation path and stopping the circulation pump when the tea concentration reaches a predetermined concentration, tea with a constant concentration can be automatically extracted.

By making it possible to convert the comparison level of the concentration sensor output, tea of any desired concentration can be extracted.

(Example) Hereinafter, an example of the tea serving device according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

First, the outline of the tea serving device according to the present invention will be explained. In FIG. 1, a water boiling pot designated by the reference numeral 3 is used to store water and boil water.
is sent above the extraction pan 5 and discharged above the extraction pan 5. Extraction plate 5 is T-bag 60
The hot water is passed through the tea bag 60 to extract tea. The tea brewed in the brewing tray 5 is received in the brewing pot 7. The tea in the brewing pot 7 is again guided above the brewing tray 5 by the circulation pump 13 and discharged, and is passed through the tea bag 60 on the brewing tray 5 to increase its concentration. Therefore, it is only necessary to circulate the tea until the desired concentration is achieved. The tea bags 60 are sequentially supplied onto the extraction tray 5 from among a large number of tea bags 60 stored in stacks in the tea bag storage box 25 in advance. The tea bag 60 is fed by a bag feed lever 55. At the bottom of the brewing pot 7, there is a tea supply valve 11 for discharging the tea in the brewing pot 7.
is provided. A cup or teapot 23 can be placed below the extraction pot 7, and the tea valve 1
The tea discharged from 1 is received by a teapot 23 or the like. Although the tea supply valve 11 shown in FIG. 1 is a valve that is opened and closed by manual operation, it may be an electromagnetic valve that is opened and closed by a solenoid or the like.
In the explanation of the operation described below, it is assumed that an electromagnetic valve is used. Each component described above is integrally provided within the main body of the tea serving apparatus.

Next, each component will be explained in more detail. A hot water supply pipe 15 is connected to the discharge side of the hot water supply pump 9 for guiding the hot water in the water boiling pot 3 to above the brewing tray 5. Further, the bottom of the brewing pot 7 and the suction side of the circulation pump 13 are connected by a circulation pipe 17, and the discharge side of the circulation pump 13 is connected to a circulation pipe 21 for guiding the tea above the brewing plate 5. However, the tip side of the hot water supply pipe 15 and the tip side of the circulation pipe 21 are one supply circulation pipe 18.
The distal end of the supply circulation pipe 18 is open above the extraction dish 5.

As shown in FIG. 1, a part of the circulation pipe 17 is drawn into the kettle 3 and constitutes a heat exchange section 19 for warming the tea passing through the pipe 17 with the hot water in the kettle 3. are doing. Further, the other circulation pipe 21 and the hot water supply pipe 15 are provided with check valves 41 and 39 to prevent backflow. A heater 47 is provided at the bottom of the kettle 3 to boil the water stored in the kettle 3.

All or part of the hot water circulation pipe 18 is made of a transparent material, and a concentration sensor 49 is provided in this transparent portion to detect the concentration of the tea that has been extracted and received in the brewing pot 7. . The concentration sensor 49 is composed of, for example, a light emitting element and a light receiving element that receives a light beam emitted from the light emitting element and transmitted through the tea in the brewing pot 7. can be configured to detect the concentration of Note that the concentration sensor does not necessarily need to be provided at the position of the supply circulation pipe 18, and may be provided anywhere in the tea circulation path by the circulation pump 13. For example, extraction pot 7
Alternatively, the concentration of tea within the container may be detected.

In FIGS. 1 and 3, a receiving plate 28 is vertically slidably inserted into the tea bag storage box 25. As shown in FIGS. The receiving plate 28 is urged upward by a spring 29, and can rise to at least the upper end of the storage box 25. A ceiling plate 26 can be set at the upper end of the storage box 25, and with the ceiling plate 26 set, a bag supply port 27 is formed on the side surface between the ceiling plate 26 and the upper end of the main body of the storage box 25. It is starting to form. A large number of T-bags 60 can be stored in the storage box 25 in a stacked state. The T-bag 60 stored in the storage box 25 has a spring 29
Based on the urging force, the uppermost T-bag 60 is pushed up by the receiving plate 28 and pressed against the ceiling plate 26. The tea bag 60 may be in the form of a generally commercially available tea bag, or may be, for example, a dish-shaped piece of filter paper in which tea leaves are placed and further enclosed in filter paper.

1 to 3, the bag supply lever 55 is connected via a horizontal shaft to a lever support 35 that is fitted and fixed to the output shaft 34 of the bag supply and discharge motor 33. As shown in FIGS. Therefore, the lever 55 can reciprocate in the horizontal plane due to the reciprocating rotation of the motor 33, and can also rotate in the vertical plane. The rotation range of the lever 55 in the horizontal plane is from the position of the tea bag storage box 25 to passing over the tea bag tray 37 as shown in FIG. The brewing tray 5 is arranged within the rotation range of the lever 55 from the side of the tea bag storage box 25 to the side of the tea scraps receiver 37. The brewing pan 5 is installed by fitting it into the upper end of the brewing pot 7. The extraction pan 5 has a plurality of semicircular guides 52 formed concentrically at regular intervals along the rotation locus of the lever 55. The above lever 55
The outlet of the supply circulation pipe 18 is open above the center of the rotation range, and the hot water or tea discharged from this outlet flows into the guide 5 of the brewing tray 5.
It is adapted to be received into the extraction pot 7 through the gap 53 between the two.

The bag supply lever 55 has downward protrusions 56 and 57 at the front and rear in the horizontal rotation direction. This protrusion 56 passes through the window hole 31 of the ceiling plate 26 of the box 25 when the lever 55 rotates clockwise in FIG. It ran onto the top of the Tey Bug 60, climbed over it again, and fell to the rear of the Tey Bug 60. The position of the lever 55 at this time is the bag receiving position, which is detected by a predetermined sensor. Thereafter, when the lever 55 is rotated counterclockwise in FIG. 2, the uppermost tea bag 60 is hooked and moved along the guide 52 of the brewing tray 5. In this way, the position where the lever 55 moves the day bag 60 directly above the extraction pot 7 is the extraction position, and this position is detected by a predetermined sensor.
The lever 55 is further rotated counterclockwise in FIG. 2, and the tea bag 60 is moved from the extraction position toward the tea leaf receiver 37, and the position shifted from the extraction position is the heat retention position, and this position is also a predetermined position. detected by the sensor. By reversing the motor 33 from this heat retention position, it can be returned to the extraction position, and in this case, the lever 5
The protrusion 57 at the rear of 5 hooks the tea bag 60 and returns the tea bag 60 to the extraction position. The position where the lever 55 rotates counterclockwise in FIG. 2 and passes the position of the tea scraps receiver 37 is the tea scraps discharge position, and the tea bag 60, which has been used enough and has turned into tea leaves, is placed in the protrusions 56, 5 of the lever 55.
The tea leaves fall naturally from between the tea leaves 7 and are stored in the tea leaves receptacle 37. The ejection position is also detected by a predetermined sensor. The sensors for detecting the receiving position, extracting position, warming position, and discharging position described above are collectively referred to as a bag supply lever position sensor 51 (see FIG. 4).

Note that the extraction pot 7 has a handle 74. Further, the water kettle 3 has a lid 81 with a valve 83. The valve 83 has a function of releasing steam in the pot 3 to prevent the steam pressure from rising abnormally, and also has a function of preventing hot water from spilling out when the pot 3 is turned upside down.

In addition to the bag supply lever position sensor 51 and the concentration sensor 49, each part is provided with various sensors depending on its purpose. Detection signals from each sensor are input to a microcomputer (hereinafter referred to as "microcomputer"), and the pump, motor, and other components are controlled by the microcomputer according to the output of each sensor. FIG. 4 shows an example of this control system.

In FIG. 4, the water amount sensor 43 is for detecting whether the water in the kettle 3 is more than a predetermined amount. For example, it detects changes in the water surface level using a light-emitting element and a light-receiving element arranged opposite each other. It may be configured with an optical sensor that detects water, or a sensor that detects water may be used. The temperature sensor 45 detects the temperature of hot water in the kettle 3 and is provided at the bottom of the kettle 3. The tip sensor 75 is for detecting the presence or absence of a tip or the teapot 23 or the like, and is provided at a portion where the teapot 23 or the like is to be placed. The bag sensor 61 detects whether there is a tea bag 60 in the tea bag storage box 25. The bug sensor 61 may be a mechanical contact type sensor or may be an optical sensor.

The water amount sensor 43, bag sensor 61, bag supply lever position sensor 51, concentration sensor 49,
Detection signals from the tip sensor 75 and the temperature sensor 45 are input to the microcomputer 67. Signals are also input to the microcomputer 67 from a power switch 79, an extraction start switch 77, a tea supply switch 91, and a hot water amount setting means 95, which are push buttons or the like.

The microcomputer 67 controls each of the switches 77, 79,
Based on instructions from 91 and hot water amount setting means 95,
Further, based on the signals from each of the sensors, the operations of the heater 47, hot water pump 9, circulation pump 13, and bag supply and discharge motor 33 are controlled via appropriate drive circuits, and the tea supply valve 11
A tea supply solenoid 89 for opening and closing is controlled via an appropriate drive circuit. The microcomputer 67 further controls the operation of a power indicator LED 69, an alarm LED 71, and an alarm sounding body 73.

Next, the operation of the embodiment described above will be explained in conjunction with FIGS. 5 and 6.

FIG. 5 shows an outline of the operation of the above embodiment. When the start switch is pressed after setting various values such as temperature and concentration, the hot water pump 9 is started and a predetermined amount of hot water is extracted from the extraction pot. Hot water was supplied at 7.
Next, the tea bag 60 is supplied onto the extraction tray 5 by starting the bag supply and discharge motor 33, and the tea bag 60 is supported on the extraction tray 5. Next, hot water is circulated from the brew pot 7 with the circulation pump 13 started through the circulation pipes 17 and 21 and the hot water supply circulation pipe 18, and during this time, the hot water passes through the tea bag 60 on the brewing tray 5 to brew tea. Ru. Then, the concentration of the extracted tea is detected by a concentration sensor 49, and when the concentration reaches a predetermined value, the extraction is stopped. In addition, by circulating the tea while the tea bag 60 is moved to the heat retention position, that is, the position retracted from above the brewing pot 7 by the lever 55, the temperature of the tea is kept at approximately the same temperature as the hot water in the kettle 3. do. The tea thus maintained at a predetermined concentration and temperature is sent to the tea supply switch 91.
Tea is supplied to the cup or teapot 23 by pressing to drive the tea supply solenoid 89 or by manually operating the tea supply lever 92 to open the tea supply valve 11.

FIG. 6 shows the operation of the above embodiment in more detail. Now, when you set the concentration and temperature of the tea you want to brew and press the power switch 79 to turn on the power, you will see a step to determine the amount of water in the kettle 3 and a step to determine whether there is a tea bag in the tea bag storage box 25. Then, proceed to the step of turning off the circulation pump 13 and turning on the bag supply and discharge motor 33.

If the water amount sensor 43 detects that the amount of water in the kettle 3 is below a predetermined amount in the water amount judgment step, the alarm LED 69 is turned on, and
The alarm sounding body 73 is activated to issue an alarm and prompt the replenishment of water. If the amount of water is less than a predetermined amount, the heater 47 is turned on and the water in the kettle 3 is heated to boil the water. The temperature of the hot water is detected by a temperature sensor 45, and the water is heated to a preset temperature. Therefore, by setting the temperature arbitrarily, it is possible to boil water at a desired temperature.

On the other hand, when the sensor 61 detects that there is no T-bag in the T-bag storage box 25 in the step of determining the presence or absence of a bag, the alarm LED 7
This fact is displayed by flashing 1, etc., and the user is encouraged to replenish the T-bag. If there is a tea bag, the bag supply/discharge motor 33 is activated and the bag supply lever 55 is rotated to supply the tea bag onto the extraction tray 5. At this time, the bag supply motor 33 is turned on until the bag supply lever position sensor 51 detects the extraction position, and when the bag supply lever position sensor 51 reaches the extraction position, the bag supply and discharge motor 33 is turned off.

When the water is boiled in the kettle 3, the brewing start switch 77 is pressed to start brewing tea. When the extraction starts, the hot water supply pump 9 is first started to supply hot water from the water boiling pot 3 to the extraction pot 7. The amount of hot water to be supplied is determined in advance by the hot water amount setting means 95.
The time is controlled based on the value set in , and hot water is supplied until the time required to supply a predetermined amount of hot water has elapsed. However, if a flow rate sensor is used, the amount of hot water supplied can be controlled not by time control but by the flow rate itself.

By starting the extraction described above, it is also determined in which position the bag supply lever 55 is located, in other words, in which position the tea bag 60 is located. As a result of this judgment, if it is at the brewing position, the circulation pump 13 is activated at that position, and tea is extracted while passing hot water in the brewing pot 7 through the tea bag 60 on the brewing plate 5. Further, if the bag supply lever 55 is in the heat retention position, the bag supply and discharge motor 33 is started to move the bag supply lever 55 to the extraction position,
Then, the circulation pump 13 is started to brew tea. Furthermore, if the bag supply lever 55 is in the ejection position at the start of extraction, the bag 60 has been ejected from the extraction tray 5, so the bag supply and discharge motor 33 is reversed and the bag supply lever 55 is moved to the bag receiving position. The front and rear protrusions 56, 5 of the bag supply lever 55 are moved.
Accepted T-Bug 60 in 7 days. In this state, the motor 33 is rotated forward and the bag supply lever 5 is
5. Therefore, the tea bag 60 is moved to the extraction position, the motor 33 is stopped, and the process proceeds to an extraction step in which the circulation pump 13 is driven.

Tea is extracted by driving the circulation pump 13 while determining whether the concentration of the extracted tea has reached a set concentration based on the detection output of the concentration sensor 49. When the set concentration is reached, the bag supply/discharge motor 33 is started, the bag supply lever 55 is moved to the warming position, and the process proceeds to the next warming step. Note that by converting the set value of the tea concentration, the tea concentration can be arbitrarily converted to a desired concentration. For example, in the comparison section, the density can be adjusted arbitrarily by converting the comparison level, such as converting the reference level according to the density setting value or converting the actual density signal level obtained by the density sensor 49. can be converted.

In the heat retention step, the tea is circulated by the circulation pump 13, while the heat exchanger 19 raises the tea in the circulation path to a temperature equivalent to the temperature of the hot water in the kettle 3. This heat retention operation is performed only for the time necessary to raise the temperature of the tea in the circulation path to the same temperature as the hot water in the kettle 3, and when that time has elapsed, the circulation pump 13 is stopped and the heat retention operation is completed. . This heat retention operation is extremely effective for automatic water supply devices. That is, the hot water in the kettle 3 is kept at a temperature suitable for brewing tea, but as the hot water passes through the tea bag 60 on the brewing plate 5, heat is taken away by the tea bag 60 and the tea is extracted. The temperature of the tea ends up being much lower than the temperature suitable for making tea. In particular, if the T-bag 60 has already been used and is in a wet state, the temperature of the T-bag 60 will drop quickly, and the T-bag 60 will be wet.
Since the amount of heat taken away when the hot water passes through the hot water is large, the temperature of the extracted tea drops significantly. However, according to the above embodiment, after brewing tea of a predetermined concentration, the tea is heated in the kettle 3 while being circulated.
Since the temperature is kept at the same temperature as the hot water inside, it is possible to always provide delicious tea at the desired temperature.

When the above-mentioned warming operation is completed, the presence or absence of a pot is determined based on the signal from the pot sensor 75, and if there is no pot or teapot 23, an alarm is issued by lighting the alarm LED 71 and driving the alarm sounding body 73. Encourage the setting of If the hot spring etc. are set, the tea supply solenoid 89 is turned on by pressing the tea supply switch 91, and the tea supply valve 1 is turned on.
1 is opened and the tea in the brewing pot 7 is supplied to the teapot 23 or the like. Note that a regular tea bowl may be used instead of the teapot 23.

During the extraction operation driven by the circulation pump 13, the circulation time is measured, and if the predetermined concentration is not reached even after the preset circulation time has elapsed, the tea bag 60 on the extraction pan 5 has not been used sufficiently. Therefore, the circulation pump 13 is stopped, the motor 33 is started, the bag supply lever 55 is moved to the discharge position, and the tea leaves on the brewing tray 5 are discharged into the discharge box 37. Thereafter, the motor 33 is reversed to move the bag supply lever 55 to the bag receiving position, and the process returns to the bag supply step described above in which the motor 33 is driven. Thereafter, the tea serving operation is performed according to the flow described above.

According to the embodiment described above, the water kettle 3
The hot water is circulated by the circulation pump 13 and passed through the tea bag 60 to extract tea, so tea can be brewed with an extremely simple operation. In addition, since tea can be brewed while circulating hot water until it reaches a predetermined concentration, it is easy to brew tea with the desired concentration, and tea with a certain concentration can be brewed automatically based on the output of the concentration sensor 49. can be supplied.

The supply and discharge of the tea bags 60 may be performed automatically as in the illustrated embodiment, or may be performed manually. The concentration of tea may also be adjusted by visually observing the tea in the circulation path and stopping the circulation when the desired concentration is reached.

The tea dispenser according to the present invention extracts Japanese tea etc. while circulating hot water, so if a tea bag filled with regular coffee powder is used, it can also be used as an automatic coffee extractor. can.

(Effects of the Invention) According to the present invention, tea is extracted by passing hot water heated in a kettle pot through a tea bag while circulating it with a circulation pump, so tea can be brewed with an extremely simple operation. Also,
Since you only need to brew tea while circulating hot water until it reaches a predetermined concentration, you can easily brew tea with the desired concentration.

In addition, a concentration sensor is installed in the tea circulation path,
By stopping the circulation pump when the concentration of tea detected by the concentration sensor reaches a predetermined concentration, tea of a predetermined concentration can be supplied fully automatically.

Furthermore, by making it possible to arbitrarily convert the comparison level of tea concentration, it is possible to automatically extract tea of any desired concentration.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a developed front view showing an embodiment of the tea serving device according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a plan view of the same, and FIG. 3 is a developed front view showing a section of the tea bag supply and discharge mechanism in the above embodiment. FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an example of a control system applied to the above embodiment, and FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an overview of the operation of the above embodiment.
FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the operation of the above embodiment in detail. 3...Kettle of water, 5...Brewing plate, 7...
Extraction pot, 9...Hot water pump, 11...Tea supply valve, 13...Circulation pump, 49...Concentration sensor, 60...Tea bag.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A kettle pot for storing water and boiling water; and a brewing plate that supports a tea bag and allows hot water in the kettle pot sent by a hot water pump to pass through the tea bag to brew tea. a brewing pot that receives the tea extracted in the brewing tray; a circulation pump that passes the tea in the brewing pot back through the tea bag on the brewing tray and returns it to the brewing pot; and a circulation pump that discharges the tea in the brewing pot. A tea supply device comprising a tea supply valve. 2. The tea supply device according to claim 1, wherein a concentration sensor is provided in the tea circulation path of the circulation pump, and the circulation pump is stopped when the concentration of tea in the circulation path reaches a predetermined concentration. 3. The tea dispensing device according to claim 2, wherein the concentration of the tea can be arbitrarily changed by converting the comparison level of the concentration sensor output.