JPH0572218B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a coffee boiler having a coffee bean grinding function.

(Prior Art) Conventionally, there is a fully automatic coffee brewer in which a coffee bean grinding mechanism and a dripping mechanism are integrated, and the coffee brewing mechanism is automatically switched to the dripping mechanism after coffee beans are ground. An example of this is shown in FIGS. 3 to 6. This coffee boiler integrates a coffee bean grinding chamber equipped with a coffee bean grinding cutter 3 driven and rotated by a motor 2, and a basket 9 forming a filtration chamber in which an extract and a residue are separated by a filter 4. A suitable amount of coffee is put into the grinding chamber of the container 1, and a container lid 10 is fitted to prevent the coffee beans from flying out of the container 1 during grinding, and the coffee beans are placed in a predetermined position inside the main body 11. After grinding the coffee beans with the cutter 3 for a certain period of time, the water stored in the tank 5 is introduced into the water pipe 8 formed integrally with the heater 7 via the check valve 6, and the introduced water is heated. The steam pressure generated by this process pushes up the hot water, guides it to the discharge pipe 8' located above the basket 9, and pours the hot water into the basket 9 from the discharge pipe 8' to obtain coffee extract. be.

In the above operation, in order to prevent the coffee beans from flying out when grinding the coffee beans, the main body 11
Beans cannot be crushed unless the main body 11 is completely covered by closing the main body cover 12 as shown by the arrow in FIG. Its structure consists of a container lid 10
Place the covered container at a predetermined position inside the main body 11,
When the main body cover 12 is closed, the protrusion 12' provided on the main body cover 12 pushes the lever shaft 13 via the protrusion 10' on the container lid 10, and the contacts 14 and 15 are closed, thereby closing the container 1 and the container lid. 10 is in a normal installation state. This detection means is a lid detection means 21 which will be described later. Unless the container 1 and container lid 10 are properly installed, coffee beans cannot be ground.

By the way, recently, many coffee brewers are equipped with a built-in timer that allows the user to freely set the time for grinding coffee beans, so that the user can drink coffee right away when he or she wakes up in the morning or returns home from an outing. ing.

An operational block diagram of a conventional example using such a timer is shown in FIG. 7, and an explanatory diagram of its operation is shown in FIG.

In FIG. 7, 20 is a switch that is operated when immediately grinding coffee beans, 21 is the aforementioned lid detection means, 22 is a motor control means that controls the motor 2, and 23 is a switch that is operated when the switch 20 is operated. immediate operation determining means for checking the information of the lid detection means 21 and outputting an on/off signal to the motor control means 22; 24 is an operation start time setting means for setting the time to start grinding coffee beans at an arbitrary time; 25
Reference numeral 26 indicates time measurement means for measuring the time up to the time set by the operation start time setting means, 26 indicates time measurement start means for starting the operation of this time measurement means 25, and 27 indicates whether or not the set time has arrived. This is an operation start time determining means for determining.

With this configuration, when the switch 20 is operated to instantaneously grind coffee beans, the immediate operation determining means 23 checks the information from the lid detecting means 21, and if normal, sends a motor-on signal to the motor control means 22. The motor 2 starts operating. However, if the condition is not normal, the motor 2 will not operate. In addition, when grinding coffee beans at an arbitrary time using a timer, the operation start time setting means 2
After setting the desired time in step 4, when the time measurement start means 26 is operated, the time measurement means 25 starts measuring the time up to the set time. Based on this measured time, the operation start time determining means 27 determines whether or not it has reached the set time, and only measures the time until the set time, and only at the set time, the immediate operation determining means 23 Accordingly, the information of the lid detection means 21 is checked.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) When we investigated the actual usage of the device configured as described above, we found that when a timer was used, even though the time for grinding coffee beans was set, the container was inadvertently crushed. 1 and the container lid 10 are not properly installed on the main body 11, it often happens that no pulverization is performed at all, and this fact becomes apparent only after a predetermined time has elapsed. That is, when a timer is used, there is a problem in that it is not known whether or not normal operation is being performed until the set time has elapsed.

(Means for Solving the Problems) In order to solve these problems, the present invention provides a coffee boiler configured as described above, in which the grinding operation of raw materials is performed at an arbitrary time. An operation start state determining means is provided that constantly checks information from the lid detecting means from the time the means is operated until a predetermined time elapses, and a notification means is provided for notifying based on the outputs of the immediate operation determining means and the operation start state determining means. It is something.

(Function) With this configuration, even when the coffee bean grinding operation is performed using a timer, the operation start state determining means always checks the information of the lid detection means after the time measurement start means is operated. It is possible to determine whether or not the coffee beans are in a normal state in which grinding can be performed even before the set time has elapsed, and to inform the user using the notification means.

(Embodiment) Fig. 1 is an operational block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is an explanatory diagram of its operation, and the mechanical structure is shown in Fig. 3.
It is similar to the conventional coffee brewer shown in Figures 6 to 6, and in Figure 1, Figures 7 and 8
Components similar to those in the conventional example shown in the figure are denoted by the same reference numerals, and explanations of these components will be omitted. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 28 indicates the grinding operation of coffee beans at an arbitrary time, so after setting the desired time using the operation start time setting means 24, the time measuring start means 26 is operated, and after that the raw material grinding operation is started. 29 is an operation start state determination means that constantly checks information from the lid detection means 21 until the operation is completed.
The notification means includes a light emitting diode, another display element, a buzzer, etc., which notifies the user based on the outputs of the immediate operation determining means 23 and the operation start state determining means 28.

In the apparatus configured as described above, a case will be described in which coffee beans are ground at an arbitrary time. When the operation start time setting means 24 sets the desired time for grinding coffee beans and the time measurement start means 26 is operated to start the timer operation, the operation start state determination means 28 uses the information from the lid detection means 21. If the lid is in a normal state, the time measuring means 25 starts measuring the time up to the set time. However, if the information from the lid detection means 21 indicates that the lid is not in a normal state, the operation start state determination means 28 outputs an output from the notification means 2.
9 gives a notification, and the time measuring means 25 does not start measuring time. Further, even if the information of the lid detection means 21 is normal when the timer operation starts, if the information of the lid detection means 21 becomes abnormal during the time measurement process by the time measurement means 25, the output of the operation start state determination means 28 A notification is given by the notification means 29, and time measurement is stopped at that point.
When grinding coffee beans immediately, the immediate operation determination means 23 checks the information from the lid detection means 21, and if it is normal, it starts grinding the coffee beans, but if it is not normal, it is notified by the notification means 29. In order to carry out the coffee bean grinding operation using a timer, the information of the lid detection means 21 is constantly checked from the time when the timer operation starts until the grinding is completed. Therefore, the user can know whether or not the device is ready for normal operation at any time after the timer operation starts.

As mentioned above, in this embodiment, the lid detection means 2
1 is checked, and if the condition is not normal, the notification means 29 notifies the user using sound, light, etc., so that the abnormal condition can be more accurately notified to the user.

(Effects of the Invention) As described above, according to the present invention, even when the coffee bean grinding operation is performed at a desired time by the timer operation, the information of the lid detection means is always checked after the time measurement means is operated, and the normal state is detected. If not, it will notify you, so you can know whether normal operation is being performed even if the set time is not reached, and coffee beans will not be ground until it is set as in the past. This eliminates the inconvenience of finding out.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is an operational block diagram of the embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of the operation of the embodiment of FIG. 1, FIGS. 3 and 4 are perspective views of an example of a conventional coffee brewer, and FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken along the line A-B-C in FIG. 4, FIG. 6 is a sectional view taken along the line D-E-B-C in FIG. 4, FIG. 7 is an operational block diagram of a conventional coffee brewer, and FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram of the operation shown in FIG. 7. FIG. 1...Container, 2...Motor, 3...Katsuta, 1
0... Container lid, 11... Main body, 21... Lid detection means, 23... Immediate operation determination means, 24... Operation start setting means, 25... Time measuring means, 26...
. . . Time measurement start means, 27 . . . Operation start time determination means, 28 . . . Operation start state determination means, 29 . . . Notification means.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A container containing a raw material crushing cutter driven and rotated by a motor provided in the main body, a lid for sealing the container, a lid detection means for detecting whether or not the lid is installed normally; a motor control means; an immediate operation determination means for examining information from the lid detection means and outputting an on/off signal to the motor control means; an operation start time setting means for setting the time, a time measurement means for measuring the time up to the time set by the operation start time setting means, a time measurement start means for starting the operation of the time measurement means; In a coffee boiler equipped with an operation start determination means for determining whether the time has come, the raw material crushing operation is completed after the time measuring start means is operated in order to perform the raw material crushing operation at any time. A coffee machine characterized by comprising: an operation start state determining means that constantly checks information from the lid detecting means; and an informing means for notifying based on the output of the operation start state determining means and the instant action determining means. Boiler.