JPH073674B2 - Raw material agitation method for cup-type beverage vending machines - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a raw material stirring method for a cup-type beverage vending machine that sells hot beverages prepared by adding hot water to powder raw materials such as coffee in a cup for sale. Regarding

[Prior art and its problems]

First, the general structure of the conventional cup-type drink vending machine will be described with reference to FIG. In the figure, 1 is a powder raw material box for storing various powder raw materials by type, 2 is a hot water tank, 3 is a cold water tank, 4 is an ice maker, 5 is a cup supply mechanism that stores a large number of cups 6, and 7a is a product outlet. It is a bend stage that communicates, and a cup type beverage vending machine is configured by arranging these main parts in a cabinet.

With this configuration, when a hot drink sales order is given,
First, one cup 6 is delivered from the cup supply mechanism 5 to the bend stage 7a via the cup shooter 5a. Subsequently, a predetermined amount of powder raw material is discharged from the selected type of powder raw material box 1 through the raw material shooter 1a into a mixing bowl as a raw material stirring mechanism shown by reference numeral 8 and a hot water supply valve 2a of the hot water tank 2 is provided.
Is opened and hot water is supplied into the mixing bowl 8 through the hot water supply hose 2b, where the powder raw material and hot water are stirred to prepare a hot beverage. Further, the beverage prepared by stirring and mixing is poured into the cup 6 by flowing down the hose 9 from the mixing bowl 8.

In the conventional cup-type beverage vending machine that mixes beverages with powdered raw materials as described above, the cup 6 is carried out to the bend stage and made to stand by in response to the sales instruction, and the raw material stirring mechanism is used to mix the powdered raw materials and hot and cold water at different positions. It is composed by adopting a method in which it is supplied to a mixing bowl of, and mixed by stirring to prepare a beverage, and the beverage is poured from a raw material stirring mechanism through a beverage hose into a cup carried to a bend stage for sale. ing. However, such a cup-type beverage vending machine has the following problems. That is,
During the process of blending and supplying beverages, the undissolved residue of the beverage remains inside the mixing bowl of the raw material agitation mechanism and the beverage hose that follows it. Bacteria are generated and proliferate, and this causes a hygiene problem that the beverage is mixed at the time of the next beverage sales. For this reason, in the past, the above-mentioned problem was dealt with by frequently cleaning the raw material stirring mechanism and the beverage hose, but this cleaning operation was troublesome and time-consuming, and therefore there was a problem in sales management. .

On the other hand, as a sales method for solving the above problems, a powder raw material cup containing a powder raw material contained in the cup in advance is housed in the cup supply mechanism, and the powder raw material carried out from the cup supply mechanism to the bend stage in response to a sales instruction. A selling method in which hot water is directly injected into the containing cup and the powder raw material and hot water are mixed by stirring with the raw material stirring means to prepare a drink, or the cup taken out from the cup supply mechanism is received and the product outlet Equipped with a cup transfer mechanism to transfer the powder raw material and hot water directly into the cup in the course of the cup transfer process, and then the powder raw material and hot water are stirred and mixed in the cup in the same manner as in the above method. There is proposed a sales system in which the above is mixed. According to such a sales method, the raw material is directly stirred in the cup, which eliminates the need for the mixing bowl shown in FIG. 6 and the beverage hose following it, which results in a sanitary problem due to the remaining residue of the beverage residue. Is eliminated. However, the stirring in this system is a system in which the powder raw material is directly melted by the hot water sprayed from the nozzle, and the powder raw material near the nozzle spray point is melted by the spray pressure of the nozzle and the water flow generated by the pressure. Therefore, if the injection pressure and the injection flow rate are large, the stirring force is strong and the powder raw material at the bottom of the cup can be dissolved, but the bubbles generated during stirring are also increased, and the quality of the finished beverage is deteriorated. On the other hand, when the injection pressure and the injection flow rate are small, the bubbles generated are small, but the stirring force is weak and it becomes difficult to dissolve the powder raw material at the bottom of the cup. Therefore, the adoption of this method is limited to powder raw materials having relatively high solubility and low foaming.

[Object of the Invention]

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, targeting the raw material stirring device of the cup type beverage vending machine by the above-mentioned raw material stirring method in the cup, the problem of hygiene aspects by improving the stirring method It is an object of the present invention to provide a raw material stirring method capable of solving the above problems and cooking a beverage with less foaming.

[Main points of the invention]

The present invention has the above object of first flowing a small amount of hot water or water into a cup, and then introducing a predetermined amount of powder raw material into the cup,
After that, it is intended to achieve this by a raw material stirring method of a cup type vending machine in which a predetermined amount of hot water is intermittently injected from a nozzle into the cup. It should be noted that a certain amount of hot water 3 to 5 times
It is recommended to pour the water in divided times, and if the central axis of the nozzle is within 15 ° with respect to the vertical line, the angle of incidence of the water between the pouring direction of the nozzle and the inner wall surface of the cup as viewed from above the cup is 30 ° to 60 °. It is more preferable to use a nozzle attached so that the position where the poured hot water collides with the inner wall surface of the cup is 5 mm to 25 mm higher than the bottom surface of the cup. Then, it is intended to improve the stirring effect with less foaming and to maintain hygiene.

Example of Invention

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 1 to 5 showing an embodiment of the present invention. First, referring to FIG. 5, the overall structure of a cup type beverage vending machine to which the embodiment of the present invention is applied will be described. Reference numeral 12 is a cabinet of the vending machine, and a product outlet 7 is opened at the front door thereof. On the other hand, a powder raw material box 1 containing various powder raw materials, a hot water tank 2, a cold water tank 3, an ice maker 4, and a cup supply mechanism 5 are installed side by side as shown in the figure above the cabinet 12 and a water cooling tank. 11 is provided in the lower part of the refrigerator together with the refrigerator 10.
Further, the above-mentioned cup supply mechanism 5 and various types are connected on the way of the movement path of the cup transfer mechanism 13 which is a horizontally movable conveyor in the warehouse by connecting the area from the cup unloading end of the cup supply mechanism 5 to the product outlet 7. A front hot water nozzle 16, a stirring nozzle 17, and a cold water nozzle 14 are arranged side by side in this order together with the powder raw material box 1. The central axis of the stirring nozzle 17 has an angle of 10 degrees with respect to the perpendicular when viewed from the side as shown in FIG. 3 (a), and when viewed from above, it is shown in FIG. 3 (b). As shown, the projection line of the central axis of the stirring nozzle 17 to the bottom surface of the cup does not pass through the center and intersects with the circumference of the bottom of the cup at two points, and the arrival point of the hot water sprayed by the nozzle 17 is about 15 mm from the bottom of the cup. It is fixed so that.
When a sales instruction is given in such a configuration, first, one cup 6 is carried out from the cup supply mechanism 5 to a point A on the conveyor of the cup transport mechanism 13. Subsequently, the cup supply mechanism 13 is started to transfer the cup 6 to a predetermined point B immediately below the raw material shooter 1a and temporarily stop it, and the hot water supply valve 2c is opened and the hot water supply hose 2e opens the nozzle 6 for about 5cc from the front hot water nozzle 16. A small amount of hot water is poured into the cup 6 ((1) in FIG. 1), and then the powder raw material of the selected beverage is carried out from the powder raw material box 1 and put into the cup 6 through the raw material shooter 1a ( (2) of FIG. Next, when the cup transport mechanism 13 transfers the cup 6 to the point C, as shown in the time chart of FIG. 2, the hot water supply valve 2d is opened for 0.7 seconds and closed for 0.5 seconds, and the cycle is repeated 4 times. 6
It is intermittently injected into the inside and stirred with the powder raw material ((3) to (6) in FIG. 1). When the beverage preparation is completed in this way, the cup transport mechanism 13 starts moving again, transfers the cup 6 containing the beverage to the desired point D at the product outlet 7 and stops it, whereby the selling operation ends. To do. The series of sales operations are program-controlled by a command from a controller (not shown). Next, the action of stirring in the present invention will be described. The hot water injected into the cup by the stirring nozzle rushes into the powder raw material, and while flowing away the powder raw material, a water flow around the inner wall of the cup is formed, and the powder raw material in the cup is melted from above. If the pouring of the hot water is continued, the powder raw materials in the lower part can be sequentially dissolved. However, since there is a limit on the amount of hot water to be poured for one cup, this method alone is not sufficient to dissolve the powder raw material remaining at the cup bottom. Therefore, by pouring hot water or water into the bottom of the powder raw material in advance and improving the wettability of the powder raw material at the bottom of the cup, it is easy to join the flow of hot water that has melted the powder raw material from the top, and stirring Improve the effect. Next, the effect of suppressing bubbles by this method will be described. The reason for generating bubbles is that when the hot water poured into the cup by the stirring nozzle rushes into the liquid surface, air is entrained and bubbles are generated around the air. In particular, it is considered that a very small amount of gas phase exists on the surface of the powder raw material which is not sufficiently dissolved in the liquid, and this gas phase is combined with the bubbles to form larger bubbles. Therefore, if hot water is intermittently injected from the stirring nozzle, the powder raw material is dissolved at the time of hot water injection and bubbles are generated, but the powder raw material is melted by the inertia of the flow without newly generating bubbles at the time of suspension of injection, Since the source of bubbles is reduced due to the dissolution of the powder raw material, the generation of bubbles can be significantly suppressed when pouring hot water next time, as compared with continuous pouring. The findings of the inventor's coffee stirring experiment are as follows. Comparing the case where a small amount of hot water was added before the powder raw material was put into the cup and the case where it was not added, stirring was sufficiently achieved when it was added, but when not added, the temperature was 70 ° C. ~
When it is as low as 80 °, the stirring becomes insufficient. Examining the flow rate of the hot water injected from the stirring nozzle at 3.3 / min and 1.6 / min, it was found that stirring was sufficient when 3.3 / min.
At 1.6 / min, stirring was insufficient. The stirring nozzle is installed at an angle of 5 °, 10 °, and 15 ° with respect to the vertical line of the cup. In all cases, there is no difference in stirring ability, but the angle is 15 °.
There is a lot of foaming at ゜. At the mounting position of the stirring nozzle viewed from above, as shown in FIG. 4, the incident angle at which the hot water injected from the nozzle collides with the inner wall surface of the cup when viewed from above is 0 °,
As a result of examination at 45 ° and 90 °, when the incident angle is 90 °, the stirring effect is insufficient and the others are good. Regarding foaming, the larger the incident angle, the less the generation of bubbles. When the height at the point where the hot water injected from the stirring nozzle hits the inner wall surface of the cup is set to 0 mm, 15 mm, and 40 mm, 0 mm, 40 mm,
In, the stirring was insufficient, 15 mm was sufficient, and foaming was the opposite. When the total amount of hot water poured from the stirring nozzle was made the same, and the number of times of injection was divided into 1, 2, 4, and 6 times and the stirring effect and foaming were examined, the stirring power was good up to 4 times, and there were many cases of foaming. There was less foaming. The following table summarizes the above results.

[Effects of the Invention] The present invention is a beverage stirring method in which hot water is injected using a nozzle into a cup in which powder raw materials are charged, and a beverage is prepared by mixing and stirring the hot water and powder raw materials. Since the parts other than the cup can be mixed and stirred without contact, the problem of hygiene can be solved. In addition, a small amount of hot water or water is poured into the bottom of the cup in advance, and by pouring the powder raw material on it, the wettability of the bottom of the powder raw material is improved, and the flow of the hot water injected from the stirring nozzle causes the bottom of the cup to flow. A certain powdered raw material easily merges with each other to improve the stirring effect, and by intermittently injecting hot water from the stirring nozzle, the undissolved powdered raw material, which is one of the factors that causes bubbles during the suspension of the injection, is stirred and dissolved by the flow inertia. The generation of bubbles can be suppressed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 to FIG. 5 are drawings showing an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1 is an explanatory view showing a stirring method in the order of steps thereof, and (1) is a small amount of hot water injection ( 2) is raw material injection, 3 is hot water injection, 4 is hot water injection, 5 is hot water injection, and 6 is hot water injection. 6 is completed. Fig. 2 is a time chart of the hot water injection hot water supply valve, and Fig. 3 is a stirring nozzle. 5A and 5B are views showing the mounting positions of the stirring nozzle, FIG. 4A is a front view and FIG. 4B is a top view of the stirring nozzle, and FIG. FIG. 6 is an overall configuration diagram of a cup type beverage vending machine to which the present invention is applied, and FIG. 6 is an overall configuration diagram of a cup type beverage vending machine showing a conventional example. 1 ... Powder raw material box, 1a ... Raw material shooter, 2 ... Hot water tank, 2c, 2d ... Hot water supply valve, 2e, 2f ... Hot water supply hose, 3 ... Cold water tank, 4 ... Ice machine, 5 ... Cup supply mechanism, 6 ... Cup, 7 ... Commodity outlet, 7a ... Bend stage, 10 ...
… Refrigerator, 11 …… Water cooler, 12 …… Cabinet, 13
...... Cup transport mechanism, 14 …… Cooling nozzle, 16 …… Pre-hot water nozzle, 17 …… Stirring nozzle.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A raw material stirring method for a cup-type beverage vending machine, which mixes and stirs powdered raw materials in a cup to prepare a beverage. First, a small amount of hot water or water is put in the cup, and then a predetermined amount of A raw material stirring method for a cup-type vending machine, comprising pouring a powdered raw material into a cup and then intermittently injecting a predetermined amount of hot water into the cup from a nozzle. 2. A raw material stirring method for a cup-type vending machine according to claim 1, wherein a predetermined amount of hot water is injected in 3 to 5 times. 3. The nozzle according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the center axis of the nozzle is within 15 ° with respect to the vertical line, and the direction of pouring the hot water when viewed from above the cup and the cup. The angle of incidence of the hot water with the inner wall surface should be 30 ° to 60 °, and the position where the poured hot water collides with the inner wall surface of the cup should be 5 mm to 25 mm above the bottom surface of the cup. Characteristic stirring method for cup-type beverage vending machines.