JPH08112205A - Beverage percolating apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To enable automatic extraction of large amounts of beverages, such as tea or coffee, by disposing percolation tanks equidistantly along a circumference on a support table, and disposing a material distributing mechanism in the center of the percolation tank arrangement, and providing hot water nozzles and cleaning water nozzles. CONSTITUTION: Percolation tanks 30 are equidistantly disposed along a circumference on a support table 25. Each tank 30 has a material introducing opening 41a provided in its upper portion, and a residue discharging bottom lid 32 in its lower portion, the bottom lid 32 having a filter 39 and an extract outlet pipe 40. A material distributing mechanism 55 having a perpendicular rotational shaft at its center introduces a material into each percolation tank 30. The percolation residue is transported from the lower portion of each tank 30 to a central portion by a movable screw conveyor 86, and then transported to the outside of the apparatus by a stationary screw conveyor 87. Each percolation tank 30 is provided with a hot water nozzle 46 fixed and directed from the opening 41a into the tank and a cleaning water nozzle 43 fixed to an upper portion of the inside surface of the tank. The apparatus is automatically controlled by a control unit.

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 for automatically extracting and producing a large amount of beverages such as tea and coffee.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An example of a conventional coffee extraction device will be described with reference to FIG. 9. First, a supply duct 1 having an opening / closing valve 1'for ground coffee beans, a filter cleaning spray nozzle 2, a tank cleaning spray. A ball 3 and a spray nozzle 4 for extraction, and an extraction tank 6 equipped with a filter 5 at an opening on the lower surface are provided, and a spray nozzle 2 for cleaning these filters, a spray pole 3 for cleaning the tank,
A hot water supply pipe 7 is connected to the extraction spray nozzle 4 via open / close valves 8 and 8 ', respectively. Further, a coffee soybean meal discharge pipe 9 is connected to the bottom opening, a coffee bean meal guide pipe 11 is connected to the tip of the soybean meal discharge pipe 9 through an opening / closing valve 10, and a coffee discharge liquid take-out pipe is provided in the middle of the coffee bean meal discharge pipe 9. 12 and the sample extraction tube 13 are connected,
A pair of open / close valves 14 and 14 'are provided at predetermined intervals in the middle of the coffee extract extraction pipe 12, and the open / close valves 14 and 1 are provided in the coffee extract extraction pipe 12.
The steam supply pipe 15 is connected between 4'and the steam supply pipe 1
5, an operation valve 16 is provided, and opening / closing valves 17 and 17 'are provided at both ends of the operation valve 16, and a compressed air supply pipe 18 is opened / closed on the top surface of the extraction tank 6 and the operation valve 16. Connect via 19. Further, a shaft 21 that moves up and down by a manual handle 20 is provided below the filter 5 and fixed to the upper end of the shaft. When the shaft 21 is raised, the filter 5 rises above the bottom of the extraction tank 6 and The lower surface opening of the tank is opened, and the filter 5 is fitted into the lower surface opening when the same is lowered, so that the filter 5 has an effect of blocking the flow of ground coffee beans and a filtering function.

In this apparatus, first, the opening / closing valve 1'is opened to store a predetermined amount of ground coffee beans in the extraction tank 6, and then the opening / closing valves 17, 17 ', 1'.
4 ′ is opened and the operation valve 16 is switched to introduce steam into the extraction tank 6 through the coffee extract extraction pipe 12, the coffee bean lees discharge pipe 9 and the filter 5, and thus the coffee stored in the extraction tank 6 The ground beans are steamed to be preheated and expanded, and then the opening / closing valve 8 ′ is opened to make hot water dew from the extraction spray nozzle 4 and sprayed evenly onto the upper surface of the preheated and ground coffee ground beans, and the natural flow is carried out. Let
Therefore, while extracting coffee through the filter 5,
This extract is passed through a coffee bean lees discharge pipe 9 and a coffee extract withdrawal pipe 1 in which opening / closing valves 14 and 14 'are opened in advance.
Take out from 2. Then, after completing the coffee brewing operation, the manual handle 20 is turned to lift the filter 5 from the bottom of the brewing tank 6, and then the brewing tank 6 is filled with the same amount of water as the weight of the coffee beans. Next, the open / close valve 19 is opened to put compressed air into the extraction tank 6 to pressurize it, and the open / close valve 10 is opened to discard the coffee bean lees discharge pipe 9 and the guide pipe 11 to the outside at once. After opening, the filter 5 and the tank 1 etc. are cleaned by the filter cleaning spray nozzle 2 and the tank cleaning spray pole 3 to complete a series of extractions.

[0004]

As described above, the beverage extraction apparatus using a single extraction tank has a limited extraction capacity per unit time, and if the production speed becomes high, a large number of such equipment must be provided. There was a problem. Further, since the concentration of the extract is high in the initial stage of the extraction process and becomes low in the latter stage, it was necessary to provide a large waiting tank to stir the mixture in order to maintain a constant concentration. Further, there is a defect that the discharge of the dregs becomes insufficient during the cleaning of the inside of the extraction tank, and the dregs of the dregs easily occur. The present invention is intended to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, while providing a plurality of small-capacity extraction tanks, an extraction liquid of uniform concentration can be easily obtained, and the prevention of sticking of lees and removal of foreign matter is easy. It is intended to provide a beverage extraction device.

[0005]

Therefore, according to the present invention, a bottom lid, which is arranged at equal intervals on the same circumference on a gantry, has an opening for charging raw materials at an upper portion and an openable / closable bottom lid for discharging a lees at the lower portion. In addition, a plurality of extraction tanks equipped with a filter and an extraction liquid discharge tube fixed to the bottom lid and a vertical rotation shaft provided at the center of the extraction tank group are rotated and fed from another raw material supply device. A raw material distribution mechanism that puts a certain amount of raw material into each of the extraction tanks, a moving screw conveyor that transfers the extracted lees to the center of the extraction tank group from under each of the extraction tanks, and from the same center position outside the device A fixed screw conveyor to be transferred to, and the hot water nozzle that is inserted into the extraction tank from the opening for feeding the raw material in the upper part of the extraction tank, and is fixed to the opening or movable to a retracted position away from the opening when feeding the raw material, Extraction tank A cleaning water nozzle fixed to the top of, made of more a control unit for automatically controlling the operation, it is an unit for which a problem solution. The present invention also detects the concentration of the extract in the lower part of the extraction tank,
The information is provided with a densitometer for feedback to the control unit, and further an air nozzle for injecting compressed air at the time of discharging the lees is provided in the upper part of the extraction tank.
Further, while covering the inner surface of the extraction tank, the filter, and the hopper of the moving screw conveyor with a fluorine-based material, rotation around the vertical rotation axis of the raw material distribution mechanism, rotation of the rotary valve, and rotation for moving the position of the moving screw conveyor. The output of one servomotor is branched into two, and the rotation of the screw is driven by providing a clutch on one side, which is a means for solving the problem.

[0006]

[Function] First, the hot water nozzle is retracted to the standby position, the opening of the upper part of the extraction tank is opened, the hopper of the raw material distribution mechanism is moved to this, and another raw material supply device measures the raw material for one batch and is pneumatically transported. The raw materials are collected by a cyclone and put into an extraction tank via a rotary valve. The hot water nozzle fixed or retracted in the opening is inserted into the extraction tank, and hot water is poured to perform extraction. The extracted extract is filtered by a filter and discharged from the discharge pipe, and is sent to the next step together with the extract from another discharge tank. At the extraction stage, the concentration is controlled by feedback data from the densitometer, if necessary. When the extraction process is completed, move the moving screw conveyor for discharging the dregs to the bottom of the extraction tank, open the bottom lid and inject compressed air from the air nozzle to blow off the dregs, and further inject the washing water from the washing nozzle. To clean the inside of the extraction tank. The dregs are once sent to the center of the extraction tank group by a moving screw conveyor and then sent out of the device by a fixed screw conveyor. The cleaning water contained in the lees is removed by the screw conveyor section. Further, the fluorine-based coating prevents the solid content of the raw material from sticking.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below with reference to the embodiments of the drawings. FIG. 1 to FIG. 8 show an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing the overall structure, and FIG. FIG. 3 is a side view and FIG. 3 is a plan view showing the arrangement of the extraction tank. Now, in the figure, 25 is a pedestal of a device having two upper and lower stages, 30
Is a plurality of cylindrical extraction tanks (in the drawing, six are shown), 55 is a raw material distribution mechanism for distributing the raw materials to each extraction tank 30, and 85 is a moving screw conveyor 86 and a fixed screw conveyor 87. It is a mechanism for discharging extracted lees.
The extraction tanks 30 are arranged on a concentric circumference at equal intervals (FIG. 3), and the body is fixed to the top plate 25a of the lower stage of the pedestal 25 by brackets.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged view of the extraction tank 30 shown in FIG. 2, and FIGS. 5 and 6 are views taken in the directions of arrows A and B of FIG. 4, respectively. 4 to 6, 31 is a tank main body which is the main body of the extraction tank 30, 32 is a pin 34 fixed to the tank main body 31 by a bracket 33 (FIG. 5), and an arm 3
A bottom lid rotatably supported by 2a, and a bottom lid 3
2, an opening / closing mechanism 2, 39 is a conical filter provided on the inner upper surface of the bottom lid 32, and 40 is a discharge pipe for the extraction liquid. The opening / closing mechanism 35 is a cylinder 3 that rotates the bottom lid 32 within a vertical plane.
6. A stopper ring 37 slidably supported in the lower portion of the tank main body 31 in the circumferential direction, and a cylinder 38 for reciprocating the stopper ring 37 in the circumferential direction. Latch receiver 32 provided on the lid 32
The bottom lid 32, which is closed by being hooked on b, is pressed against the tank body 31 in a bayonet manner and stopped.

Reference numeral 41 designates an opening 41a in the shape of a short cylinder, an upper lid detachably fixed to the upper end of the tank body 31, 42 an air nozzle fixed to the upper lid 41, and 43 a tank body 3
1, a cleaning water nozzle fixed to the upper part of 1, a cleaning water nozzle 44 for the bottom lid 32 fixed to the outside of the tank main body 31 or the pedestal 25, and a concentration meter 45 fixed to the lower part of the tank main body 31. Is. 46 is an opening 41a in the upper lid of the tank body 31
A movable hot water nozzle that can be further lowered and inserted, and then pulled up to rotate laterally to a retracted position away from the tank body 31, 47 is a moving mechanism of the hot water nozzle 46, and a rail 48 for lifting and lowering. An arm 49 for holding the hot water nozzle 46, a cylinder 50 for raising and lowering the arm 48,
The hot water nozzle 46 is provided with a lid 52 slidably supported by the nozzle 46 so as to rotate the arm 48 in the lateral direction.
1, the compression spring 53 causes the opening 4 of the upper lid to be inserted.
It is designed to be in close contact with the upper surface of 1a.

FIG. 7 shows an enlarged view of the raw material distribution mechanism 55,
Reference numeral 56 denotes a vertical rotation shaft vertically installed at the center position of the upper extraction tank 30 group of the pedestal 25, 57 denotes a box-shaped support body fixed to the vertical rotation shaft 56 by two upper and lower arms 57a and 57b, Reference numeral 58 is a cyclone fixed to the support 57, 59 is a rotary valve that has radial partition blades to pass the raw material during rotation, 60 is a miter gear box that is connected to the input shaft of the rotary valve 59, and 61 is a miter. Gear box 60
It is a chain car fixed to the input shaft of. 62 is a drive unit shared by the vertical rotary shaft 56 and the rotary valve 59, 63 is a servomotor fixedly installed on the gantry 25 side, and 64 is a differential speed reducer (harmonic drive) directly connected to the servomotor 63 via a joint. , 65 is a miter gear box whose input shaft is directly connected to the differential reducer 64 through a joint, 66 and 67 are spur gears and chain wheels fixed to the input shaft and output shaft of the miter gear box 65, 68 Is a clutch, 69 is a spur gear that is fixed to the input shaft of the clutch 68 and meshes with the spur gear 66,
Reference numeral 70 denotes a worm speed reducer having an input shaft and an output shaft connected to the clutch 68 and the vertical rotation shaft 56, respectively.
When 8 is connected, the worm speed reducer 70 works to rotate the vertical rotation shaft 56.

Further, 71 is a chain wheel rotatably supported by a bracket 72 fixed to the pedestal 25 side, 73 is a spur gear coaxially fixed to the chain wheel 71, and 74 is rotatable about a vertical rotary shaft 56. Two spur gears supported by, a spur gear 75 rotatably supported by the arm 57b, 76 a chain wheel fixed coaxially with the spur gear 75, and 77 and 78 chain wheels 67 and 71, and It is a chain hung between 61 and 76. The upper and lower spur gears of the two spur gears 74 mesh with the spur gears 75 and 73, respectively.
When 3 rotates, miter gear box 65 and chain wheel 7
1, the spur gear 73, the two spur gears 74, the spur gear 75, the chain wheel 76, and the chain wheel 61 fixed to the input shaft of the miter gear box 60 drive the rotary valve 59. . Reference numeral 79 is a pipe for pneumatically transporting the raw material from a raw material supply device (not shown), 80 is a pipe for feeding the raw material to the cyclone 58 through a rotary joint 81, and 82 is exhaust air for exhausting air for transportation through a cloth bag attached to the tip. The pipe, 83 is a hopper fixed below the rotary valve 59.

FIG. 8 is an enlarged view of the dregs discharging mechanism 85. The dregs discharging mechanism 85 is composed of a rotating moving screw conveyor 86 and a fixed screw conveyor 87 fixed to the floor. Reference numeral 88 is a box-shaped suspension support fixed to the lower ceiling plate 25a of the pedestal 25, 89 is a servomotor fixed to the suspension support 88, 90 is a spur gear fixed to the servomotor 89, and 91 is a spur gear. Is a miter gear box having two output shafts at right angles, 92 is a spur gear fixed to the input shaft of the miter gear box 91 and meshes with the spur gear 90, 93 is a clutch fixed to the horizontal output shaft, Reference numeral 94 is a spur gear fixed to the extension shaft of the output shaft facing downward.

Reference numeral 95 is a spur gear fixed to the output shaft of the clutch 93, 96 is a worm speed reducer, 97 is a spur gear fixed to the input shaft of the worm speed reducer 96 and meshes with the spur gear 95, and 98 is a worm. A rotary shaft fixed to the output shaft of the speed reducer 96, and 99 is connected to the rotary shaft 98 through a joint to connect the hanger 1
00 is a rotary shaft integrally coupled with 101, 101 is a double spur gear rotatably supported by a rotary shaft 99, and 102 is a hanger 10
Reference numeral 103 denotes a miter gear box fixed to 0, and 103 denotes a spur gear fixed to the input shaft of the miter gear box 102.
104 is a screw conveyor main body fixed to the hanger 100, 104a, 104b, 104c and 104d are outer cylinders, screws, inlets and outlets thereof, 105 is a hopper fixed to the inlet 104c, and 106 and 107 are of the hanger 100. Rollers and rails that support the weight at one end and one end of the screw conveyor main body 104.
Are arranged concentrically with the center of the extraction tank 30 group, and the moving screw conveyor 86 is formed by the above components.

The spur gears 94 and 103 mesh with the upper and lower gears of the two spur gears 101, respectively, and the screw 104b is connected to the output shaft of the miter gear box 102. When the servomotor 89 operates, its driving force is changed. The miter gear box 91 branches into two, one is a spur gear 94,
Rotating the rotor 104b of the screw conveyor main body through 101, 103, and the miter gear box 102,
The other one is the spur gear 9 when the clutch 93 is engaged.
4, 97, the worm reducer 96, and the rotating shafts 98, 99, the screw conveyor main body 104 is rotated around the rotating shaft 98 to change its position. The fixed screw conveyor 87 is a conveyor having substantially the same structure as the screw conveyor main body 104 of the moving screw conveyor 86, has an inlet provided with an upward hopper at one end and a downward outlet at the other end, and is directly connected to the screw rotating shaft. It is a well-known conveyor driven by a deceleration motor. In addition, in FIG.
5 is a hot water line, 116 is a pure water line, 117 and 11
8 is a flow rate adjusting valve.

Next, the operation of the embodiment constructed as described above will be described. In FIG. 4, first, the hot water nozzle 46 of one of the extraction tanks 30 is pulled up by the moving mechanism 47 and rotated in the lateral direction to the retracted position (see FIG. 6), the hopper 83 of the raw material distribution mechanism 55 shown in FIG. 7 is moved directly above the extraction tank 30, and one batch of raw material pneumatically transported from a raw material supply device (not shown) is moved. It is collected by the cyclone 58, and the rotary valve 59 is operated to put it in the discharge tank 30. When the raw material distribution mechanism 55 moves to the next position of the extraction tank 30, the hot water nozzle 46 is inserted into the discharge tank 30, and hot water is poured through the adjusting valve 117 shown in FIG. 1 to extract the beverage. The extracted liquid is discharged from the discharge pipe 40 filtered by the filter 39 provided on the bottom lid 32 through the flow rate adjusting valve 118, and the other extraction tank 30.
It is combined with the extract from and sent to the next step. The above extraction method is an example of the case of coffee, and in the case of tea, various extraction methods such as pouring tea leaves after pouring hot water are performed. When it is necessary to improve the accuracy of the concentration of the extraction liquid, the flow rate of the hot water nozzle 46 and the discharge flow amount of the extraction liquid are controlled by the information fed back from the densitometer 45 to the control unit to bring them closer to the specified concentration.

After performing extraction for a certain period of time, the hot water nozzle 46
After stopping the supply of hot water and discharging the extraction liquid, the moving screw conveyor 86 of the lees discharge mechanism 85 is horizontally rotated to move the hopper 105 directly below the extraction tank 30, and the bottom lid 32 of the extraction tank 30 is moved. 4 (two-dot chain line in FIG. 4), compressed air is blown from the air nozzle 42 to blow off the residue, and water is jetted from the washing water nozzle 43 for the extraction tank 30 and the washing water nozzle 44 for the bottom lid to wash. To do. The dregs are conveyed from the position of each extraction tank 30 to the central position of the group of extraction tanks 30 by the moving screw conveyor 86, and then delivered from the fixed screw conveyor 87 to a fixed position outside the apparatus. The cleaning water contained in the lees is removed by the screw conveyor section. Then the bottom lid 32
If is closed, one extraction is completed.

Since the moving screw conveyor 86 of the raw material distribution mechanism 55 and the lees discharge mechanism 85 sequentially turns around a plurality of extraction tanks 30, each extraction tank 30 performs the same operation with a certain time delay. FIG. 1 shows a case where there are six extraction tanks 30. In this case, the movement time pitch of the raw material distribution mechanism 55 is 1/6 of the time of one extraction process, and the feeding of raw materials and the discharge and cleaning of lees are respectively performed. One pitch is allocated to extraction, and four pitches are allocated to extraction. The above operation is automatically performed by a detector and a control unit (not shown). In this embodiment, the hot water nozzle 46 is replaced by the moving mechanism 4
The operation of moving or retracting to the opening 41a at 7 is performed in accordance with the movement of the raw material distribution mechanism 55. The hot water nozzle 46 is fixedly provided on the upper lid 41, and an opening portion is separately provided on the upper lid. It goes without saying that tea leaves may be fed from the hopper 83 of the raw material distribution mechanism 55 through the opening.

[0018]

As described in detail above, according to the present invention, a highly efficient brewing device capable of automatically and continuously brewing a large amount of beverage can be obtained, which has good maintainability and contributes to labor saving. . Further, since the extraction liquids extracted in a plurality of small-capacity extraction tanks are collected and mixed, there is little influence of deviation from the specified value of the concentration of each extraction tank, and an extraction liquid of uniform concentration can be easily obtained. Furthermore, since the concentration of the extraction liquid in the extraction process is fed back by the concentration meter in the extraction tank to adjust the amount of hot water to be injected, an extraction liquid having a uniform concentration can be easily obtained. Further, since the fluorine-based coating is applied to the portion of the raw material where the sticking is likely to occur, the sticking can be prevented, and since the inside of the extraction tank is blown off with compressed air after cleaning, the foreign matter can be easily and completely removed.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system diagram showing an overall configuration of a beverage discharging device showing an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a side view showing details of an extraction tank and a raw material distribution mechanism in FIG. 1. FIG.

3 is a plan view showing the arrangement of extraction tanks in FIG. 1. FIG.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged side view of one extraction tank in FIG.

5 is a view on arrow A in FIG. 4. FIG.

FIG. 6 is a view on arrow B of FIG.

FIG. 7 is an enlarged side view of a partial cross section of the raw material distribution mechanism in FIG.

FIG. 8 is an enlarged side sectional view of the lees discharge mechanism in FIG.

FIG. 9 is a side view showing an example of a conventional beverage extraction device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 25 Stand 30, 31 Extraction Tank 32 Bottom Lid 36 Bottom Lid Opening / Closing Mechanism 41a Raw Material Injecting Hole 42 Air Nozzle 43 Wash Water Nozzle 44 Bottom Lid Washing Nozzle 45 Concentration Meter 46 Hot Water Nozzle 47 Hot Water Nozzle Moving Mechanism 55 Raw Material Distributing Mechanism 56 Vertical Axis 59 Rotary valve 62 Drive part 63 Servo motor 64,66 Reducer 68 Clutch 69 Spur gear 70 Worm reducer 86 Moving screw conveyor 87 Fixed screw conveyor

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. Arranged at equal intervals on the same circumference on a frame,
A plurality of extraction tanks equipped with an opening for raw material injection in the upper part, an openable and closable bottom lid for discharging lees, a filter fixed to the bottom lid and a discharge pipe for the extraction liquid, and an extraction tank group. A raw material distribution mechanism that rotates on a vertical rotation shaft provided at the center and that puts a fixed amount of raw material sent from another raw material supply device into each of the extraction tanks, and the lees after extraction from under each of the extraction tanks. A moving screw conveyor that transfers to the center of the extraction tank group, a fixed screw conveyor that transfers from the center position to the outside of the device, and a fixed screw conveyor that is inserted into the extraction tank from the raw material input opening at the top of the extraction tank and fixed in the same opening. It is characterized by comprising a hot water nozzle that can be moved to a retracted position away from the opening when setting up or charging raw materials, a wash water nozzle fixed to the upper part of the extraction tank, and a control unit that automatically controls the operation. Beverage extraction apparatus. 2. The beverage extraction device according to claim 1, wherein a concentration meter for detecting the concentration of the extraction liquid and feeding back the information to the control unit is provided in the lower portion of the extraction tank. 3. The beverage brewing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein an air nozzle for injecting compressed air at the time of discharging the dregs is provided in an upper portion of the brewing tank. 4. The beverage brewing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the inner surface of the brewing tank, the filter, and the hopper of the moving screw conveyor are covered with a fluorine-based material. 5. Rotation of a raw material distribution mechanism about a vertical rotation axis,
The rotation of the rotary valve, the rotation for moving the position of the moving screw conveyor, and the rotation of the screw are branched by driving the output of one servomotor into two, respectively, and driven by providing a clutch on one side. The beverage extraction device according to claim 1.