WO2002091891A9 - Coffee machine - Google Patents

Abstract

Machine (1) for the supply of hot drinks such as espresso coffee, filter coffee or tea, as well as hot and cold water, with a hydraulic circuit and an electric circuit and run by software, having a supporting structure and panel covering, an open front compartment which houses a drinks container, with a front control panel and two extractable coffee filter cups underneath, which are extracted by sliding them along two pairs of guides (3a, 3b, 4a, 4b). The machine includes at least three heaters (10, 11), inside which water passes only at the moment of delivery in the form of a drink or hot water, two heaters being operatively connected to the coffee filter cup (2), operativeness being achieved by a lever operating system (9) that vertically pushes the heaters (10, 11) to be lowered onto the coffee filter cups (5, 6), basically sealing it closed at the moment of delivery.

Description

COFFEE MACHINE Field of the invention

The present invention concerns a machine to supply coffee, in particular of "espresso" type and for aviation uses. More generally, the machine according to the invention can also be used to supply other types of hot drinks such as tea and/or hot and cold water, in addition to steam for the preparation of certain types of drinks. State of the art The accessory machines used in aircraft, such as coffee machines for instance, must satisfy specific requirements corresponding to strict aviation regulations.

Accessories installed on civil aircraft must also be of such dimensions to allow them to be safely housed and kept fixed in the compartments provided on aeroplanes; and they must also be as lightweight as possible, since aircrafts like the Boeing 747 also have to accommodate 10 of them to satisfy the demand associated with the high passenger numbers that such types of aircraft are able to transport. A reduction of approximately one kilo in weight on board an aeroplane can imply, in the course of the commercial life of the aircraft, considerable savings in energy and management costs. Coffee machines exist for aviation use and, in particular, they concern machines that supply express coffee, tea or other hot drinks which prove inadequate for the current requirements of savings in weight associated with functionality and improved safety. Machines have been realized that produce "espresso" type coffee and which represent an adaptation for aviation uses of machines designed to supply coffee for domestic or cafe use. The mechanism on which the cafe express machines are based, also used in those for domestic use, is not particularly well suited to use on aircraft, as they have parts which also contain fluids under pressure. Therefore their use for aviation purposes would involve an increase in weight as a consequence of the reinforcement necessary for their use in a low pressure environment compared to that of atmospheric pressure.

Machines that are particularly suitable for aviation use have therefore been developed. Machines of this type are described in the patent application PCT n. WO00/45685 that describes a machine for the supply of filter coffee. Also machines that produce Italian "espresso" type coffee are based on the same technical principle. It concerns machines which have a distributor that serves a cup in which is put the loose ground coffee, the coffee filter, cartridge or prepacked pad containing the ground coffee or one of the necessary ingredients to produce the drink and in which water is passed at high temperature in a more or less short time. The cups carrying the coffee filter or coffee have two tabs made on the sides of the cup, in diametrically opposite positions, which insert into helicoidal shaped guides disposed around the hot water exit spout. The cups are provided with a handle with which to pick them up and to exert the torque necessary to secure the coffee filter cup by turning it through a short arc of a circle on the spiral guide. Such machines have been devised from existing models for domestic uses equipped with one or two distributors and, by means of an adaptation, have allowed a reduction in the maximum overall dimensions so as to permit their use on aircraft, where the space they occupy is an essential factor of the machine design. However, such types of machines have the problem of low productivity as well as only being able to provide "espresso" coffee, whereas those that are also capable of supplying drinks such as cappuccino are of greater dimensions and therefore little used on aeroplanes. The drawbacks presented by such known machines in supplying coffee are their considerable weight and maintenance time, poor ease of use experienced by the cabin staff as well as the inadequacy of the safety features. An additional disadvantage is that they cannot have more than one coffee distributor spout to be able to supply a greater number of coffees and, if necessary, other types of drinks such as cappuccino, except at the cost of reaching overall dimensions which are poorly compatible with the limited spaces available in aircraft cabins. Summary of the invention

Therefore the present invention is proposed to obviate the above discussed drawbacks presented by machines to supply coffee or other hot or cold drinks known to the state of the art. A primary purpose of the present invention is to realize a machine to supply hot or cold drinks, in particular to supply "espresso" coffee, which has a greater supply capacity than other machines of comparable size and weight. It is also an object of the present invention to realize a machine to supply hot or cold drinks that is particularly suitable for use in environments of limited space, such as kitchenettes on aeroplanes, trains, boats or ships.

These purposes are achieved by a machine capable of supplying hot drinks such as coffee, tea and/or hot and cold water that has the characteristics according to claim 1. The configuration and structure described hereafter \ onf produce a more durable V

appliance, which is easier and safer to use and more lightweight compared to the present known machines. Additional advantages of the invention will become clear from the following description of the invention. The words "exchanger" and "heater" will be used indifferently in the present

5 description, with them meaning a thermal unit including heating elements and elements suitable for the passage of the fluid to be heated. Brief description of the figures

Additional characteristics and advantages of the invention will become apparent in light of the detailed description of a preferred, but not exclusive, embodiment of a o machine to supply drinks, illustrated as a non-limiting example with the aid of the enclosed design plates in which

Fig. 1 is a front perspective view of the machine according to the invention, Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the machine of Fig. 1 without a part of the cover. Detailed description of the invention

5 The machine according to the invention is designed to prepare hot drinks such as Italian "espresso" coffee, filter coffee or tea in a preset amount, as well as to provide steam, hot or cold water on board an aircraft. The preparation of hot drinks generally envisages the use of prepacked single portion or multi portion coffee filters or cartridges for reasons of convenience, e.g. those of known type for o automatic appliances, in which each coffee filter is a single portion, precompressed, if necessary, of instant coffee, tea or other suitable ingredient- to prepare a drink. The wrapping is made of filter paper or other plastic or metal wrapper, through which hot water and/or steam can pass at a preset temperature for the preparation of the drink. A coffee filter cup will be described later on in the text, but it is understood that cartridges or other types of containers can also be inserted into the cup, as well as the drink ingredient in loose form. The machine controls are situated on a front control panel, and are advantageously of the "touch sensor" type with warning lights and serigraph indicators.

One feature of this machine is represented by the absence of a boiler under pressure for heating the water, instead of which one or more heaters are used, inside which water passes only at the moment of delivery, when the system is open towards the atmosphere. In this way, the danger posed by water under pressure, enclosed in a container, is avoided, particularly important in aviation use. This feature of the machine is the object of the aforesaid patent application in the name of the same applicant of the present patent application. An additional feature of the machine is that of having the heater correspondingly connected to the coffee filter cup, the heater and coffee filter cup being pperatively combined with each other vertically. This operativeness is obtained with a mechanical lever system to close the coffee filter holder compartment at the moment of the supply of hot water or steam.

The coffee filter cup is provided with a perforated plate, above the coffee filter itself. A space is created between said plate and the lower surface of the heater which allows uniform distribution of the water onto the coffee filter. The heater is made of aluminium and heats the water without increasing its pressure, as pockets of heated air are not present along the entire part of the same. The heater can be both of the flat arrangement two-sided type in which a heating element is interposed between two zones, above and below it respectively, in which the water to be heated passes, as well as of cylindrical type composed of two or more elements. This arrangement maximizes heat output and minimizes heat loss. A needle can be disposed in this water distribution chamber, having the purpose of piercing the cartridge wrappers if it concerns coffee containers made of material which is waterproof or steamproof, as in the case of aluminium wrapped cartridges.

The machine is equipped with a hydraulic part for feeding the water and a pump system to maintain the flow of water constant inside the same independently of the operating pressure present on the aeroplane.

A suitably calibrated valve is positioned below the water supply pumps in the event of overpressure.

A hydraulic distributor for cold water and one for hot water create the means of communication between the solenoid valves to distribute the incoming and outgoing fluid. The solenoid valves that conduct the hot water section must be able to withstand temperatures at least up to 150°C and are provided with gaskets of suitable material. The pipe fittings on the hot water parts are made of a suitable material to ensure good functioning both in terms of heat as well as delivery. The machine and all the elements that can be extracted from it, such as the drawer, cup or coffee filter cups, the pot or cups, are protected from accidental release, since they are positioned in sites fitted with self-locking devices that, once inserted, require a release action. That is to say locking occurs automatically upon insertion in the respective slots and this can be performed by springs that grip the coffee filter cups. The operation of the main functions of the machine is referred to an electronic section run by a microprocessor with software. In addition, by means of a simple computer connection, the operating data of the machine can be read: e.g. the number of operation cycles and/or the hours of operation and/or other useful indications for routine machine maintenance. This serial port can be used to feed information into the machine and set parameters such as: amount of water depending on the type and the amount of drink to be supplied, the weight of the pot, the water supply temperature. The software allows the drink preparation parameters to be varied according to requirements. Description of a preferred embodiment of the invention

With particular reference to Figures 1 and 2, the machine according to the invention, denoted as a whole by reference number 1, is mainly made of aluminium or other material with similar characteristics and is of basically parallelepipedal shape and is arranged vertically in the position of normal use. The embodiment illustrated has two coffee filter cups 5, 6, but it is possible to realize a machine in which more than two coffee filter cups are present, as it is also possible to make a machine with only one coffee filter cup without leaving the scope of the invention. The machine has a cover 1a suitable for the environment in which it must be used. The external structure of the machine includes a front control panel 2, of touch sensor type, with the serigraph controls of the various functions on it. Under the front panel are two pairs 3a, 3b, 4a, 4b of guides along which the respective extractable coffee filter cups 5, 6 can slide, inside which there is a coffee filter or another type of container for the instant coffee or tea or for another ingredient for the desired drink, not shown in the Figures. The shape of the cups can be adjusted to the shape of the various types of coffee filter made by the producers of coffee or tea. With the two coffee filter cups 5, 6 being exactly the same shape and with interchangeable positions on the machine, only one of them is described here afterwards. The coffee filter cup is inserted into and extracted from the machine by sliding it along the pair of guides 4a, 4b and has, to guarantee safety, a locking position ensured by appropriately shaped springs that keep the cup in the inserted position therefore, once completely inserted into the machine, it can be subsequently extracted, during normal operation, by the user lightly pulling on the

> handle 7.

The coffee filter cup 6 is provided with two external tabs 8a, 8b on its sides, disposed in a diametrically opposite position. The shape of these tabs is such as to allow insertion into the respective pair of guides to permit its insertion into the machine. The position of the cup at the respective distributor of hot water is

5 achieved by pushing the cup, until the stop, along the pair of guides 3a, 3b, 4a, 4b and letting it be gripped between the respective spring or safety gripper. The cup is advantageously equipped with an insulated handle 7 that allows the user to hold the cup also when at a high temperature. In the machine according to the invention the cup can only be inserted into its slot by a movement made o entirely in the direction of a substantially straight line at right angles to the front of the drinks machine. It is not necessary to turn the cup through a complete turn of a circumferential arc along a spiral shaped guide, as is the case with similar state of the art machines. In the latter models, the rotation of the handle of the coffee filter cup, necessary to fix it to the water distributor spout makes it necessary to leave T IB2002/001712

sufficient space in the area in front of the machine. In the case of machines in which two distributors are necessary, or an even larger number, sufficient space must be provided between the distributors to ensure maneuverability of the cup handles. On the contrary, the machine according to the invention, thanks to the innovative features, maintains the position of the handle 7 of the cup 6 at right angles to the surface of the machine front, without occupying a lot of space since a rotary movement, through an arc of a circle, to position the cup under the corresponding distributor spout 16, is unnecessary and the handle 7 of a cup does not interfere with the corresponding handle of the adjacent cup or cups. The seal between the coffee filter cup 6 and the chamber disposed under the distributor spout(s) 15, 16, is achieved by means of a lever 9 at the moment of the supply, which operated downwards, slides the heaters 10, 11 , vertically downwards, integrally fixed with said distributor spout(s) 15, 16, which presses down on the upper edge of the respective coffee filter cup 6. The cup 6 is of such dimensions as to accomodate the coffee filter and carries one or more holes on its base through which the hot drink passes which then collects in the pot, cups or other appropriate container. If it proves necessary, obviously the cup 6 can also be filled with the correct amount of loose coffee without using coffee filters, as in the case of machines used in cafes. The two pairs of guides 3a, 3b, 4a, 4b are made in a horizontal structural element 12 which, viewed from above is basically shaped like a pair of "Us" side by side. This element 12 is set in the machine in an intermediate position between the two top and bottom ends. From the front, an open compartment is made in the lower part of the machine 1 which houses the container(s) for the drinks, not illustrated in the Figure. This open compartment is substantially delimited by the bottom wall of the drawer, by the structural panel and by the surface or support plate 13 of the container. A sensor is advantageously envisaged, for example of spring type that detects the presence of the container, when this is inserted and pressed against said sensor and the two distributor spouts 15, 16. of the hot or cold water in the container. With regard to the support plate of the container, this is shaped so as to comfortably house its base to allow for any sudden movements of the aircraft, vehicle or craft. Such detail is not illustrated in the Figure. The support plate can also be slightly tilted towards the rear of the machine and has a drainage hole connected to the outlet, so that any accidental discharges of drink are conveyed to the same outlet. In addition, a safety fastening device of the container or the cups is envisaged, basically consisting of a shaped rod operated by a spring (not shown). The computer manages the "coffee", "tea", "hot water", "cold water" functions (also known as cycles) that the machine can perform, in addition to allowing such a machine to adjust to the tastes of certain categories of users. The machine is supplied with a series controls and safety features that make it safe to use and allow it to satisfy the regulations provided for such types of machines. For example, the finish of drink delivery can be automatically controlled according to a preset amount by means of a flowmeter. It is possible to envisage a safety system controlled by the stress sensor situated under the surface or plate on which the container sits and which interrupts the supply by monitoring the weight of the pot that fills up, as well as a time switch which can cut off the supply of drink or water after a predetermined time period if any machine component shows signs of malfunctioning.

The "coffee" function can be interrupted also by pressing the coffee switch again on the front control panel. The whole hydraulic circuit is appropriately protected against overpressure by means of the air valve, which is opened by pressures exceeding the maximum operating pressures.

The machine is able to be advantageously prepared with a third heater and with other elements, that prove easily identifiable by reading the present invention, so as to also produce steam that is supplied through the relevant nozzle 14, necessary in the event that drinks such as cappuccino are to be prepared.

The machine, under normal conditions, is able to produce 1.5 litres of hot water at a temperature of approx. 85°C in approx. 2 minutes and 45 sec. ± 15 sec.

Nothing prevents the machine, according to the present invention, from being used in other means of transport such as trains, ships, etc.

Claims

1. Machine (1 ) to supply drinks such as coffee or tea having a supporting structure defining an upper and a lower end, a front and a rear end and including at least one heater (10, 11) to heat water or other liquid, at least one pipe to carry the water or other liquid to at least one outgoing section, and at least one cup (5, 6) able to contain one of the ingredients of said drink, extractable from the machine (1), equipped with two lateral tabs (8a, 8b) and operatively connectable to a respective outgoing section of the water or said other liquid, an open front compartment near the lower side, able to house at least one container for water or said drink, in a position below said at least one cup, characterised in that at least one pair of straight and parallel guides (3a, 3b, 4a, 4b) is made on said supporting structure, disposed on a basically horizontal surface and set in a direction basically at right angles to said front side of said machine (1), able to guide said tabs (8a, 8b) to position said at least one cup in an operating position below said outgoing section (15, 16) of the water.

2. Machine as in claim 1, in which there is provided a lever (9) that vertically moves said at least one heater (10, 11 ) to lower itself onto said at least one cup (5, 6), basically sealing it closed at the moment of delivery.

3. Machine as in claim 2, in which there is provided a hydraulic circuit and an electric circuit and a software operating system.

4. Machine as in claim 3 in which said structure is covered by aluminium panelling.

5. Machine as in claim 4 in which the open compartment is substantially delimited by the bottom part of said at least one cup (5, 6), by said panelling and by a support plate (13) of a vessel containing the drink.

6. Machine as in claim 5 in which there is provided a spring holding said at least one cup (5, 6) in the inserted position.

7. Machine as in claim 6 in which there is provided a safety fastening device of the vessel containing the drink.

8. Machine as in claim 7, in which there is provided a separate heater capable of supplying steam.

9. Machine as in claim 8, in which there are provided three heaters, two of which (10, 1 1 ) provide hot water and hot drinks and one provides steam.