WO2020085376A1 - Automatic beverage preparation device - Google Patents

Abstract

The purpose of the present invention is to provide an automatic preparation device with which it is possible to add, with a single button operation, a functional material such as a thickener for imparting thickness, a fiber for adding dietary fiber, a protein material for adding a protein, or a lactic acid material for adding a lactic acid, to a cup beverage. In this device, a flavor selection unit for selecting the flavor of a beverage and a function instruction unit for instructing that a functional material is to be added are provided on the front surface of the automatic preparation device. A control unit of the automatic beverage preparation device selects a recipe on the basis of signals from the flavor selection unit and the function instruction unit, and causes a cup transportation mechanism, a stirring mechanism, a raw material supply mechanism, and a water/hot water supply mechanism, etc., in the device to operate on the basis of the recipe.

Description

Beverage automatic cooking device

The present invention relates to a beverage automatic cooking device using a cup mixing method.

In recent years, automatic beverage preparation devices have been required to have a function of adding various functional materials. In addition to the thickening material that thickens the beverage, the fiber material for adding dietary fiber to the beverage, the protein material for adding protein to the beverage, and the addition of lactic acid to the beverage as functional materials to be added to the beverage. Lactic acid materials.
For example, in order to prevent aspiration pneumonia caused by dysphagia, there is an increasing demand for providing a thickened beverage using a thickening material as a functional material. Dysphagia is a symptom that tends to occur in old age, and is a condition in which the ability to swallow weakens with age and it becomes difficult to swallow food and drink. Moreover, aspiration may cause pneumonia, nutritional loss due to decreased appetite, and lack of water.

Food is said to be the most aspirable food. The reason is that the beverages are not organized and pass through the throat quickly. Therefore, in order to prevent aspiration, it is effective to thicken the beverage so that it can be easily put together and to slow down the passage through the throat.
For this reason, when eating and drinking at hospitals, nursing facilities, etc., in the case of a person with dysphagia, the food is thickened.
However, generally, the thickened cooking is mostly done manually for each drink. For this reason, it takes time to measure the thickening material (raw material that thickens the liquid) and to mix with the beverage, and further, there are problems such as a measurement error caused by human hands and variation in quality of finished products. .

An automatic cooking device for adding such functional ingredients to a beverage must use different recipes for coffee with functional ingredients and coffee without functional ingredients, even in the case of one flavor (eg coffee). . And, as will be described later, the recipes for coffee with functional material and coffee without functional material include various items such as the number of times of stirring, the stirring time, the amount of water and the amount of hot water to be poured, as well as whether or not the functional material is simply added. The recipe settings are different.
For this reason, it is not possible to cook a beverage containing a functional material with a specification provided in the conventional automatic cooking device, such as a button for increasing the amount of sugar or cream, which changes only the addition amount of one or two ingredients. .

When a conventional automatic cooking device is used to cook a beverage having a large number of different recipe settings, it is necessary to treat it as another beverage. That is, it is necessary to provide a flavor selection button with a functional material and a flavor selection button without a functional material even if the flavors are the same, only with or without the functional material.
That is, in order to add the function of adding one functional material to the automatic beverage cooking device, the number of flavor selection buttons must be doubled in order to distinguish the presence or absence of the functional material on the front of the housing. I won't. To provide the function of adding two kinds of functional materials, three times as many selection buttons are required.
As a result, there is a problem in that the user of the automatic cooking device has too many choices when selecting a beverage, and thus cannot smoothly make a desired selection. Further, the area of the front surface of the housing of the automatic cooking device becomes large, which causes a problem in installing the automatic cooking device.

▽ Conventionally, there is also a cooking device that uses a mixing ball method to automate thickening. However, in order to support beverages of various flavors, a large-scale washing process is required every time the beverage is changed, and the difficulty of transferring the thickened beverage from the mixing bowl to the tableware is considered. There were challenges. (Issues of the mixing ball method will be described in detail in the description of the modes for carrying out the invention.)

On the other hand, as an automatic cooking device other than the mixing ball system, there is a cup mixing system shown in Patent Document 1. And, in Patent Document 1, "a filter is provided between the lower end portion of the cylindrical extraction container and the upper end portion of the liquid receiving portion, and the beverage extracted by supplying the raw material and water into the extraction container , A beverage supply device which is made to flow down into the liquid receiving portion through the filter and is supplied into the cup through the beverage flow passage.

JP, 2016-49257, A

In the cup-mixing type automatic cooking device of Patent Document 1, no consideration is given to automatic cooking of a beverage to which a functional material such as thickener is added.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a technique capable of selecting a beverage to which a functional material is added by a single functional material selection button in a cup mixing type automatic cooking device.

In order to solve the above problems, one of the typical beverage automatic cooking and selling apparatuses of the present invention is a control unit, a recipe DB, a cup transport mechanism, a stirring mechanism, a raw material supply mechanism, a hot water supply mechanism, an ice supply mechanism, With a water supply mechanism, on the front of the housing of the automatic beverage cooking device, a flavor selection unit for selecting the flavor of the beverage and a function instruction unit for instructing addition of a functional material,
When the control unit receives a functional material addition signal from the function instruction unit, based on the recipe DB, selects a recipe to which a functional material corresponding to the flavor selected by the flavor selection unit is added, Based on the selected recipe, the control signal is transmitted to the cup transport mechanism, the stirring mechanism, the raw material supply mechanism, and the hot water supply mechanism in the automatic beverage cooking device.

According to the present invention, in a cup-mixing type automatic cooking device, a beverage containing a functional material can be selected only by operating a function instructing section.
Problems, configurations, and effects other than those described above will be clarified by the following description of the modes for carrying out the invention.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an outline of a mixing ball type cooking machine. (A) is a schematic diagram of the process of cooking the thickened material, and (b) is a schematic diagram of the case of adding the tea powder to the cooked thickened material shown in (a) for cooking. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an outline of the cup mixing method adopted in the present invention. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an outline of a display plate on the front surface of the casing of the automatic beverage cooking apparatus. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the overall structure of the beverage automatic cooking apparatus of the embodiment. FIG. 5: is a figure which shows the hardware constitutions of the automatic beverage cooking apparatus of an Example. FIG. 6 is a schematic view of a cup transport mechanism of the beverage automatic cooking device according to the embodiment. FIG. 7: is a figure which shows the outline of the stirring mechanism of the beverage automatic cooking apparatus of an Example. FIG. 8 is an example of a recipe when thickening is not applied. FIG. 9 is an example of a recipe for applying an intermediate thickening. FIG. 10 is an example of a recipe for applying a thin thickening. FIG. 11 is an example of a recipe for adding thick and thick.

As the types of functional materials, as described above, in addition to thickening materials that thicken beverages, fiber materials for adding dietary fibers to beverages, protein materials for adding proteins to beverages, and lactic acids to beverages. There are lactic acid materials to add.
In the following disclosure, a case where a thickening material is used as an example of the functional material will be described. However, it goes without saying that the present invention is not limited to thickening materials, but can be applied to other functional materials such as fiber materials, protein materials and lactic acid materials.
In the following, first, the definition of the thickened beverage and the main required requirements will be described.

<1. Definition of thickening>
Regarding the thickened liquid for people with dysphagia, the Japanese Society for Eating and Swallowing Rehabilitation shows three-level thickening classification in the "Japanese Society for Eating and Swallowing Rehabilitation Swallowing Adjusted Diet Classification 2013", and in the present disclosure. Also describe according to the classification.
The criteria of the above three stages are "Stage 1 Mildly Thick", "Stage 2 Moderately Thick", and "Stage 3 Extremely Thick".
Stage 1 The thin thickening has a viscosity of 50-150 (mPa · s) and an LST value of 36-43 (mm). In addition, the thickening in the middle of stage 2 has a viscosity of 150-300 (mPa · s) and an LST value of 32-36 (mm). Further, the thick and thick grade 3 has a viscosity of 300-500 (mPa · s) and an LST value of 30-32 (mm). Here, the viscosity is a viscosity measurement result after 1 minute at a measurement temperature of 20 ° C. and a shear rate of 50 s ⁻¹ using a cone-plate type rotational viscometer. Further, the LST value means that a sample of 20 ml is injected into a metal ring having an inner diameter of 30 mm using a plastic measuring plate for line spread test, the ring is lifted after 30 seconds, and the spread distance of the sample is measured at 6 points after 30 seconds. Let the average value be the LST value.

<2. Thick material>
There are mainly three types of thickening agents, starch type, guar gum type, and xanthan gum type, and the thickening material used in the present disclosure is a xanthan gum type material that is a polysaccharide.

<3. Expression of thickening>
The xanthan gum-based thickening material has a transparent feeling, has little adhesion, and has cohesiveness. It also has the characteristic that it has little taste and odor.
Then, when xanthan gum is mixed with the beverage, it absorbs water and swells, so that the beverage can be thickened by stirring it and uniformly diffusing it in the beverage. Therefore, a certain period of time is required for swelling and stirring until the thickening of the beverage becomes stable.
In addition, the strength and time of stirring, the nature of the beverage (whether milk components or acids are present, etc.), the size of the thickening component dispersed in the beverage depending on the temperature, the degree of thickening that can be achieved, and the time until the thickening stabilizes vary. Change. Therefore, in order to achieve a desired degree of thickening for many types of beverages, adjustment according to each beverage is necessary.

<4. Properties of thickened beverages required to prevent aspiration>
The temperature of the beverage is required to be in the temperature range of 3 ° C to 65 ° C for hot beverages and cold beverages. As for hot drinks with thickening, it is more difficult to cool compared to normal drinks, so there is a risk of burns if a hot drink is provided, so the upper limit of the drink temperature provided (A) is 65 ° C, preferably about 45 ° C. Is.
Also, for cold beverages, the absence of ice in the cup is required. This is because the presence of ice in the cup may induce aspiration when swallowing the ice. Therefore, no ice remains in the beverage provided (B), and the lower limit of the beverage temperature is 3 ° C and the upper limit is about 20 ° C.
Furthermore, in order to prevent aspiration, it is required that the viscosity of the beverage (C) is uniform in the cup and stable over time.

<Mixing ball method>
Cooking of a thickened beverage using a conventional mixing ball method will be described with reference to FIG. In the mixing ball system apparatus for cooking thickened tea shown in FIG. 1, powder tea and hot water are stirred from a powder tea canister 11 which is a raw material supply mechanism, a hot water supply mechanism 12, and a thickening material canister 13 which is a raw material supply mechanism. Is supplied to the mixing ball 15. Then, after stirring is performed by the mixing ball 15, the beverage is put into the cup 20 through the discharge hose 16.
When producing a thickened beverage using such an apparatus, first, hot water and a thickening material are put into a mixing ball to stir, and the stirred beverage is put into the cup 20. Next, as shown in FIG. 1 (b), hot water and tea powder are put into the mixing bowl 15 and stirred, and the drink after stirring is filled with the hot water and the thickener prepared in FIG. 1 (a). It is put in the cup 20. At this stage, since the thickener is not uniformly stirred in the cup 20, it is necessary to manually stir the cup after the mixture of hot water and tea powder is added.

As described above, the reason why the beverage is added to the cup 20 in two stages is as follows.
Even if powder tea, three raw materials of thickening material and hot water are put into the mixing ball at a time, and even if the thickened beverage is put into the cup 20 through the discharging hose 16 etc. after stirring once, the mixing ball 15 or the discharging ball is discharged. In particular, the thickening material remains in the hose 16. Then, in preparation for the next beverage production, the mixing ball 15 and the discharge hose 16 are washed with hot water, and the hot water used for these washings is poured into the cup 20.
Therefore, in the production of a thickened beverage using the mixing ball method, in any case, after the beverage containing the thickening is added to the cup 20, the beverage containing no thickening is added to the cup 20. It needs to be put in. In this case, the non-thickened beverage will be put on the thickened beverage previously put in the cup 20, which causes aspiration. In other words, when the mixing ball method is adopted, the uniformity of the beverage, which is the requirement of (C) above, cannot be ensured unless the inside of the cup 20 is agitated manually after the beverage is put into the cup 20. Many.

In the case of the conventional mixing ball system, the mixing ball 15 to be cooked is immovable, and powder, hot water, etc. are put therein and stirred and cooked. Therefore, since a complicated moving mechanism of the cup inside the device is not required, there is an advantage that the structure of the device can be simplified. In addition, the mixing performance is high because a mixing ball which is a dedicated stirring container is used.
However, when the highly viscous thickened liquid is ejected from the mixing ball 15 to the cup 20, the thickened liquid may not be ejected depending on the diameter of the ejection hose 16. Furthermore, when manufacturing various types of beverages, there is a risk that beverage contamination may occur in the mixing ball and the discharge hose 16. In order to prevent such contamination, it is necessary to clean the mixing ball and the discharge hose every time different beverages are cooked. Further, from the viewpoint of hygiene management, the user needs to carry out maintenance once a day, which imposes a heavy management burden on cleaning and the like.

Next, an example of using a thickening material as a functional material will be described as an embodiment of the present invention with reference to FIGS.
First, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an outline of the cup mixing method adopted by the present invention.
As shown in FIG. 2, in the cup mixing method, the thickened beverage is cooked in the cup 20. Therefore, in general, the cup 20 supplied from the cup supply mechanism uses the cup transport mechanism 60 and is located below the raw material supply mechanism and the hot and cold water supply mechanism (including the hot water supply mechanism, the water supply mechanism, the ice supply mechanism, etc.). It is necessary to have a mechanism to move to and receive each raw material, hot water, water, etc.
The water supply mechanism in the hot water supply mechanism may be configured by a cold water supply mechanism and a room temperature water supply mechanism, if necessary.
Further, in order to stir each raw material, hot water, water, etc., the stirring mechanism 70 including the stirring blade motor 74 and the stirring blade 75 is used.

Next, referring to FIG. 3, there is shown an outline of a display plate provided on the front surface of the casing of the automatic beverage cooking apparatus of the embodiment.
As in the conventional cup-type beverage vending machine, the beverage automatic cooking apparatus of the embodiment has a flavor selection section for selecting the flavor of the beverage, as shown in FIG. A selection button 30 is arranged.
In the present disclosure, “flavor” refers to types of beverages such as green tea, coffee and cocoa.
In addition, a thickening switching button is provided as a function instructing unit for instructing addition of a functional material such as thickening to the beverage. In the present embodiment, in addition to the function instructing unit, a thickening amount increasing button and a thickening reducing amount button can be provided as an increasing / decreasing instruction unit for the functional material.
In the automatic cooking device of the present embodiment, the user can easily select whether or not to thicken the beverage selected by the flavor selection unit by pressing the thickness switching button which is the function instructing unit. .

Then, the degree of thickening applied to the beverage can be adjusted by using the thickening amount increasing button and the thickening amount decreasing button.
The thickening change button as the function instructing unit and the thickening amount increasing button and the thickening reducing amount button as the function material increasing / decreasing instructing unit are sometimes called function buttons 31. In the example of FIG. 3, the function button 31 is a thickening switch button when the right end instructs thickening, and the two buttons on the left side thereof are a thickening and thickening button and a thickening and thinning button as a function material increasing / decreasing instruction section. ing.

In addition to this, on the display plate on the front of the housing, a product take-out door 32, a bill coin insertion slot 33, a display device (displays the amount of money to be put in, selling / preparing / out of change, temperature (° C), etc.) 34 and the like are also provided.
Further, although not shown, the front display panel may be provided with a button, which is provided in a conventional automatic cooking device, for adjusting the amount of cream, sugar or the like to be increased or decreased.

Inside the beverage automatic cooking device, depending on the selection of the flavor and function button selected by the flavor selection unit, a powder coffee canister that is a raw material supply mechanism, a coffee bean canister, a powder tea canister, a cream canister, a thickener canister, Raw materials selected from sugar canisters and the like are prepared.
Then, the cup that receives the raw materials is moved in the X-axis and Y-axis directions on the plane inside the automatic beverage cooking device by the cup transport mechanism to receive various raw materials, to add hot water, water, and ice, to perform stirring processing, etc. To cook thickened beverages.
In addition, in the apparatus of the present embodiment, not only the raw material is melted with hot water or the like to cook the beverage, but also the coffee brewer may extract the beverage from the raw material using the hot water to cook the beverage. As a matter of course, the beverage may be cooked using the extracted hot water through a process such as spotting.

Hereinafter, each mechanism and control used in the beverage automatic cooking apparatus of the present embodiment will be described.
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the overall structure of the beverage automatic cooking apparatus of the embodiment. Inside the automatic beverage cooking device, a hot water supply mechanism including a tank 41, a water supply 42, a filter 43, a pump 44, a hot water tank 45, an ice supply mechanism including an ice maker 46, a cold water pump 47, and a cold water filter 48. There is a water supply mechanism that consists of, etc., and these make up the water supply system. Further, various canisters 49 as a raw material supply mechanism and a stirring mechanism are also provided. Then, the cup is configured to move below the canister, below the water supply system, and below the stirring mechanism by the cup transport mechanism.

The components shown in FIG. 4 are coffee bean canister 50, mill 51, RC brewer 52, carbonator 53, BIB (Bag in Box) 54, syrup pump 55, carbon dioxide gas cylinder 56, syrup valve 57, stirring blade 75, For example, the cooling water tank 59.
Although not shown in FIG. 4, the inside of the automatic beverage cooking apparatus is provided with a cup transport mechanism, a stirring mechanism, a raw material supply mechanism, a hot water supply mechanism, and an ice cube based on the operation from the front display plate of the apparatus. A control unit that controls the supply mechanism and the water supply mechanism is provided.

Next, an outline of a control-related hardware configuration of the automatic cooking apparatus of the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. The control board that constitutes the control unit includes a logic circuit, a storage unit, and the like, and is connected to various mechanisms and sensors in the cooking device, an input device, and wiring for connecting these.
The storage section of the control board stores cooking recipes for various beverages as a recipe database (hereinafter referred to as “recipe DB”), the amount and timing of the ingredients and water, the stirring time, the cup feeding / conveying process. Etc. are specified.
8 to 11, which will be described later, show a part of the recipes stored in the recipe DB.
Note that the contents of the recipe DB can be rewritten from outside the beverage automatic cooking device through an I / F (Interface) such as a keyboard.
Further, the control unit can drive each mechanism and function in the automatic beverage machine based on signals from sensors and other mechanisms in the device, signals from the device, flavor selection unit, function instruction unit, and the like. .

That is, when the control unit receives a signal for adding a functional material from the function instructing unit, it selects a recipe to which a functional material corresponding to the flavor selected by the flavor selecting unit is added, based on the recipe DB, and makes the selection. Based on the recipe, the control signal is transmitted to the cup transport mechanism, the stirring mechanism, the raw material supply mechanism, and the hot water supply mechanism in the device.
In addition, in the present embodiment, an example in which the control unit is configured by the control board in the automatic cooking device will be described, but the control unit and the recipe DB do not necessarily have to exist in the automatic cooking device. When the automatic cooking device can communicate with an information processing system such as a cloud system outside the device, the control unit and the recipe DB may exist outside the automatic cooking device.

Here, an example of the recipe DB will be described with reference to FIGS. 8 to 11.
FIG. 8 is a recipe for cold green tea, cold coffee, cold cocoa and warm green tea, warm coffee, warm cocoa without thickening.
FIG. 9 is a recipe for cold green tea, cold coffee, and cold cocoa, and warm green tea, warm coffee, and warm cocoa for medium thickening.
FIG. 10 is a recipe for cold green tea, cold coffee, cold cocoa, and warm green tea, warm coffee, and warm cocoa for thin thickening.
FIG. 11 is a recipe for cold green tea, cold coffee, cold cocoa, and warm green tea, warm coffee, and warm cocoa for thickening and thickening.

Both recipes are recipes for cooking 9 ounce cup beverages. Each of the recipes in FIGS. 8 to 11 is represented by a three-stage table, and the table shown in the upper stage is a recipe regarding powder, hot water, and water. And, the table shown in the middle is a recipe regarding hot water addition, stirring, and impeller cleaning. And the table shown at the bottom is a recipe for water addition and stirring.
Since the tables have the same structure, the recipe tables will be collectively described below.
First, in the upper table, flavors are described in 801, 901, 1001, 1101 from the left. Although three types of green tea, cocoalate, and coffee are described in the present disclosure, the types of flavors of the automatic beverage cooking device are not limited to these, and more types are available. It may have a flavor.

Next, in 802, 902, 1002, 1102, a distinction between a cold beverage (cold) and a warm beverage (hot) is described.
Next, in 803, 903, 1003, and 1103, the number of the canister in which the raw material is stored is described.
Next, in 804, 904, 1004, 1104, the amount of raw material powder input from each canister is described. Since the amount of the raw material powder is a trade secret, it is described as a numerical range in the present disclosure.
Next, in 805, 905, 1005, and 1105, the amount of thickening agent input is described. Since 805 is a soft drink, all numerical values are 0. In addition, the amount of thickener added varies depending on the flavor and hot or cold drinks even if the same thickness is applied, so the recipe values specified in 905, 1005, and 1105 will vary. ing.

Next, in 806, 906, 1006, 1106, the amount of hot water used for cooking is described. 807, 907, 1007 and 1107 describe the amount of water used for cooking.
Then, 808, 908, 1008, and 1108 describe the amount of ice used for cooking.
Next, in 809, 909, 1009, and 1109, the waiting time from when the cup reaches the cooking position below the hot water supply mechanism until the hot water comes out is described. 810, 910, 1010, 1110 describe the waiting time from the cooking position where the cup is below the water supply mechanism until the water comes out.
Usually, in an automatic cooking device, the cooking positions below the hot water supply mechanism, the water supply mechanism, and the ice supply mechanism are often the same. In such a case, the steps of pouring hot water, stirring, pouring water, and stirring are continuously performed at the same place.

Next, the middle table (stirring condition # 1) will be described.
The table shown in the middle is a recipe regarding the stirring conditions and the impeller cleaning conditions when hot water is first poured into the cup.
First, 811, 911, 1011, and 1111 describe the waiting time from when hot water is poured into the cup until the impeller comes down. Then, in 812, 912, 1012, and 1112, the position where the impeller descends and stops is described. The stop position is defined by the size of the cup, so the recipes presented in this disclosure are all uniform for 9 ounce cups, so the descent position is also the same.

Next, in 813, 913, 1013, and 1113, the waiting time from the impeller descending and stopping until the impeller starts rotating is described.
The rotation time of the impeller is described in 814, 914, 1014, and 1114. Further, in the automatic cooking device of the present embodiment, the rotational speed of the impeller can be set in 9 steps from 1 to 9. Then, in 815, 915, 1015, and 1115, the level of the rotational speed of the impeller is described.
Further, in 820, 920, 1020, 1120, cleaning patterns of the impeller after cooking are described by pattern numbers.

Next, the lower table (stirring condition # 2) will be described. The table shown in the lower row is a recipe for stirring conditions when water is added to the cup. In the cup mixing type automatic cooking device of the present embodiment, the powder material is first melted with hot water, and then water is injected to control the temperature and the like.
831, 931, 1031 and 1131 describe the waiting time from when water is poured into the cup until the impeller descends. Then, in 832, 932, 1032, 1132, the position where the impeller descends and stops is described.
Next, 833, 933, 1033, and 1133 describe the waiting time from when the impeller descends and stops until the rotation of the impeller starts.
The rotation time of the impeller is described in 834, 934, 1034, and 1134. Further, 835, 935, 1035, 1135 describe the level of the rotational speed of the impeller.

As can be seen from FIGS. 9 to 11, when the degree of thickening is changed, it is possible to cook an intermediate thickened beverage, a thin thickened beverage, and a thick thickened beverage by changing the addition amount of the thickening material. . Therefore, when changing the degree of thickening, it is possible to deal with the conventional method of changing the increase or decrease of cream or sugar.
However, as is clear from a comparison between FIG. 8 and FIGS. 9 to 11, the content of the recipe is significantly different between the recipe in which the thickener is not added and the recipe in which the thickener is added.
Specifically, when the thickener is added, the stirring conditions (time and stirring strength) after adding water must be changed considerably depending on the flavor. Further, even when cooking a hot thickened beverage, it is necessary to use not only hot water but also water.

The recipes described with reference to FIGS. 8 to 11 are simple recipes when ice is not used, but even with such simple recipes, functional materials such as thickeners are not added and are not added. In this case, not only the presence / absence of addition of the functional material is different, but also the recipe setting is different for various items such as the number of times of stirring, the stirring time, the amount of water and the amount of hot water injected.
For this reason, in the conventional automatic cooking device, the specification of changing only the addition amount of one or two ingredients such as an increase button for sugar or cream, etc. Can't cook.

In other words, the flavors are the same, and even if the beverages of the same kind from the user's point of view, their cooking methods must differ greatly.Therefore, as an automatic cooking device, depending on the presence or absence of functional materials, they are completely different beverages. I have to handle it. Therefore, in the automatic cooking device, for a beverage to which the functional material is added, it is necessary to install a selection button containing the functional material for each flavor in order to select the recipe to which the functional material is added.
However, if a large number of selection buttons are installed in front of the housing of the automatic cooking device, the convenience of the user is impaired and the size of the automatic cooking device becomes a problem.
In this respect, the automatic cooking device of the present disclosure includes the function display unit, so that beverages having completely different recipes can be switched by operating the function instruction unit even if the beverages have the same flavor.
Specifically, when the user presses the function material instruction button, which is the function instruction unit, the control unit of the automatic cooking device selects a completely different recipe of the same flavor, and the user can easily obtain the desired function material. The added beverage can be obtained.
That is, the user can simply obtain the beverage with the desired functional material simply by pressing the desired functional material instruction button and the flavor selection button.

Next, the cup transport mechanism will be described with reference to FIG.
As shown in FIG. 6, in the cup transport mechanism, the cup hand portion moves along the X-axis portion 61 and the Y-axis portion 62, and can freely move the designated position on the XY plane in the device. The cup hand part 63 can be moved on the Y-axis by a Y-axis transport motor (not shown) provided in the Y-axis part. Further, the Y-axis portion can be moved on the X-axis by an X-axis transport motor (not shown) provided in the X-axis portion. Therefore, the cup hand portion 63 can be moved to any position on the XY plane. In addition to stopping at a predetermined location, eccentric movement can be performed around the predetermined location.

Next, the stirring mechanism will be described with reference to FIG. 7.
In FIG. 7, a stirring mechanism 70 includes a stirring mechanism casing 71 for protecting the stirring mechanism from dirt, a stirring blade vertical guide 72 for stabilizing the position / posture of the stirring mechanism and guiding vertical movement, and a stirring blade vertical shaft. Agitating blade position detection sensor 73 for detecting the stop position, an agitating blade motor 74 for driving the agitating blade, an agitating blade 75, an ice chute 76 which is a connection port of an ice chute, a hot water connection port 77 which is a connection port of a hot water tube, coffee It is composed of a coffee connection port 78 which is a connection port of a tube, a stirring blade vertical motor 79 for vertically moving the stirring blade according to the cooking state, and a stirring blade origin switch 80 for detecting the origin position of the stirring blade vertical axis.

That is, as shown in FIG. 7, the stirring mechanism 70 has a structure in which a stirring blade motor 74 rotates a propeller for stirring liquid, which is called a stirring blade (impeller) 75. Further, when stirring the beverage in the cup, the stirring blade 75 is moved downward by the stirring blade vertical motor 79, and the stirring blade 75 rotates in the liquid.
Further, when performing the stirring motion, the stirring blade 75 itself may perform the eccentric motion in the horizontal plane, may perform the rotary motion while moving in the vertical direction, or the eccentric motion in the horizontal direction and the motion in the vertical direction. May be performed at the same time.

Below, the example of the cooking process of a drink when a thickening material is used as a functional material is demonstrated. However, unlike the simple recipes shown in FIGS. 8 to 11, the cooking process described below describes the cooking process using undiluted coffee solution using a coffee brewer or ice, and thus FIGS. There is a point that does not always match the recipe of.
A. Cold thickened beverages Cold thickened beverages are prepared and provided mainly by the following steps.

(1) Beverage type selection process The control unit receives a signal from the selection unit that selects the type of beverage, and the control unit selects a cup that matches the selection for the cup mechanism based on the signal from the flavor selection unit. Instruct to supply.
The types of selection by the flavor selection unit include, for example, hot and cold as types of beverage temperature, and large / medium / small as selections of cup volume. In addition, you can choose whether or not you need sugar, cream, or ice. Further, the function instructing section can select whether or not thickening material is necessary, and when thickening is present, the degree of thickening can also be selected.
Specifically, when the flavor is selected by the flavor selection button 30 of FIG. 3 and the thickening switching button of the function button 31 is pressed, the control unit selects the recipe containing thickening material.
Then, when the thickening increase button and the thickening reduction button are pressed, the control unit selects a recipe for thick and thick, respectively, from the recipe DB. When neither the thickening amount increase button nor the thickening amount decreasing button is pressed, the control unit selects an intermediate thickening recipe from the recipe DB.

(2) Raw Material Feeding Process Next, the control unit instructs the raw material supply mechanism to supply the raw material required for cooking the beverage to the temporary holding area based on the recipe DB. At this time, the thickening material is also temporarily held by the raw material holding device. Then, when it is detected by a signal from a sensor that the cup has arrived below the discharge port of the temporary stocking device by the cup transport mechanism, the raw material of the temporary stocking device is put into the cup.

(3) Hot water pouring process Next, the cup is carried to the lower side of the hot water supply mechanism or the coffee brewer by the cup carrying mechanism, and when this is detected, hot water or extracted coffee stock solution (hereinafter referred to as "stock solution") is poured into the cup. May be injected).

(4) Thickening Material Dissolving Step Next, the cup is conveyed below the stirring mechanism by the cup conveying mechanism, and when this is detected, the stirring blade 75 of the stirring mechanism descends and the primary stirring is performed.

(5) Ice Injection Step Next, the cup is conveyed below the ice supply mechanism by the cup conveyance mechanism, and when this is detected, ice is injected from the ice supply mechanism.

(6) Water Injection Step Next, the cup is transported to the lower side of the water supply mechanism by the cup transport mechanism, and when this is detected, water is added from the water supply mechanism.

(7) Final Stirring Step Next, the cup is transported to the lower side of the stirring mechanism by the cup transporting mechanism, and when this is detected, the stirring blade 75 of the stirring mechanism descends to perform the final stirring. Then, in the final stirring, eccentric stirring is performed so that the stirring blade 75 of the stirring mechanism can sufficiently stir the inside of the cup in order to make the thickening inside the cup uniform.
When the cooking positions under the hot water supply mechanism, the water supply mechanism, and the ice supply mechanism are the same, the cup transport mechanism from the above (3) pouring step to (7) final stirring step. Therefore, the step of transporting the cup according to step 1 is omitted.

(8) Providing Step Cooking is completed when the predetermined final stirring is completed. After that, the cup is transported to the selling port by the cup transport mechanism, the door of the selling port is opened, and the beverage is provided. The door of the sales outlet is closed when the cup is taken out.

When cooking a beverage by the cup mixing method, stirring is performed in a cup having a smaller volume than a mixing bowl, and the stirring blade 75 is also small. Therefore, in the stirring of the thickened beverage, there is a possibility that the time required for stirring in the cup may be prolonged or the stirring may not be sufficiently performed. Therefore, in this embodiment, the eccentric stirring is performed in the secondary stirring to uniformly stir the thickening component in the cup in a short time.

In addition, when cooking a cold thickened beverage, it is important that the beverage does not eventually contain ice. Therefore, it is desirable that the minimum temperature of the beverage is about 3 ° C. In the preparation of a thickened beverage, the thickening material first undergoes a step of dissolving it in a stock coffee solution extracted with hot water or a coffee brewer (“thickening material dissolving step”). Then, in order to bring the final temperature of the beverage to the range of 3 ° C to 65 ° C, after the thickening material is dissolved, the stock solution is diluted with ice and / or water, and at the same time, the temperature is lowered by pouring ice. A dilution process consisting of a process and a water injection process will be performed.

In this dilution step, the temperature is not adjusted by supplying ice and water at the same time, but the ice pouring step is first performed on the stock solution, and the water pouring step is performed after the ice has been sufficiently dissolved. It is possible to prevent ice from remaining in the cup.
Therefore, in the above steps (1) to (7), a stirring step is further provided between the above (5) and (6), and after the ice is melted, the water injection step of (6) is carried out and after cooking, It may be more certain that there is no ice in the cup.

In addition, in the case of a thickened beverage using a coffee brewer, as a pouring step, an extraction step of extracting a stock solution of coffee by a coffee brewer and a hot water supply mechanism is performed, and the extracted stock solution is put into a cup. Then, after that, the raw material and the thickened raw material necessary for cooking the beverage are put into the cup.

B. Warm Thick Beverages The production of warm thick drinks is described in A. The ice supply process is omitted from the cold thickened beverage process and the dilution process is performed by supplying water to adjust the concentration and temperature of the beverage.

The stirring blade 75 of the stirring mechanism needs a cleaning process for cleaning each time the cup beverage is cooked. The washing step is to wash each used site with hot or cold water via a pump.
At that time, the stirring blade 75 of the stirring mechanism may be raised, or may be lowered again and washed with hot water or cold wash water while rotating the stirring blade 75.

As described above, in the present embodiment, the mechanism of the conventional automatic cooking machine for beverages by the cup mixing method is fully utilized, the stirring mechanism is used to stir in the cup, and the pump is used to stir the mechanism with hot water. This makes it possible to wash. In this embodiment, as an example, a thickener is added to the tea powder, and hot water and water are added thereto and stirred in the cup, but the beverage to which the present invention is applicable is not limited to tea, It goes without saying that there are a wide variety of coffee, cocoa, carbonated drinks, and so on.

As described above, the beverage automatic cooking apparatus of the present invention, the ratio of hot water, ice and cold water, ice, and the timing of charging cold water are changed, the ice is melted with a small amount of hot water, and the cold water is poured therein to cool the ice. It is now possible to provide a thickened beverage in the temperature range of 3 ° C. to 65 ° C. without leaving any lump.
Generally, the raw material of a thickened beverage is difficult to dissolve in cold water, so that even when cooking a cold beverage, it is necessary to first melt the raw material with hot water. As a result, it is necessary to adjust the temperature by adding ice, but the temperature is adjusted appropriately, there is no ice in the cup, and the inside of the cup is evenly stirred, and cooking is completed in a short time. It is important to.

Since the automatic cooking vending machine according to the present invention has the configuration as described above, it has the following effects.
(1) For all flavors, when cooking a beverage to which a functional material such as thickening material is added, this can be set by one "thickness switching button" which is a function button of the function instructing section. Further, the increase / decrease of the functional material can be set by the "thickness increase button" and the "thickness decrease button" which are the function buttons of the functional material increase / decrease instruction section.
(2) Cooking of a beverage to which a functional material such as thickener is added can be completed in the cup. Therefore, since the food can be cooked in the cup, a hygienic product can be provided.
(3) In the case of the conventional mixing ball method, the functional material such as thickening material remains in the ball, and the beverage that has been cooked just before remains in the hose that discharges the beverage. Cleaning work such as ball mechanism and hose is required. Therefore, the user needs to perform maintenance once a day.
In this respect, according to the present invention, since the stirring and cooking is performed in the cup, only the stirring mechanism is washed for each cooking, and it is not necessary to perform a large-scale washing inside the apparatus. In addition, from the management of the equipment to the maintenance, since the operation can be performed only by the management of the installation manufacturer, the employees at the installation destination of the automatic cooking device do not need to perform daily maintenance.

(4) In the automatic cooking device of the present invention, since the control unit controls the inside of the device, the occurrence of measurement errors, product quality fluctuations, etc. is extremely reduced.
(5) Further, since the delicate cooking process can be accurately executed by the recipe DB in the control unit, it is possible to add an appropriate thickening to the soft drink having carbonate added which is difficult to thicken.
Further, if the raw material contains a milk fat component, an acid, or a salt content, thickening is difficult, but in the present invention, an appropriate thickening can be made by the recipe DB in the control unit. The same applies to the case of adding a fiber material for adding dietary fibers to a beverage, a protein material for adding proteins to the beverage, and a lactic acid material for adding lactic acids to the beverage, other than the thickening material.
(6) With a capacity of 10 cc to 500 cc, a beverage containing a functional material in a temperature range of 3 ° C. to 65 ° C. can be freely provided in a simple manner for many kinds of beverages.
(7) In order to prevent aspiration, it is important to provide a thickened product according to the swallowing ability of each patient. In this respect, the thickened beverage automatic cooking device of the present invention can select the degree of thickening and the degree of thickening with a button. Therefore, it is possible to freely provide the thickened beverage according to the swallowing ability of each person with dysphagia.

11 ... Powder tea canister 12 Hot water supply mechanism 13 Thick material canister 14 Raw material temporary storage device 15 Mixing ball 16 Discharge hose 20・ ・ Cup 30 ・ ・ ・ ・ Flavor selection button 31 ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ Function button 60 ・ ・ ・ ・ Cup transport mechanism 70 ・ ・ ・ ・ Stirring mechanism 74 ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ Stirring blade motor 75 ・ ・ ・ ・ Stirring blade

Claims (10)

1. A cup mixing type automatic beverage cooking device comprising a control unit, a recipe DB, a cup transport mechanism, a stirring mechanism, a raw material supply mechanism, and a hot water supply mechanism,
   The beverage automatic cooking device, on the front of the housing, a flavor selection unit for selecting the flavor of the beverage and a function instruction unit for instructing addition of a functional material,
   When the control unit receives a signal for adding a functional material from the function instructing unit, based on the recipe DB, selects a recipe to which a functional material corresponding to the flavor selected by the flavor selecting unit is added, A beverage automatic cooking device that sends a control signal to a cup transport mechanism, a stirring mechanism, a raw material supply mechanism, and a hot water supply mechanism in the beverage automatic cooking device based on the selected recipe.
2. In the beverage automatic cooking device according to claim 1,
   The functional material is a thickening material for thickening a beverage, a fiber material for adding dietary fiber to the beverage, a protein material for adding protein to the beverage, and a lactic acid material for adding lactic acid to the beverage. Characterized beverage automatic cooking device.
3. The automatic cooking device according to claim 1 or 2,
   The hot water supply mechanism comprises a hot water supply mechanism and a water supply mechanism.
4. The automatic cooking device according to claim 3,
   The hot water supply mechanism is equipped with an ice mechanism, and the beverage automatic cooking apparatus is characterized.
5. The automatic cooking device according to any one of claims 1 to 4,
   When the control unit receives a signal for adding a functional material from the function instruction unit, based on the recipe DB,
   (1) Step of charging raw material into cup (2) Dissolution process of hot water or coffee stock solution and functional material by stirring mechanism (3) Dilution process by hot water supply mechanism (4) Final stirring process by stirring mechanism A beverage automatic cooking device characterized by transmitting a control signal for operating.
6. The automatic cooking device according to claim 5, wherein the final stirring step includes eccentric stirring.
7. The automatic cooking device according to claim 5,
   The beverage automatic cooking device, wherein the control unit sends to the stirring mechanism a control signal for operating the washing process after the final stirring process.
8. The automatic cooking device according to any one of claims 1 to 7,
   The flavor selection unit is a button provided for each flavor,
   The function instruction section is a button provided for each functional material,
   The beverage automatic cooking device further comprising a function material increase / decrease instruction unit on the front surface of the casing.
9. In the beverage automatic cooking device according to claim 1,
   An automatic method for cooking a beverage, which comprises the following steps (1) to (4).
   (1) Step of charging raw material into cup (2) Step of dissolving hot water or coffee stock solution and functional material by stirring mechanism (3) Dilution step by hot water supply mechanism (4) Final stirring step by stirring mechanism
10. An automatic cooking method for a beverage according to claim 9,
    The (3) dilution process by the hot and cold water supply mechanism,
    An automatic cooking method for beverages, which comprises performing a water injection step after the ice injection step.

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