Brewing Component of Coffee Machine

A brewing component of coffee machine includes an upper cover with a plurality of water inlet holes, each receives hot water through a single water supply path and penetrates the upper and lower surfaces of the upper cover, and a base is placed under the upper cover and combined with the upper cover. The upper surface of the base has a plurality of annular areas separated by concentric grooves of different diameters, each has a plurality of water injection holes uniformly distributed along the circumferential direction, and separates the annular area to form a plurality of watertight areas through the O-rings. Hot water is guided to the watertight areas through the plurality of water inlet holes for brewing ground coffee, where the plurality of watertight areas provides one-time water injection or sectional water injection.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a coffee machine, specifically a brewing component of the coffee machine.

BACKGROUND

Coffee is an extremely popular beverage in today's society. Since the modem life is fast-pace and under high pressure, the coffee may boost spirit and reduce drowsiness by stimulating the central nervous system. Therefore, the coffee has become one of the necessity matters for people to refresh themselves, and the coffee market has grown rapidly to meet the demands.

Hand-brewed coffee involves a step to inject water into the coffee powder through a filter paper. When making the coffee, the users hold the hand-brewed kettle, slowly and spirally pour hot water into the coffee powder from inner to outer area with appropriate water flow, such that the coffee powder is brewed evenly by the hot water. The coffee drips through the filter paper. The flavor of the brewed coffee is related to individual experience if the coffee is made by manual brewing, thus, the coffee flavor is difficult to maintain consistency.

Existing automatic coffee machines employ automatic processes to grind coffee beans into coffee powder, followed by flowing the hot water through the coffee powder to extract coffee liquid. Alternatively, the coffee powder is placed in a typical coffee machine funnel with a filter (such as filter paper), and the hot water is subsequently injected to extract the coffee liquid.

The coffee machine is generally designed to have a single water outlet, or it is designed with a sprinkler having multiple outlets. However, these water outlet designs only consider the control of water outlet volume, and fail to consider the water outlet method and style. Therefore, although the coffee machines that follow this type of spout design and controlling method provide fast and easy-to-extract coffee, it is unlikely to imitate the manual brewing style and achieve the best flavor of the coffee.

Based on the prior art shortcomings, the present invention improves the brewing component of the coffee machines to imitate the brewing method of hand-brewed coffee by improving the water outlet component design and the control of the water outlet method.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In order to achieve above purpose, the present invention provides a brewing component of a coffee machine having an upper cover with pluralities of water inlet holes, each the water inlet holes receives the hot water from a respective hot water supply path and penetrates the upper surface and the lower surface of the upper cover; a base is placed under the upper cover and engages the upper base, wherein the upper surface of the base includes pluralities of annular areas separated by pluralities of concentric grooves of different diameters, each annular areas includes water injection holes distributed along a circumferential direction, wherein pluralities of watertight areas are formed by separating the annular areas by O-rings set on the pluralities of the concentric grooves of the different diameters; wherein the hot water guided from the pluralities of the water inlet holes to the pluralities of watertight areas is used to brew coffee power under the pluralities of watertight areas by injecting water to the pluralities of the water inlet holes corresponding to the pluralities of watertight areas; wherein the pluralities of watertight areas provide one-time water injection or sectional water injection.

In one embodiment, the upper cover includes pluralities of circular grooves with a common center on the lower surface of the upper cover, the pluralities of circular grooves are configured to align to the pluralities of water inlet holes to constrain the flow of the hot water to the pluralities of watertight areas.

In one embodiment, the pluralities of water inlet holes are arranged extending outward from the center of the upper cover.

In one embodiment, each pluralities of water inlet holes respectively controls a water flow switch and flowing rate by a solenoid valve and a throttle valve.

In one embodiment, the pluralities of watertight areas provide on-time water injection or sectional water injection method through a control unit to control the solenoid valve corresponding to the pluralities of water inlet holes and to manually adjust the throttle valve.

In one embodiment, wherein the sectional water injection is controlled by the control unit from a center area to an outer edge in a manner of time sequence for imitating water filling actions of hand-brewed coffee.

In one embodiment, wherein the control unit is a microcontroller, a microprocessor, or a programmable logic controller (PLC).

In one embodiment, the pluralities of water inlet holes provide water through pluralities of water supply paths provided by a distributor.

In one embodiment, an inlet end of the distributor is connected to a water supply unit by a solenoid valve to open or close a water supply from the water supply unit.

In one embodiment, the water supply unit provides the hot water.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Here, the present invention is described in detail with respect to specific embodiments and viewpoints of the present invention. This description is used to explain the structure or step process of the present invention, which is for illustration purposes rather than limiting the scope of the present invention. Therefore, in addition to the specific embodiments and preferred embodiments in the specification, the present invention can also be widely implemented in other different embodiments. The following describes the implementation of the present invention through specific embodiments. A person having ordinary skill in the art can easily understand the efficacy and advantages of the present invention through the content disclosed in this specification. Moreover, the present invention can also be used and implemented through other specific embodiments. Various details described in this specification can also be applied based on different needs, and various modifications or changes can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

FIG.1shows a schematic diagram of a coffee machine system100, which at least includes a user interface101, a control unit103, a water supply105and a water outlet107. The water supply105provides hot water to the water outlet107through a water supply pipeline105afor brewing coffee placed in the coffee powder tank121. The coffee machine system100further includes a distributor109connected to the water supply pipeline105a, the water inlet of the distributor109is coupled to a water inlet solenoid valve106for opening or closing the water from the water supply105, the distributor109has pluralities of water outlets, each water outlet is set with a solenoid valve106aand a throttle valve106b, and the downstream of the throttle valve106bis connected to the water outlet107. The water outlets107provide water supply paths (105-1,105-2,105-3,105-4) connected to the water outlets107. The water outlet distribution and water output volume of the water outlet107is controlled by the control unit103which control the solenoid valves (106,106a) set at the water inlet end and water outlet end of the distributor109, in addition to adjusting the throttle valve106bof each water outlet. The user interface101is connected to the control unit103, and the user control the water distribution and water output volume through the user interface101to achieve different water outlet modes when brewing coffee (described in detail later).

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the control unit103may be a microcontroller, a microprocessor, a programmable logic controller (PLC), other similar components or any combination thereof.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the distributor109is a multi-channel water flow distributor made of stainless steel, the distributor109is used to branch the water flow from one channel to multiple outputs.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the user interface101may be a touch display panel or a combination of a display panel and control buttons.

FIG.2shows the brewing component of the coffee machine according to the present invention, namely, the 3D diagram of the water outlet107inFIG.1.FIG.2shows the separated 3D view of the brewing component1071before assembly. The engagement direction is indicated inFIG.2. The brewing component1071includes an upper cover107aand a base107b. The upper cover107aof the brewing component1071has water inlets (121-1,121-2,121-3,121-4) that are respectively connected to the water supply paths (105-1,105-2,105-3,105-4) branched from the distributor109(refer toFIG.1). The base107bis provided below the upper cover107a. The upper cover107aand the base107bare engaged and fixed by screws with screw holes123,123aset on the outer edges of the upper cover107aand the base107b. The surface of the upper cover107afacing the base107bhas a plurality of concentric grooves (not shown) for setting a plurality of corresponding O-rings (125-1,125-2,125-3,125-4) to form a central watertight area and pluralities of annular watertight areas when the base107bis assembled with the upper cover107a. Each annular watertight areas is provided with pluralities of water injection holes127penetrating the upper and lower surfaces of the base107b, and the water injection holes127in individual annular watertight areas are evenly distributed along the circumferential direction of the annular area.

According to the embodiment of the present invention, the upper cover107ahas a plurality of water inlets (121-1,121-2,121-3,121-4) set thereon, all of which are through holes penetrating the upper and lower surfaces of the upper cover107aand the through holes are connected to the water supply paths (105-1,105-2,105-3,105-4) branched from the distributor109through water pipes adapter. The water inlets (121-1,121-2,121-3,121-4) are radially set outward from the center of the upper cover107a, and are correspond to the first watertight area (or the central watertight area) surrounded by the O-ring125-1, the second watertight area surrounded by the O-ring125-1and the O-ring125-2, and the third watertight area surrounded by the O-ring125-2and the O-ring125-3, and the fourth watertight area surrounded by the O-ring125-3and the O-ring125-4.

In order to describe the upper cover107aof the brewing component in more detail,FIG.3shows three views of the upper cover107aincluding the top view, the bottom view and the cross-section view along the A-A direction. It can be seen from the bottom view of the upper cover107a, the lower surface of the upper cover107aincludes the central circular groove127-1, the first annular groove127-2, the second annular groove127-3and the third annular groove127-4. Wherein the central circular groove127-1, the first annular groove127-2, the second annular groove127-3and the third annular groove127-4have a common center.

According to the embodiment of the present invention, the water inlets (121-1,121-2,121-3,121-4) set on the upper cover107aare respectively corresponding to the central circular grooves127-1, the first annular groove127-2, the second annular groove127-3and the third annular groove127-4and penetrate through the lower surface of the upper cover107ato form corresponding pluralities of through holes.

FIG.4shows three views of the base107b, including the top view, the bottom view and the cross-sectional view along the A-A direction. The top view shows a plurality of concentric circular grooves (125-1a,125-2a,125-3a,125-4a) for locating the O-rings (125-1125-2125-3125-4) as described inFIG.2.

FIG.5shows the top view and the cross-sectional view of the brewing component after assembly according to the present invention. Through the top view and the cross-sectional view along the D-D and E-E directions, they clearly show that after the combination of the upper cover107aand the base107b, the water inlets (121-1,121-2,121-3.121-4) set on the upper cover107aare respectively corresponding with the central circular groove127-1, the first annular groove127-2, the second annular groove127-3and the third annular groove127-4, which are aligned with the first watertight area (or central watertight area) surrounded by the O-ring125-1, the second watertight area surrounded by the O-ring125-1and the O-ring125-2, the third watertight area surrounded by the O-ring125-2and the O-ring125-3, the fourth watertight area surrounded by the O-ring125-3and the O-ring125-4.

The present invention controls the coffee machine's brewing component to inject water by one time or sectionally, and individually control the water injection flow rate in different individual areas through a plurality of solenoid valves controlled by the control unit103and the manual adjustable throttle valve. Wherein the sectional water injection can be controlled by the controller, the water is poured from the center area to the outer edge in a manner of time sequence for simulating the water filling action of hand-brewed coffee. According to the embodiment of the present invention, the individual sectional water injection areas refer to the watertight areas mentioned in the previous paragraph.

The design of the brewing component proposed by the present invention can provide flow restriction of hot water that flows through a plurality of water inlets (121-1,121-2,121-3,121-4) to flow through the corresponding central circular groove127-1, the first annular groove127-2, the second annular groove127-3and the third annular groove127-4disposed on the lower surface of the upper cover and can guide the hot water to a plurality of water injection holes127provided in individual annular watertight areas for brewing coffee powder located below them.

While above embodiments of the present invention have been described, those skilled in the art should understand that the embodiments are used to illustrate the present invention, and not limitations. The scope of the present invention should be defined by the accompanying claims and their equivalent. Any changes or modifications made by the person skilled in the art without departing from the spirit or scope of the present invention shall be deemed as equivalent changes or designs within the scope of the present invention, and shall be included in the following claims.