Patent Publication Number: US-2009229478-A1

Title: Fruit/vegetable juice spinning filter

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates to a fruit/vegetable juice spinning filter, and more particularly to a fruit/vegetable juice spinning filter enabling enhanced fruit/vegetable juice extracting function. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     In general family life, a fruit/vegetable juice extractor is frequently used to extract fruit/vegetable juice, which is not only tasty to drink, but also nutritious and good for the health. 
     The currently commercially available fruit/vegetable juice extractor, as suggested by the name, has only one simple function of extracting juice from fruit/vegetable. A conventional fruit/vegetable juice extractor includes a container for containing fruits/vegetables. A rotary cutter is arranged in the container to be driven by a rotary force from a motor of the juice extractor for extracting juice from the fruits/vegetables contained in the container. 
     The extracted fruit/vegetable juice is pulp-containing and received in the container, and may be poured into a cup or the like for drinking. Before pouring the extracted juice into the cup, a strainer may be used to filter off the pulp so as to obtain almost pulp-free fruit/vegetable juice. 
     People would generally discard the filtered-off pulp. However, there is still some juice remaining in the pulp. It is an unnecessary waste to discard the juice-containing pulp. 
     It is therefore tried by the inventor to develop a fruit/vegetable juice spinning filter for further collecting juice remained in the pulp, so as to provide enhanced fruit/vegetable juice extracting function. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     A primary object of the present invention is to provide a fruit/vegetable juice spinning filter which enables enhanced fruit/vegetable juice extracting function. 
     To achieve the above and other objects, the fruit/vegetable juice spinning filter of the present invention includes a container, a strainer basket, and a cover. The container internally defines a chamber, and is provided with a bottom opening and a juice outlet. The bottom opening and the juice outlet communicate the chamber with an outer side of the container. 
     The strainer basket is disposed in the chamber of the container to define a filtered juice receiving space between the container and the strainer basket. The strainer basket internally defines an extracted juice chamber, and is provided with a spinning shaft downward extended through the bottom opening of the container to outward project from the container. 
     The cover is covered onto a top of the container to close the chamber of the container and the extracted juice chamber of the strainer basket. The cover is formed with an inlet communicating with the extracted juice chamber of the strainer basket. The fruit/vegetable juice spinning filter of the present invention further includes a funnel which is placed on the cover to downward extend through the inlet and thereby communicates with the extracted juice chamber. 
     Through the funnel, the pulp-containing fruit/vegetable juice obtained using a conventional fruit/vegetable juice extractor may be conveniently poured into the extracted juice chamber of the strainer basket. The spinning shaft of the strainer basket is coupled with an external spinning motor base for driving the strainer basket to spin. When the strainer basket is driven to spin, not only the extracted fruit/vegetable juice, but also the juice remained in the pulp is centrifugally separated from the pulp. Therefore, an almost pulp-free fruit/vegetable juice is produced, and the juice remained in the pulp is not wasted. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The structure and the technical means adopted by the present invention to achieve the above and other objects can be best understood by referring to the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments and the accompanying drawings, wherein 
         FIG. 1  is an exploded perspective view of a fruit/vegetable juice spinning filter according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 2  is an assembled perspective view of  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 3  is a vertical sectional view of  FIG. 2 ; 
         FIG. 4  is a perspective view showing that the present invention is associated with an external spin motor base for use; 
         FIG. 5  is a vertical sectional view of  FIG. 4  with an amount of extracted and pulp-containing fruit/vegetable juice poured into a strainer basket; and 
         FIG. 6  shows the strainer basket of the present invention is spun, so that all juice is centrifugally separated from the pulp and collected in a container. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     Please refer to  FIGS. 1 and 2  that are exploded and assembled perspective views, respectively, of a fruit/vegetable juice spinning filter  1  according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, and to  FIG. 3  that is a vertical sectional view of  FIG. 2 . As shown, the fruit/vegetable juice spinning filter  1  includes a container  11 , a strainer basket  12 , and a cover  13 . 
     The container  11  internally defines a chamber  111 , and is provided at predetermined positions with a bottom opening  112  and a juice outlet  113 . The bottom opening  112  and the juice outlet  113  communicate the chamber  111  with an outer side of the container  11 . In the illustrated preferred embodiment, the juice outlet  113  is a spout. 
     The strainer basket  12  is disposed in the chamber  111  of the container  11 , so that a filtered juice receiving space  120  is defined between the strainer basket  12  and the container  11 . The strainer basket  12  internally defines an extracted juice chamber  121  and is provided at a bottom with a spinning shaft  122 . The spinning shaft  122  is downward extended through the bottom opening  112  of the container  11  to outward project from the container  11 . 
     In the illustrated preferred embodiment, the strainer basket  12  has four reinforcing ribs  123  to give the strainer basket  12  an increased structural strength. In addition, a locking ring  124  is screwed to the spinning shaft  122  for firmly locking the strainer basket  12  to the container  11 , as can be seen from  FIG. 3 . Furthermore, the spinning shaft  122  is equipped with a coupler  125  for coupling with an external spin motor base  21 , as shown in  FIG. 4 . Herein, the external spin motor base  21  is a base of a conventional fruit/vegetable juice extractor. 
     The cover  13  is removably covered onto a top of the container  11  for closing the chamber  111  and the extracted juice chamber  121  of the strainer basket  12 . 
     In the illustrated embodiment, the cover  13  is formed with an inlet  131  communicating with the extracted juice chamber  121  of the strainer basket  12 . A funnel  14  can be placed on the cover  13  to downward extend through the inlet  131  to communicate with the extracted juice chamber  121 . 
     Referring to  FIGS. 4 to 6 , which shows the use of the fruit/vegetable juice spinning filter  1  to further filter pulp-containing fruit/vegetable juice  31  produced by a conventional fruit/vegetable extractor. To do so, the fruit/vegetable juice spinning filter  1  is rested on and associated with the external spin motor base  21 . The spin motor base  21  pertains to prior art and thus will not be described in details hereinafter. The coupler  125  on the spinning shaft  122  is coupled with a drive source  211  of the external spinning motor base  21 . 
     Through the funnel  14 , the primarily extracted and pulp-containing fruit/vegetable juice  31  is conveniently poured into the extracted juice chamber  121  of the strainer basket  12  for subsequent spin-filtering. 
     A filter paper  15  may be placed in the extracted juice chamber  121  to overlay the strainer basket  12 . The filter paper  15  has finer filter meshes to enable enhanced filter effect. 
     When the external spin motor base  21  is powered on, the drive source  211  and the coupler  125  coupled therewith are driven to spin, bringing the strainer basket  12  to spin at the same time. In this manner, the fruit/vegetable juice  31  in the extracted juice chamber  121  of the strainer basket  12  and juice remained in the pulp  311  is centrifugally separated from the pulp  311  to produce almost pulp-free fruit/vegetable juice  32 . The pulp-free fruit/vegetable juice  32  is collected in the filtered juice receiving space  120  between the strainer basket  12  and the container  11 . A user may then open the juice outlet (the spout)  113 , allowing the pulp-free fruit/vegetable juice  32  to flow into a cup or the like (not shown) for serving or drinking. 
     With the above arrangements, the fruit/vegetable juice spinning filter of the present invention not only filters off the pulp  311  from the extracted fruit/vegetable juice  31  to produce the pulp-free juice  32 , but also fully extracts the fruit/vegetable juice remained in the pulp  311 . Therefore, the prevent invention provides enhanced juice extracting function without wasting the juice remained in the pulp  311 . 
     In the case relatively fine pulp  311  is contained in the primarily extracted juice, the filter paper  15  with even finer filter meshes may be used to assist the strainer basket  12  in filtering off the fine pulp. When the juice spin-filtering is completed, the filter paper  15  can be conveniently removed from the strainer basket  12  to facilitate subsequent cleaning of the whole fruit/vegetable juice spinning filter  1 . 
     The present invention has been described with a preferred embodiment thereof and it is understood that many changes and modifications in the described embodiment can be carried out without departing from the scope and the spirit of the invention that is intended to be limited only by the appended claims.