US11950725 (B2)
DISTRIBUTEUR DE PORTIONS POUR DISTRIBUER DES ARTICLES DE BOISSONS EN PORTIONS.
L'invention concerne un distributeur de portions (2) pour distribuer des boissons (8) à partir d'une cartouche échangeable (3), comprenant : un cadre (4) avec une partie de réception (5) pour recevoir la cartouche échangeable, une ouverture de décharge (6) à côté de la partie de réception (5) et dimensionnée pour permettre à une boisson d'être déchargée individuellement par gravité de la cartouche échangeable, un ensemble de moyens de déplacement (16) comprenant un moyen de déplacement (19) et un boîtier de moyen de déplacement (20) dans lequel les moyens de déplacement sont agencés pour se déplacer à l'intérieur, les moyens de déplacement (19) étant agencés pour fournir une chambre de décharge (23) pour le déchargement d'au moins une boisson à l'intérieur et pour le transport vers une zone de distribution (17) et dans lequel l'ensemble de moyens de déplacement (16) est agencé pour se connecter de manière étanche à la cartouche échangeable (3) et comprend des moyens pour ouvrir la cartouche échangeable pour permettre la décharge de la boisson dans la chambre de décharge et pour refermer la cartouche échangeable.
- Publication
- US11950725 (B2)
- Date de publication
- 2024-04-09
- Date de priorité
- 2017-12-22
- Inventeurs
- CROZIER ETIENNE [CH]; ROMAND DAMIEN [FR]; MAGATTI MARCO [CH]
- Déposants
- NESTLE SA [CH]
- Classification
- Classification: - internationale A47J31/40; B65D83/04 - coopérative A47J31/3642 (EP, KR); A47J31/407 (US); B65D83/0409 (US); G07F11/04 (EP, KR)
Publications de la famille
Images du projet
Description
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] The present application is a National Stage of International Application No. PCT/EP2018/085715, filed on Dec. 19, 2018, which claims priority to European Patent Application No. 17210546.2, filed on Dec. 22, 2017, the entire contents of which are being incorporated herein by reference. FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0002] The invention relates to the storing and dispensing of portioned beverage items for the preparation of beverages using such portioned beverage items in a beverage preparation device such as a coffee machine for in-home or professional use. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0003] It is known that coffee is sold in airtight packages to protect it from contact with air that would cause quick oxidation and loss of aromas. The field of beverage sealed capsules has developed tremendously essentially because each coffee portion can be well protected against oxidation by a suitable gastight, functional package until coffee is extracted in a dedicated coffee machine.
[0004] For example, EP0512468 and EP0512470 provide respectively a beverage sealed capsule and a process for extracting a beverage from such capsule.
[0005] U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,178,139 8,210,097 provide respectively a spherical capsule comprising compacted aggregate of substance to be infused and a packaging envelope impermeable to air and water and a machine for automatically preparing and dispensing a beverage from such sealed capsule by puncturing the packaging envelope. In particular, the capsules are stacked in a reservoir above the infusion chamber and selected individually by a rear yoke forming part of the infusion chamber.
[0006] FR2879175 provides a coffee dose for automatic beverage and dispensing machines comprising an infusion chamber and a tamping position for a determined quantity of ground coffee in the infusion chamber. The coffee dose can be compacted from roast and ground coffee to a rolling external shape, a substantially spherical ball. The coffee dose further comprises an envelope of at least one layer or film of porous material imprisoning the coffee aggregate.
[0007] In general, the portioned package solutions which are designed to well preserve the coffee ingredient against oxidation provide many advantages such as freshness, coffee quality by perfect dosing and controlled extraction. However, they are expensive to produce, are generally package material consuming and may require a sophisticated packaging recycling chain.
[0008] Alternative dosing solutions have been developed for dosing and dispensing beverage ingredient portions which when individually taken are sensitive to oxidation but which are stored as a whole in a container in which the level of oxygen is reduced by a sealing protective packaging and/or by associating to the container dedicated vacuum or protective gas supply means when the container is connected to the dispenser device.
[0009] WO2014135677 proposes a device for controlled dispensing of capsules containing beverage ingredients wherein it comprises a discharge outlet for selectively dispensing the capsules and a barrier distribution area arranged within a capsule transport path and means for flushing inert gas in the capsule discharge chamber.
[0010] EP1876936 relates to an airtight coffee dispenser including a rigid container provided with a lid and an outlet nozzle closed by a shutter means. The dispenser includes means suitable to dispense from the container the product while reducing the storage volume.
[0011] EP1879487 relates to the dispensing of coffee powder from a dispenser including a storage container, shutter means and vacuum or inert gas supply to purge the dispensing chamber from oxygen.
[0012] The disadvantages of the existing solutions with a dedicated vacuum or inert gas production device is that it makes the system complex and costly to operate. Additionally, coffee ingredient dispensing solutions especially for coffee powder in bulk pose dosing accuracy problems and are not very clean as powder tends to spread over surfaces of the dispenser and beverage machine.
[0013] Therefore, a solution is sought after for providing a low cost, sustainable and simple dispenser device and system to precisely and reliably dispense beverage product ingredient, e.g. roast and ground coffee, for the preparation of beverage while maintaining product ingredient as fresh as possible and reducing packaging material consumption.
[0014] The present invention aims at overcoming the above-outlined problem of the prior art. Furthermore, the invention aims at providing a solution to further problems identified in the description. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0015] The invention relates to a portion dispenser for dispensing portioned beverage items (“beverage items”) from an exchangeable cartridge comprising: a frame with a receiving portion for receiving the exchangeable cartridge, a discharge opening next to the receiving portion and sized for allowing the beverage items to be individually discharged by gravity from the cartridge, a moving means assembly comprising moving means and a moving means housing in which the moving means are arranged for moving therein;
Revendications
- 1. The invention claimed is:
- 1. A portion dispenser system comprising a portion dispenser and at least one exchangeable cartridge, the portion dispenser configured for dispensing beverage items from the at least one exchangeable cartridge, the portion dispenser comprising: a frame with a receiving portion configured to receive the at least one exchangeable cartridge;a discharge opening next to the receiving portion and sized for allowing a beverage item to be individually discharged by gravity from the at least one exchangeable cartridge;a moving member assembly comprising a moving member and a moving member housing in which the moving member is configured to move therein;wherein the moving member is configured to provide a discharge chamber for discharge of the beverage item therein and to transport the beverage item to a dispensing area;wherein the moving member assembly is configured to connect with the at least one exchangeable cartridge, the moving member assembly comprising a member configured to open the at least one exchangeable cartridge to allow the discharge of the beverage item in the discharge chamber and configured to re-close the at least one exchangeable cartridge, wherein a closure cap is removably attached to a tubular storage member of the at least one exchangeable cartridge;wherein the moving member is axially or laterally arranged relative to the discharge opening and inside the moving member housing to move between an extended position in which the moving member comes at or next to the discharge opening to support the beverage item and a retracted position in which the discharge chamber is defined as a function of the retraction distance of the moving member relative to the discharge opening to receive the beverage item discharged from the at least one exchangeable cartridge; andwherein the moving member comprises a terminal portion configured to connect to the closure cap removably attached to the tubular storage member of the at least one exchangeable cartridge, and wherein the closure cap of the tubular storage member is configured to move with the terminal portion of the moving member between the retracted position and the extended position.
- 2. The portion dispenser system according to claim 1, wherein the at least one exchangeable cartridge comprises: the tubular storage member comprising an interior for accommodating a plurality of the beverage items, the tubular storage member comprising a closed end and an open end comprising an exit opening, wherein the tubular storage member comprises an attachment portion at or next to the exit opening and connectable to at least one tubular surface of the receiving portion; andthe closure cap configured to connect to the tubular storage member at the open end of the tubular storage member in a removable and sealable manner through a removable complementary connection of the tubular storage member and the closure cap.
- 3. The portion dispenser system according to claim 2, wherein the closure cap of the at least one exchangeable cartridge comprises a locking member configured to complementarily fit with a keying member of the portion dispenser and to allow the closure cap to be removed from the tubular storage member and to be re-connected to the tubular storage member.
- 4. The portion dispenser system according to claim 1, wherein an interior of the at least one exchangeable cartridge is protected from an ambient environment by vacuum or inert gas, and wherein the tubular storage member and the closure cap are sealingly closed to prevent an exchange of gas and/or moisture with the ambient environment when the closure cap is in a sealed connected position with the tubular storage member.
- 5. The portion dispenser system according to claim 4, wherein the beverage items are spherical.
- 6. The portion dispenser system according to claim 5, wherein the beverage items are compacted balls of roast and ground coffee.
- 7. The portion dispenser system according to claim 1, wherein the moving member assembly is configured to sealingly connect with the at least one exchangeable cartridge.
- 8. The portion dispenser system according to claim 1, wherein the receiving portion comprises at least one tubular surface configured to couple with the at least one exchangeable cartridge in a substantially vertical or inclined arrangement of the at least one exchangeable cartridge to allow discharge of the beverage items by gravity.
- 9. The portion dispenser system according to claim 1, wherein the terminal portion of the moving member forms at least a part of the keying member configured to complementarily fit with the locking member of the closure cap configured to be removed from the tubular storage member of the exchangeable cartridge.
- 10. The portion dispenser system according to claim 1, wherein the moving member assembly is moveably mounted relative to the frame, the moving member assembly configured to move the discharge chamber between a discharge position in which the moving member is situated in axial relationship with the discharge opening and a dispensing position in which the moving member is situated in axial relationship with a dispensing opening of the frame.
- 11. The portion dispenser system according to claim 1, wherein the moving member assembly comprises a shutter configured to sealingly close the discharge opening as the moving member housing moves the moving member to the dispensing area.
- 12. The portion dispenser system according to claim 1, wherein the member comprises a moving member actuator configured to drive the moving member in a reciprocal axial path.
- 13. The portion dispenser system according to claim 1, wherein the moving member assembly is rotatably mounted to the frame.
- 14. The portion dispenser system according to claim 7 comprising a sealed connection between the moving member assembly and the at least one exchangeable cartridge, and the sealed connection is configured to limit or avoid significant ingress of ambient air at the connection during opening and re-closing of the exchangeable cartridge.