EP-4739177-A1 - PIERCING ARRANGEMENT AND RELATED BEVERAGE EXTRACTION SYSTEM

EP4739177A1EP 4739177 A1EP4739177 A1EP 4739177A1EP-4739177-A1

Abstract

The invention concerns a piercing arrangement (12) for piercing a pod containing a beverage ingredient being an assembly of an upper sub-part plate (12a) and a lower sub-part plate (12b), comprising a plate (121) provided with opening elements (122) rising from an upper surface (1211), and traversing holes (123), wherein each of the opening elements (122) present a tip end (1221), and a surface comprising a beverage outlet opening (1222) cooperating with the traversing holes (123), and wherein, for each of said opening elements (122), the beverage outlet opening (1222) is positioned above an intermediate position (h) between the upper surface (1211) of the plate and the tip end (1221) of the opening element, and the beverage outlet opening (1222) is a slit extending along a plane parallel to the plane of the upper surface (1211) of the plate, and wherein the upper sub-part plate (12a) and the lower sub-part plate (12b) are designed so that, when assembled, the beverage outlet opening (1222) and/or the opening element (122) are formed.

Inventors

BAUDOZ, Matthieu
DENISART, JEAN-LUC
DOGAN, NIHAN
KOLLEP, ALEXANDRE
TRULLARD, Aurélien

Assignees

Société des Produits Nestlé S.A.

Dates

Publication Date: 20260513
Application Date: 20240327

Claims (1)

CLAIMS 1. Piercing arrangement (12) for piercing a pod containing a beverage ingredient, preferably roast and ground coffee, said piercing arrangement comprising: - a plate (121) wherein the upper surface (1211) of said plate comprises opening elements (122) rising from said surface, and - traversing holes (123) and each of said opening elements (122) present: - a tip end (1221), and - a surface comprising a beverage outlet opening (1222) cooperating with the traversing holes (123), characterized in that the piercing arrangement (12) is an assembly of an upper sub-part plate (12a) and a lower sub-part plate (12b), and wherein, for each of said opening elements (122), - the beverage outlet opening (1222) is positioned above an intermediate position (h) between the upper surface (1211) of the plate and the tip end (1221) of the opening element, and - the beverage outlet opening (1222) is a slit extending along a plane parallel to the plane of the upper surface (1211) of the plate, and wherein the upper sub-part plate (12a) and the lower sub-part plate (12b) are designed so that, when assembled, the beverage outlet opening (1222) and/or the opening element are formed. 2. Piercing arrangement (12) according to claim 1 , wherein the surface of the beverage outlet opening (1222) is dimensioned to filter grains presenting a diameter of about 0.3 mm. 3. Piercing arrangement (12) according to any one of claims 1 or 2, wherein, for each of the opening elements (122): - the upper sub-part plate (12a) comprises an upper sub-part (122a) of the opening element rising from the upper surface of the upper sub-part said plate and a corresponding receiving hole (120a) extending through said upper plate, and - the lower sub-part plate (12b) comprises a corresponding lower sub-part (122b) of the opening element rising from the upper surface of said lower sub-part plate and a corresponding traversing hole (123) extending through said lower sub-part plate to evacuate the beverage, and wherein the receiving hole (120a) of the upper plate is designed to receive the lower sub-part plate (12b) of the opening element of the lower plate when the sub-part plates are assembled, and wherein the upper and lower sub-parts (122a, 122b) of the opening element are designed so that, when the sub-part plates (12a, 12b) are assembled, the beverage outlet opening (1222) is formed between the assembled sub-parts (122a, 122b) of the opening elements. 4. Piercing arrangement (12) according to any one of the precedent claims, wherein the opening elements (122) comprise: - a base (1220) presenting the shape of a truncated cone, - the tip end (1221) presenting the shape of a cone, wherein the cone and the truncated cone present the same axis, and wherein the angle (a2) of the generating line of the cone of the base with the axis is smaller than the angle (a1) of the generating line of the cone of the tip end with the axis. 5. Piercing arrangement (12) according to claims 3 and 4, wherein, in the upper sub-part plate (12a), the upper sub-part (122a) of the opening element comprises: - an end that is the cone-shaped tip end (1221) of the opening element, and - a base (1220a) corresponding to a longitudinal truncation of the base of the opening element. 6. Piercing arrangement (12) according to claim 5, wherein, in the lower sub-part plate (12a), the lower sub-part (122b) of the opening element rising from the upper surface of said lower sub-part plate: - presents a base (1220b) complementary to the base (1220a) of the opening element of the upper sub-part (122a), and - comprises an indent (1222b) designing the beverage outlet opening (1222) and the beverage outlet conduit when assembled to the corresponding upper sub-part (122a) of the opening element. 7. Beverage extraction device for extracting a beverage from a pod, said pod containing a beverage ingredient, preferably roast and ground coffee, said extraction device comprising: - upstream and downstream pod enclosing parts (1 , 2) relatively movable between an open position for inserting and/or ejecting the pod (3) and a closed position for forming an extraction chamber (5) enclosing the pod during extraction, - the upstream part (2) bearing: . an upstream piercing arrangement (22) for opening a first enclosing wall (31) of the pod and . a liquid injector (25), - the downstream part (1) comprising a downstream piercing arrangement (12) for opening an enclosing wall (32) of the pod, said downstream piercing arrangement being the piercing arrangement (12) according to any one of claims 1 to 6. 8. Beverage preparation machine comprising a beverage extraction device according to claim 7. 9. Beverage preparation machine according to claim 8 wherein the extraction device is positioned in the beverage machine in a non-removable manner. 10. Beverage preparation machine according to claim 8 wherein at least the downstream part (1) of the extraction device is positioned in the beverage machine in a removable manner. 11. Beverage preparation machine according to claim 10, wherein said machine comprises: - a removable pod holder (10) configured for receiving and holding the pod (3), and - a pod holder receiving area (101) for receiving the removable pod holder (10), and wherein the removable pod holder (10) comprises at least the downstream part (1) of the extraction device, and preferably the upstream part of the extraction device. 12. System comprising a beverage preparation machine and a pod containing a beverage ingredient, preferably roast and ground coffee, wherein the beverage preparation machine being the beverage preparation machine according to any one of claims 8 to 11 , and wherein the pod (3) comprises a first and a second enclosing walls (31 , 3T, 32), said first and second pod enclosing walls defining a chamber for enclosing the beverage ingredient (33), and wherein said first and second pod enclosing walls of the pod are made of a material, and wherein at least a part of said material is stretchable. 13. System according to claim 12, wherein said first and second pod enclosing walls of the pod are made of a multilayer paper material, said material comprising at least one layer of paper (A) assembled with at least one layer of plastic (B), preferably a compostable plastic layer, said layer of plastic being stretchable. 14. System according to claim 13, wherein at least one layer of plastic (B) is made a polyvinylalcohol copolymer (PVOH) layer, in particular a butenediol vinyl alcohol (BVOH) layer.

Description

PIERCING ARRANGEMENT AND RELATED BEVERAGE EXTRACTION SYSTEM Field of the invention The present invention relates to the field of preparation of beverages with a system including a single-serve container comprising a beverage ingredient and a machine with an extraction chamber designed to receive and extract the container. Background of the invention Single serve containers for the automatic preparation of beverages encompass various formats of containers that can be relatively soft or flexible, such as pods, and made of any material, recyclable or non-recyclable, biodegradable or non-biodegradable, such as aluminium, plastic, filter paper. WO 2020/089404 describes such a system extracting beverages from soft or flexible pods. These pods comprise a pod body and a lid attached to the flange of the pod body: their shape is asymmetrical relatively to the plane comprising the flange of the pod body. The extraction device is provided with an extraction chamber configured to adapt its size to the shape and volume of the pod introduced. The extraction chamber comprises: - an upstream part defining a cage and bearing an upstream piercing arrangement for opening the bottom wall of the pod and a liquid injector to supply liquid through the opened bottom wall, and - a downstream part defining a plate that comprises a downstream plane piercing arrangement for opening the lid of the pod. This plate, often abusively called pyramid plate, comprises rising elements designed to pierce, open or tear the inflated lid and holes to evacuate the beverage flowing out of the holes in the lid created by the rising elements. During the process of extraction, water is supplied in the pod through the opened bottom wall which increases pressure inside the pod. The downstream plane piercing arrangement is designed for opening the lid by relative engagement with the lid under the effect of this rise in pressure of the injected liquid in the pod body chamber and inflation of the lid against the piercing arrangement. In order to respect environment, it is required today to use pods made of biodegradable and/or compostable materials, in particular essentially made of paper. These new materials lead to specific problems during the beverage preparation and the handling of the pod in the extraction device, in particular optimal extraction of roast and ground coffee is hardly obtained. In the case of a material made of paper, this material can present a high thickness in order to provide a certain rigidity for the capsule and to maintain the shape of the capsule. In addition, since paper does not protect the beverage ingredient from the atmosphere, a material made of paper generally comprises a layer that creates a protective barrier to atmosphere. This layer is usually made of a compostable polymer and the paper material is a laminate of at least a layer of paper and a layer of said compostable barrier polymer. For example, such a barrier layer of compostable polymer is described in WO 2023/052144A1. The use of this type of paper material impacts the correct extraction of the beverage ingredient, such as roast and ground coffee, within the extraction chamber. In particular, the compostable barrier polymer can present such stretchable properties that it is difficult to get it pierced by current existing downstream plane piercing arrangement. In particular, the material is stretched by the rising elements of the pyramid plate, but due to its stretching property, it is not systematically pierced, opened or torn on each of the rising elements. In addition, even if the material is pierced, opened or torn, due to its stretchable properties, the material tends to tightly surrounds the rising elements with the effect of covering and closing the holes configured for evacuating the beverage. Due to these problems, optimal extraction is not obtained: flow of coffee is reduced, flow time is increased and the expected taste profile of the final coffee is not obtained. In addition, each pod is extracted differently depending on the number of openings created in the pod and the number of holes remaining free for evacuation of the beverage, which makes the system of the machine and the pod not consistent in quality of the extracted beverage. It has been observed that this high stretchability of the material paper is particularly flagrant when the pod is used and stored in humid conditions such as tropical conditions. The stretchability of the paper material can increase by 5 times in such tropical conditions. Consequently, this problem of quality of extraction is amplified in countries with tropical climate. In the state of the art, there have been defined different types of downstream plane piercing arrangement comprising rising elements designed to pierce the inflated wall and holes to evacuate the beverage flowing out of the openings created by the rising elements. In particular, the arrangement can position of the evacuation holes according to different