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US-12616329-B2 - Beverage machine with beverage collector

US12616329B2US 12616329 B2US12616329 B2US 12616329B2US-12616329-B2

Abstract

A machine for preparing a beverage has a beverage processing unit formed of a first processing unit member and a second processing unit member that delimit a chamber and that are movable between a distant configuration in which a flavouring ingredient is received in the chamber and a proximate configuration in which the flavouring ingredient is held and mixed with water. The machine has a beverage collector for collecting the beverage from the processing unit. The collector has a collecting wall directing the beverage out of the collector to the beverage dispensing area. The machine has: a water source for delivering the water between the water source and the chamber; and a supporting structure which has a base that supports the beverage collector during beverage preparation.

Inventors

  • Thibault Escalier
  • Alexandre Perentes
  • Alexandre Pugliese

Assignees

  • SOCIETE DES PRODUITS NESTLE S.A.

Dates

Publication Date
20260505
Application Date
20201215
Priority Date
20191216

Claims (19)

  1. 1 . A machine for preparing a beverage from a flavouring ingredient by mixing water with the flavouring ingredient comprising: a beverage processing unit formed of a first processing unit member and a second processing unit member that delimit a chamber and that are movable between a distant configuration in which the flavouring ingredient is received in the chamber and a proximate configuration in which the flavouring ingredient is held and mixed with the water in the chamber during beverage preparation; a beverage collector for collecting the beverage from the beverage processing unit during beverage preparation, the beverage collector having at least one collecting wall directing the beverage out of the collector to a beverage dispensing area via a beverage dispensing opening, the dispensing area being configured to receive a user-receptacle; a water source for delivering the water towards the beverage processing unit; a water guide for guiding the water between the water source and the chamber; a supporting structure which has a base that is stationary during beverage preparation and that supports the beverage collector during beverage preparation, the beverage processing unit and/or the beverage collector having a peripheral upright drainage wall external to the chamber and extending at least partly about the chamber for collecting the beverage outside the chamber after the beverage has exited the chamber via at least one outlet; the at least one outlet comprising in a loop an outlet forming a continuous passage extending along substantially an entire interface section between the first and second processing unit members and/or a plurality of outlets forming discrete spaced apart passages distributed along an entire interface section between the first and second processing unit members; and the beverage collecting wall extends below a bottom part of the drainage wall and right underneath the beverage processing unit to collect the beverage when draining off from the drainage wall and to direct the beverage from the collecting wall out of the collector.
  2. 2 . The machine of claim 1 , wherein the beverage dispensing opening is at a bottom of the collecting wall to direct the beverage from the collecting wall to the beverage dispensing area via the beverage dispensing opening.
  3. 3 . The machine of claim 1 , wherein the peripheral upright drainage wall: extends downwardly substantially in a shape of at least one of a prism, cylinder, pyramid and cone and upright sections thereof; and forms a closed loop about the chamber or an open loop extending about the chamber over an angle of at least 90 deg.
  4. 4 . The machine of claim 1 , wherein the collecting wall extends substantially shaped as a dish.
  5. 5 . The machine of claim 1 , wherein the collecting wall forms a plurality of beverage guide channels extending from the beverage dispensing opening towards the peripheral upright drainage wall.
  6. 6 . The machine of claim 1 , wherein the collector is directly or indirectly user-reversibly assembled to the support structure along an upright direction of assembly and disassembly.
  7. 7 . The machine of claim 1 , wherein the collector is directly or indirectly user-reversibly assembled to the support structure by: a mechanical arrangement; and/or a magnetic arrangement.
  8. 8 . The machine of claim 1 , wherein one or more of at least part of the collector, at least part of drainage wall and at least part of the beverage processing unit, are made of transparent and/or translucent material.
  9. 9 . The machine of claim 1 , wherein one of the processing unit members is provided with a cavity delimiting the chamber, the first and second processing unit members in their distant configuration being configured for direct manual insertion of the flavouring ingredient into the cavity.
  10. 10 . The machine of claim 1 , wherein the water source is configured to contain a limited amount of the water that corresponds to a maximum amount needed for a serving.
  11. 11 . The machine of claim 1 , which is configured to: prepare the beverage without thermally conditioning the water delivered from the water source into the chamber.
  12. 12 . The machine of claim 1 , wherein the beverage processing unit is arranged in order to rotate the chamber at a speed in the range of 500 to 10000 RPM for centrifugation of the water with the flavouring ingredient to prepare the beverage.
  13. 13 . The machine of claim 1 , wherein the beverage dispensing opening is a nozzle.
  14. 14 . The machine of claim 1 , wherein the water guide is free of a water pump or that comprises a water pump.
  15. 15 . The machine of claim 14 , wherein the water guide comprises a water pump, and wherein the water pump comprises a gear pump, a peristaltic pump, a piston pump, or a diaphragm pump.
  16. 16 . A combination of a machine for preparing a beverage from a flavouring ingredient by mixing water with the flavouring ingredient comprising: the machine of claim 1 , and a flavouring ingredient for preparing a beverage from the flavouring ingredient in the machine.
  17. 17 . The combination of the machine and the flavouring ingredient of claim 16 , wherein the beverage dispensing opening is a nozzle.
  18. 18 . The combination of the machine and the flavouring ingredient of claim 16 , wherein the water guide is free of a water pump or that comprises a water pump.
  19. 19 . The combination of the machine and the flavouring ingredient of claim 18 , wherein the water guide comprises a water pump, and wherein the water pump further comprises a gear pump, a peristaltic pump, a piston pump, or a diaphragm pump.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS The present application is a National Stage of International Application No. PCT/EP2020/086072, filed on Dec. 15, 2020, which claims priority to European Patent Application No. 19216359.0, filed on Dec. 16, 2019. FIELD OF THE INVENTION The field of the invention pertains to beverage preparation machines which uses liquid in the preparation of the beverage. The liquid is typically water or water-based. The machine may be configured to prepare the beverage by passing the liquid through an ingredient of the beverage to be prepared, such as at least one of coffee, tea, cacao, milk, sugar and/or soup ingredient. The ingredient may be supplied within a capsule into the machine. For instance, the liquid is mixed with the ingredient contained in the capsule by centrifuging the capsule while the liquid is passed through the capsule. For the purpose of the present description, a “beverage” is meant to include any human-consumable liquid substance, such as tea, coffee, chocolate, milk, soup, baby food, etc. . . . . A “capsule” is meant to include any container such as a packaging for containing a pre-portioned beverage ingredient, e.g. a flavouring ingredient, the packaging forming an enclosure of any material, in particular an airtight or pervious material, porous or non-porous material, e.g. plastic, aluminium, recyclable and/or biodegradable packagings, and of any shape and structure, including soft pods or rigid cartridges for containing the ingredient. BACKGROUND ART Certain beverage preparation machines use capsules containing ingredients to be extracted or to be dissolved and/or ingredients that are stored and dosed automatically in the machine or else are added at the time of preparation of the drink. Some beverage machines possess filling means that include a pump for liquid, usually water, which pumps the liquid from a source of water that is cold or indeed heated through heating means, e.g. a thermoblock or the like. Various outside machine configurations have been proposed to handle the machine, as for instance disclosed in WO 2009/074553, WO 2010/003932, WO 2010/015427, WO 2010/037806, WO 2011/144720, WO 2012/055765, WO 2012/093107, WO 2012/126971, WO 2013/037781, WO 2013/037782, WO 2013/037783, WO 2013/127906, WO 2015/140091, WO 2016/083484, WO 2016/156364, WO 2016/156372, WO 2017/037215 and WO 2018/219985. Especially in the field of coffee preparation, machines have been widely developed in which a capsule containing beverage ingredients is inserted in a brewing device. The brewing device is closed about the capsule, water is injected, the beverage is produced in the closed volume of the capsule and a brewed beverage can be drained from the capsule and collected into a receptacle such as a cup or glass. Heat management in such systems is known from EP 2393404 A1, WO 2010/089329 and in WO 2014/090850. It is also known to interrupt or reduce the powering of the thermal conditioner of a beverage machine to reduce the powering consumption of the machine when not in the process of delivering a beverage, e.g. as disclosed in WO 2011/020779 and WO 2012/007260, or to interrupt or reduce the powering of the thermal conditioner to stop or reduce the thermal conditioning of beverage ingredients in the preparation of the beverage, e.g. as disclosed in EP19181432.6. It is possible to bypass a thermal conditioner to process thermally unconditioned water for a desired beverage preparation, e.g. as disclosed in WO 2018/158179. It is also known to drive, e.g. using a pump, water through such systems, for instance as disclosed in WO 2004/014205, WO 2006/005425, WO 2009/024500, WO 2009/150030, WO 2010/108700, WO 2011/107574 and WO 2018/001750. The preparation of a beverage by using centrifugation is known. Such beverage preparation includes: providing a beverage (flavoring) ingredient, e.g. as powder and/or leaves, in a capsule; circulating liquid into the capsule and rotating the capsule at sufficient speed to ensure interaction of the liquid with the ingredient while creating a gradient of pressure of liquid in the capsule. Such pressure increases gradually from the center towards the periphery of the capsule. As liquid passes through the ingredient, e.g. coffee bed, extraction of the ingredient, e.g. coffee compounds, takes place and a liquid extract is obtained that flows out at the periphery of the capsule. Examples of such systems are disclosed in WO 2008/148601, WO 2013/007776, WO 2013/007779, WO 2013/007780, WO 2013/007781, WO 2015/173123, WO 2017/202746 and WO 2017/046294. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The invention relates to a machine for preparing a beverage from at least one ingredient. Normally such beverage is then dispensed to a user, e.g. to a user-cup or user-mug. The machine is arranged for preparing a beverage from a flavouring ingredient, e.g. coffee or tea or chocolate or cacao or milk or soup, by mixing water with the flavouring ingredient, e.g. by centrifugally dr