Foods and beverages: apparatus – Beverage – Infusors
Patent
1994-01-11
1997-07-22
Weier, Anthony J.
Foods and beverages: apparatus
Beverage
Infusors
99300, 99302R, 993233, 426433, A47J 3100
Patent
active
056494726
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to extraction of sealed flexible sachets containing at least one substance for the preparation of a beverage.
The use of pre-metered and pre-packaged portions of ground coffee for the preparation of expresso-type coffee has the advantage that it facilitates the operations to prepare the coffee while ensuring that the quality of the product is relatively consistent.
These portions are currently provided in two main forms.
According to a first general form, the portions disclosed in Swiss Patent No. 636 311, U.S. Pat. No. 5,012,629 and European Patent Application Publication No. 0 272 432 are formed by two sheets of filter paper sealed over their periphery and filled with ground coffee. This solution has the drawback that an oxygen-barrier outer packaging is required to prevent the oxidation of the product during storage. This outer packaging entails additional costs and a supplementary operation for the consumer who has to remove it before the desired coffee can be extracted.
According to a second form, disclosed in Application PCT/CH91/00 222, the portion is formed by a leak-tight capsule with a concave base opening into its extraction device by deformation under the action of the introduction of the extraction fluid, then perforation against pointed members. This capsule, formed by a leak-tight envelope forming a lateral wall and two walls, one of which forms the base of the cartridge and the other of which closes the opposite end of the cartridge, has the drawback that it makes simultaneous use of several different packaging materials, at least one of which has to be thick enough to make it semi-rigid. It can be used only in one direction with an extraction device which is completely adapted to the capsule and to its arrangement. Moreover, it is relatively bulky as the coffee is not compacted.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the present invention is to provide a method and a device allowing extraction of a substance for preparation of a beverage contained in a sealed flexible sachet without prior opening, the method entailing no particular requirements as regards the positioning of the upper and lower surfaces of the sachet. The sachet package is formed from two thin flexible sheets of the same material sealed over their periphery and substantially symmetrical to one another with respect to the plane of sealing. The substance may be in the form of powder or compacted into a cake of appropriate shape in one or a plurality of pieces.
Accordingly, the present invention provides a method in which the sachet is positioned and held in an extraction device which is formed by a closed chamber comprising a sachet holder, a mixture of air and water at a pressure of between 2 and 20 bar is introduced into the sachet by means of an inlet member in order, progressively and locally, to stretch the extraction surface of the sachet against a raised surface of the sachet holder comprising raised and hollow portions, the extraction surface being torn at multiple locations in accordance with a pattern predetermined by the location of the raised and/or hollow portions, there achieving its breaking tension in order to allow the flow of the liquid after extraction.
The method is also characterized by the high value of the extraction pressure, as its maximum value is not necessarily reached during the opening of the sachet, but may be reached later during extraction when the loss of load through the bed of coffee has reached its maximum.
The present invention also provides a device for the application of the method which comprises a first, or lower, member having raised and hollow portions forming a flow zone and comprises a second, or upper member, which may include means adapted to perforate the upper surface of the sachet and allow the introduction of water into the sachet, these two members cooperating with one another in order to ensure fluid-tightness by gripping the edge of the sachet between one another and each forming substantially half of a chamber ensurin
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U.S. application No. 07/880,173 Fond, et al., (effective 1992) to be issued as U.S. Patent No. 5,402,707 on Apr. 4, 1995.
Fond Olivier
Lavanchy Gerard
Pleisch Jean-Pierre
Schaeffer Jacques
Yoakim Alfred
Nestec S.A.
Weier Anthony J.
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