Foods and beverages: apparatus – Beverage – Infusors
Patent
1999-02-05
2000-02-08
Alexander, Reginald L.
Foods and beverages: apparatus
Beverage
Infusors
99323, 99302R, 99307, A47J 3106
Patent
active
060217065
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a filter holder adapted to be mounted on the head of a coffee making machine of the "Espresso" type, and comprising a cup provided with a lateral handle and adapted to receive a filter formed by a cage with a lateral cylindrical wall and a perforated bottom.
The invention relates more particularly to a filter holder whose perforated bottom of the filter is movably mounted in the space delimited by the cage by means of a height adjustment device thereby permitting obtaining various dosages of coffee to prepare one or several cups of infusion.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In the filter holders of this type, the device for height adjustment generally comprises a complicated system of rods requiring locking at different heights so as to find the precise positions of the perforated bottom in the cage of the cup. Thus, in the machines of the "Espresso" type, the pressure of the hot water supplied by the machine pump being about 15 bars, it is imperative that the perforated bottom be maintained locked at different heights during the infusion operation so as to guarantee the choice of infusion selected by the user, and to avoid any abrupt decompression which would give rise to the destruction of the filter holder and with risk of projection of hot steam and an infusion outside the filter.
Moreover, devices have been proposed for locking with a screw-nut assembly, but as will be understood, the adjustment as to height becomes long, difficult and imprecise during passage from one infusion operation according to a choice of cups, to another infusion operation with another choice of cups.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention has particularly for its object to simplify the height adjustment device by eliminating the drawbacks described above.
According to the invention, the height adjustment device comprises, between the perforated bottom and the bottom of the cup, a stack of at least one crown mounted adjacent the bottom and a coaxial counter-crown which comprise respectively on their opposite surfaces an alternate succession of ramps and flats and of counter-ramps and counter-flats, as well as an actuating member movably mounted on the cup and adapted to give rise to displacement in relative rotation between the crown and the counter-crown to cause the perforated bottom to operate different positions of height in the cage.
Thanks to the invention, there is obtained a filter carrier with a good ability to be used, guaranteeing not only the precise and identical regulation for each selection of dosage of grounds, but also high safety of operation because all the mechanical stresses due to the pressure of the water are localized on the flats and counter-flats which face each other and which thus define stable bearing surfaces.
According to another particularly interesting characteristic of the invention, the counter-crown is formed of two spaced upper and lower annuli connected in rotation by anchoring means and between which are interposed resilient members, such that the upper ring bearing the counter-ramps and the counter-flats will be movably mounted in translation relative to the lower ring.
Thus, this construction of counter-crown in two pieces mounted resiliently together, permits obtaining, in the course and at the end of the infusion operation, a self-packing of the coffee grounds which ensures, on the one hand, a complete extraction of the edible and aromatic constituents of the grounds, and on the other hand the production of a grounds tablet which is practically dry and easily disposable.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The characteristics and advantages of the invention will become further apparent from the description which follows, by way of non-limiting example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
FIG. 1 is a partial vertical cross-sectional view of a filter carrier according to the invention, mounted on a head of a coffee machine and showing the bottom of the filter in the "one cup" position;
FIG. 2 is a schematic cr
REFERENCES:
patent: 4255265 (1981-03-01), Greutert
patent: 4644856 (1987-02-01), Borgmann
Landais Joel
Seguenot Gerard
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