The presently disclosed and/or claimed inventive concept(s) generally relates to a beverage production system and a method for producing a beverage using an inductive heating.
WO 2011/138368 A1 relates to a brewing or preparation chamber for a beverage-making machine. In particular, a capsule to be inserted into a brewing chamber has a conductive outer surface, wherein this surface is electrically connected by pins to the brewing chamber. In this way, the wall of the capsule can be heated by providing a power generator which is connected to the pins of the brewing chamber.
However, heating of the capsule wall by providing pins is quite accident-sensitive, since the pins penetrate the outer wall of the capsule. Furthermore, there is a need to heat the fluid before entering the interior of the capsule to better control the heating operation. Finally, according to this prior art approach there is no galvanic isolation barrier between the machine and the capsule.
Therefore, the presently disclosed and/or claimed inventive concept(s) provides an improved beverage production system and an improved method for producing a beverage.
According to a first aspect of the presently disclosed and/or claimed inventive concept(s), a beverage production system comprises a capsule designed for containing at least one beverage ingredient, a beverage production machine designed for producing a beverage from the capsules' ingredients by having a liquid under pressure enter the capsule in order to interact with ingredients in the capsule, wherein the beverage production machine comprises a bell-shaped enclosing member for enclosing the capsule. At least a portion of the outer surface of a wall of the capsule comprises at least one metallic or/and electrically conductive area and the beverage production machine comprises means for generating and for contactlessly coupling electrical heating power to the metallic or/and electrically conductive areas of the capsule.
This particularly enables for heating the metallic or/and electrically conductive areas of the capsule by induction and a contactless heating of the capsule body and wall can be reached. Furthermore, an enhanced user comfort can be provided due to an instant heating of the liquid under pressure before the liquid under pressure enters the interior of the capsule. The combination of the above mentioned features also results in lesser machine breakdowns due to a possible reduced scaling of the beverage production system, since no separate boiler is needed anymore and the heating can be performed within the enclosing member. Furthermore, also a lower energy consumption can be reached in comparison to a boiling of the liquid under pressure before entering the beverage production machine, since not the whole capacity of the boiler has to be heated before entering the interior of the capsule, but only the amount of liquid which is to enter the interior of the capsule for producing a certain amount of beverage.
Furthermore, a generator unit generating power supplied to means for contactlessly coupling electrical heating power to the metallic or/and electrically conductive area of the capsule can be provided.
The means for contactlessly coupling electrical heating power can comprise induction coils.
In addition, the metallic or/and electrically conductive areas at least partially can consist of metal such as e.g. aluminum or any other electrically conductive material (e.g. graphite, loaded polymers, conductive polymers)
According to another aspect of the presently disclosed and/or claimed inventive concept(s) the beverage production system can comprise a capsule designed for containing at least one beverage ingredient and a beverage production machine designed for producing a beverage from the capsule's ingredients by having a liquid under pressure enter the capsule in order to interact with the ingredients in the capsule, wherein the beverage production machine comprises a bell shaped enclosing member for enclosing the capsule, wherein the beverage production machine is designed to have liquid under pressure enter a gap arranged in the rim area of bell-shaped enclosing member, such that the liquid under pressure enters a space between the outer surface of the capsule wall and an inner wall of enclosing member in order to enter the interior of capsule through at least one inlet opening in the wall of the capsule, which opening maybe pre-produced or produced by at least one opening means of beverage production machine.
Further, at least one temperature probe can be provided at the inner wall of the enclosing member to measure the temperature in the space between outer surface of the capsule wall and inner wall of the enclosing member.
Ridges can be provided at the inner wall of the enclosing member projecting into the space between outer surface of the capsule wall and the inner wall of the enclosing member for creating a turbulent flow and or a prolonged flow (meandering) of the fluid.
In addition, liquid under pressure can be supplied to the beverage production machine from a liquid tank.
Further, at least one pump unit can pump the liquid under pressure to the beverage production machine.
At least one flow meter can be provided between the liquid tank and the beverage production machine for measuring the flow per time unit.
None or one or more pre-heating units of the machine can pre-heat the liquid under pressure (liquid not necessarily under pressure for heating) before being supplied to the capsule. Pre-heating serves for supporting the overall heating operation, so that the means for contactlessly coupling electrical heating power only has to further heat the liquid under pressure from the pre-heated temperature to the final temperature at which the liquid under pressure enters the interior of the capsule.
The preheating can be performed, but is not limited to several technologies. In particular, conventional boilers can be used for preheating. Further, also an induction heating of a liquid supply pipe supplying liquid from the liquid tank to the beverage production machine can be performed. In addition, heating of a metallic capsule holder or of a metallic part inside the capsule holder is also conceivable for a preheating. Preheating can also be performed by a heat recuperation from the induction coils. The heat recuperation can stem from water cooling of the induction coils.
Further, a generator unit can supply energy to the pre-heating unit.
In addition, a control unit can be provided which controls the at least one flow meter and/or the pre-heating unit and/or at least one flow control valve. Further, a second opening can be provided in the enclosing member connecting the upper end of the interior of the enclosing member with the outside.
In addition, a meandering path in the form of a helicoidal channel can be provided as the space between the outer surface of the capsule wall and an inner wall of the enclosing member.
Further, the flow control valve can be provided in a liquid flow channel connecting the second opening and the pump unit.
In addition, wherein the temperature probe can be provided around the upper end of the helicoidal channel at the inner wall of the enclosing member.
According to a further aspect of the presently disclosed and/or claimed inventive concept(s), a method for producing a beverage is provided, wherein the method comprises the steps of providing a capsule containing ingredients, positioning the capsule in a beverage production machine and producing at least one opening in a wall of the capsule, wherein fluid under pressure is fed into capsule, wherein the fluid is heated by specific heating of the wall of capsule or/and a enclosing member for enclosing the capsule before the fluid under pressure enters the capsule by providing on a outer surface of the wall of the capsule metallic or/and electrically conducting areas and providing a means for contactlessly coupling of electrical heating to the metallic or/and electrically conducting areas of capsule at an enclosing member.
Further, the means for contactlessly coupling of electrical heating comprises induction coils.
Further advantages, features and objects of the presently disclosed and/or claimed inventive concept(s) will become evident for the man skilled in the art when reading the following detailed description of embodiments of the presently disclosed and/or claimed inventive concept(s).
Systems and methods for obtaining fluid comestibles from substances containing capsules are for example known from EP 512470 A1. The basic principle of this known system may be used also in combination with the presently disclosed and/or claimed inventive concept(s).
A capsule 101 as shown in
Other capsule designs, such as e.g. not hermetically sealed capsules may be used.
A capsule holder 111 comprises a flow grill 112 with relief surface element 113. The capsule holder 111 is accommodated in its support 115 which has a lateral wall 124 and a bore 127 for the passage of extracted coffee beverage. As can be seen from
The basic principle of the capsule-based beverage production machine which may be applied according to the presently disclosed and/or claimed inventive concept(s) will now be explained with reference to
As it is shown in
The enclosing member 3 may be arranged to clamp the flange-like rim of the capsule against the capsule support.
Even if the rim of the enclosing member is arranged to form a gap with the rim of the capsule, in certain non-limiting embodiments, it will at least partially clamp the rim of the capsule.
The pressurized water will then be pushed along a path defined between the inner wall 9 of the bell-shaped enclosing member 3 and the outer surface 4 of a wall of the capsule 1, when the capsule 1 is placed, e.g. by a user on a capsule support 20.
The water will be in close contact with the outer surface 4 while being pushed along the path. The pressurized water can be heated along the path by conduction by contact with the metallic or/and electrically condutive areas of the outer surface 4 of the capsule wall and the inner wall 9 of enclosing member contactlessly heated by induction coils, which may serve as means 5 for generating a magnetic field for the induction heating process.
Other wireless heating power-transmission means may be used instead of the induction coils, such as e.g. an IR (Infrared) or microwave-based heating of the capsule walls and enclosing member walls.
Induction coils 5 are provided within the bell-shaped enclosing member 3 and can further have cores, in particular ferrite cores, to further strengthen the effect of induction.
In certain non-limiting embodiments, the induction coils are arranged in a distance of between 1 mm and 3 cm, such as (but not limited to) 3 mm and 2 cm, or 5 mm and 1.5 cm measured from the side wall of the capsule.
When the induction coils 5 are supplied with power the metallic or/and electrically conductive areas on the wall of the capsule 1 and enclosing member 3 walls are heated and accordingly the water in the space between outer surface 4 of the capsule 1 and the inner wall 9 of the bell-shaped enclosing member 3 is heated due to the heating of the metallic or/and electrically conductive areas on the wall of the capsule 1. Further, also liquid inside the capsule 1 can also be heated by contact with the capsule wall with the same induction process.
The electrically conductive areas can be made of aluminum or any other electrically conductive metal or non metal.
In certain non-limiting embodiments, the entire cup-shaped body of the capsule is made from an electrically conductive material or metal, such as aluminum, at least in portions of its outer surface (i.e. the surface facing the enclosing member).
Meandering path defining means can be provided in order to promote any heat-exchange between the capsule wall and the water. In this way the water under pressure can be heated from, for example 12° C. at an opening 8 to, for example, a brewing temperature of 92° C. when entering the capsule. In this context a fluidic circuit can be designed to provide at least dual pressure levels with a recirculation feature. During the first heating phase, the liquid can be circulated with a low pressure and a high flow around the capsule 1. Once a target temperature is reached, a valve closes the circuit and will force the liquid through the capsule 1. This will guarantee that only hot liquid is forced through the interior of the capsule 1. A detailed description thereof will be given in the following with respect to
The pressurized water will eventually arrive at the location where opening means 11 (blades, piercing means, . . . ) have already generated an inlet opening 10 in the upper wall of the capsule 1.
The opening means 11 may be operated to make a relative movement vis-à-vis bell-shaped enclosing member 3 or may act together with the enclosing member's closing movement (downwards in
Alternatively the capsule is already provided with an inlet opening prior to its insertion into the machine, e.g. when manufacturing the capsule, in which case no opening means 11 are required.
After the heated water under pressure has entered the interior of the capsule 1 through the inlet opening, a beverage can be produced, wherein the water under pressure interacts with the ingredients in the capsule 1. The beverage can then flow to the rim area of enclosing member 3 and passes out of the capsule 1, thereby receiving a finished beverage. When the water flows from the inlet opening 10 to the rim area of the bell-shaped enclosing member 3 the water may be additionally further heated by the conductive areas provided at the outer surface 4 of the wall of the capsule 1, since the heat can also be conducted to the inner surface of the wall of the capsule 1, thereby a doubled heating is produced, i.e. a heating of the water under pressure outside the capsule 1 and a further heating inside the capsule 1.
The heating of the water under pressure can be significantly improved by providing ridges at the inner wall 9 of the enclosing member 3 projecting into the space between the outer surface 4 of the capsule wall and the inner wall 9 of the enclosing member 3 for creating a turbulent or prolonged (meandering) flow of the water. Due to the turbulent flow, a better mixing of the water and, therefore, a faster heating of the water under pressure in the space can be provided.
The capsule may be provided with means for reducing the heat exchange from the heated capsule wall to the ingredients contained in the capsule. These means may be means for thermally insolating the ingredients from the capsule wall and/or means for distancing the ingredients from the capsule wall.
In the following, the interaction of the components shown in
Also a temperature probe 12, which can be provided at the inner wall of bell-shaped enclosing member 3, can send data to control unit 7 so that control unit 7 can adapt the power supply to specific needs, e.g. a nominal value for the water temperature.
The nominal value for the water temperature (in case of a feedback control of the temperature) or the transmitted heating power (in case of a feed-forward control) may be set adaptively, e.g. based on an identification of the capsule.
In case, a user of the beverage production system wants to have a specific temperature of the resulting beverage the control unit 7 can be arranged to control the power supply to the means 5 for wirelessly coupling electrical heating to control the heating of the outer surface 4 of the wall of the capsule 1, thereby controlling the heating of water under pressure within the space between the outer surface 4 of the capsule wall and inner wall 9 of the enclosing member 3.
With the arrangement as shown in
The presently disclosed and/or claimed inventive concept(s) is not restricted to the above mentioned embodiments but can be improved and varied so as to comply with the desired needs. For example, the produced heat can also be localized at the gap 8 or only at the lower area of the outer surface 4 of the wall of the capsule 1. Further, fresh water can also be fed all along the whole wall of the capsule 1 and not just at the rim area of the enclosing member 3. Also water jets can be used impinging the capsule 1. Further, the space between the outer surface 4 of the capsule wall can be shaped in the form of channels.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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13160594.1 | Mar 2013 | EP | regional |
This application is a US national stage application filed under 35 USC §371 of International Application No. PCT/EP2014/055786, filed Mar. 24, 2014; which claims benefit of EP Application No. 13160594.1, filed Mar. 22, 2013. The entire contents of the above-referenced applications are hereby expressly incorporated herein by reference.
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/EP2014/055786 | 3/24/2014 | WO | 00 |