Priority is claimed as a national stage application, under 35 U.S.C. § 371, to international patent application No. PCT/AU2016/000256, filed Jul. 18, 2016, which claims priority to Australian patent application 2015902907, filed Jul. 22, 2015. The disclosures of the aforementioned priority applications are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
This invention relates to improvements in milk frothers for espresso machines.
There is a World-wide trend in both developed and developing countries for increasing coffee consumption. The European styles of serving coffee with milk are by far the most popular—in particular, caffe latte, cappuccino and flat white coffee It is more time-consuming to produce the European styles of coffee as the milk has to be heated with the infusion of steam to create a frothiness or foam which is an essential component for the overall taste, mouth-feel and appearance of the coffee style.
The present inventor developed an automatic milk frother disclosed in WO2014/165911 which included a sensor to determine the depth of milk in a jug; the steam probe or jug support being movable preferably driven by stepper motor, to maintain the tip of the probe below the milk surface; a temperature sensor to monitor the temperature of the milk in the jug; a micro controller which starts the process; maintains the position of the steam probe relative to the milk surface.
It is an object of this invention to improve the performance of this device.
To this end the present invention provides a milk frother that includes a steam probe which consists of an inner steam tube surrounded by an outer tube spaced annularly from the inner tube with a nozzle mounted on the end of said outer tube adjacent the outlet end of said inner tube.
The air gap between the inner and outer tubes insulates the outer tube from the heat generated in the inner tube during the steam cycle. By using stainless steel the milk does not stick to the cool outer tube surface and no cleaning of the outer surface of the probe is necessary. The steam itself keeps the inner surfaces of the probe clean.
Thus the probe of this invention may be used in the milk frother disclosed in WO2014/165911 the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
In this milk frother the temperature of the milk is sensed by a temperature sensor that monitors the temperature of the bottom wall of the milk jug. To improve the accuracy of the temperature sensing a proprietary jug is used in which the base and lower wall of the jug is matt black.
Preferred embodiments of the invention will now be described with reference to the drawings in which
The embodiments described may be used in the milk frother as described in WO2014/165911.
As shown in
The temperature of the milk in the jug 30 is sensed by an infrared sensor 35 in the body of the milk frother 40. The lower surface 31 of the jug 30 is coated to have a matt black surface to ensure an accurate temperature reading.
A preferred coating is Black Chromium which is slightly harder than nickel chrome and gives a matte black finish which is able to withstand the normal washing process. The stainless steel jugs can also be spray-painted with matte black epoxy coatings or materials such as “ironstone” a non-stick coating—
Whatever the material of choice is, it is preferably thin to allow the fastest transfer of heat. Coatings may be applied using Vapour deposition or Plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition use a direct current. A two-stage process is required for anodizing the surface: Ion Vapour deposition and then anodization in the normal way.
From the above it can be seen that this invention provides a unique means of increasing barista productivity without losing the quality of milk frothing required for premium espresso coffee products. Those skilled in the art will realise that this invention may be implemented in embodiments other than those described without departing from the core teachings of this invention.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
2015902907 | Jul 2015 | AU | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
PCT/AU2016/000256 | 7/18/2016 | WO | 00 |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
WO2017/011853 | 1/26/2017 | WO | A |
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
4852473 | Azpitarte Bolivar | Aug 1989 | A |
5769135 | Mahlich | Jun 1998 | A |
6644177 | Hsu | Nov 2003 | B1 |
20090255415 | Cheng | Oct 2009 | A1 |
20100154648 | Angeletti | Jun 2010 | A1 |
20150223634 | Moscani et al. | Aug 2015 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country |
---|---|---|
2389848 | Nov 2011 | EP |
2789276 | Oct 2014 | EP |
2011160818 | Dec 2011 | WO |
2014165911 | Oct 2014 | WO |
2016079680 | May 2016 | WO |
Entry |
---|
Corresponding International Search Report for PCT/AU2016/000256 dated Aug. 15, 2016. WO. |
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
20180213968 A1 | Aug 2018 | US |