Patent Application
20160157661
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The present invention relates generally to ground coffee porta-filters used in commercial and consumer grade espresso machines, and specifically, to a removable ground coffee filler assembly that is attached to porta-filters by means of spring clip prongs.
Extraction of a beverage known as espresso is achieved by forcing hot water through finely-ground coffee that is tamped in the filter section of an assembly generally known as porta-filter. At typical porta-filter consists of a filter, a filter-holder, and a handle. The preparation of the espresso starts by filling an empty filter with ground coffee, tamping the coffee with a tool generally known as coffee tamper, attaching the porta-filter to the espresso machine, then allowing hot water to flow under pressure through the tamped coffee. As the volume of ground coffee before it is tamped is several times larger than after being tamped an individual preparing espresso will need to add more ground coffee to the porta-filter than its normal capacity. There are currently no practical and cost-effective methods of tamping the right amount of ground coffee in a porta-filter in one step and without some level of manual intervention or spillover. In many cases individuals preparing espresso will fill a porta-filter with ground coffee, tamp it, then add more ground coffee and tamp a second time to reach the right amount of tamped coffee. Tamping coffee twice can jeopardize the quality of coffee extraction with phenomena known as channeling, as one example. If done in one step, individuals attempting to avoid spillover may underfill the porta-filter with ground coffee and as a result, not be able to reach the desired amount of tamped coffee, or may overfill the porta-filter and waste some percentage of ground coffee due to spillover. Individuals preparing espresso may also do multiple manual rearrangements of ground coffee over the porta-filter during tamping, usually with a finger or a utensil.
There is a need for an easy-to-use, quick-to-install, and inexpensive add-on ground coffee filler assembly that allows individuals preparing espresso to add to a porta-filter the total amount of ground coffee needed without spillover, achieve an even distribution of ground coffee prior to tamping, tamp the ground coffee in one single action, avoid areas of different density in the tamped coffee, avoid human contact with the ground coffee, and avoid manual rearrangement of the ground coffee during the tamping process.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a ground coffee filler assembly that is removable and enables individuals preparing espresso to evenly fill espresso machine porta-filters with the total desired amount of ground coffee and without spillover. It is also an object of the present invention to provide a filler assembly that allows tamping the ground coffee in one single action. It is also an object of the present invention to provide a filler assembly that can be used in any commercially available porta-filter. It is further an object of this invention to provide a filler assembly that is easy to use, quick to attach and detach from a porta-filter, and inexpensive. It is still further object of the present invention to allow tamping without human contact with the ground coffee. Another object of the present invention is to avoid manual rearrangement of the ground coffee before or during the tamping process.
The present invention fulfills these objectives and provides a unique and beneficial filler assembly which is inexpensive, easy to install, and can be used on commercially available espresso machine porta-filters. In accordance with the present invention the assembly utilizes one adapter to hold the filler firmly but temporarily to a porta-filter by means of three spring clip prongs. The body of the filler is sized to fit commercial sizes of porta-filters, hold the right amount of coffee needed for the desired volume of espresso, and allow the use of a coffee tamper while attached to the porta-filter.
The coffee filler assembly in accordance with the present invention is illustrated in
As illustrated in
The filler assembly 12 consists of filler 10 illustrated in
In accordance to this invention the adapter 11 has two purposes: one is to temporarily affix the filler 10 to the porta-filter assembly 17; the second is to align the exterior walls of filler 10 with the exterior walls of filter-holder 15. The tension in the prongs 23 of the adapter 11 will be such that a gentle force will be required to affix the assembly 12 to the porta-filter 17. The lengths of the prongs 23 of adapter 11 will be long enough that they establish contact with the outside wall of the filter-holder 15 but short enough that will avoid interferences with other elements of the porta-filter assembly including the handle 16, as an example. The rim 24 of the adapter 11 will have three or more formed areas 25 to generate a slight to medium press fit that will hold adapter 11 together with filler 10.
Although the present invention is described above with reference to having three support prongs 23 and one support rim 24, it is understood that the present inventive filler assembly is not limited to that precise number of prongs and attachment rim. For example, the adapter can utilize more prongs if needed to fit a particular design of porta-filter. Also, the support rim 24 may be altered to also fit a particular design of porta-filter.
It is also understood that the filler assembly illustrated in
Those in the art will understand that a number of variations may be made in the disclosed embodiments, all without departing from the scope of the invention, which is defined solely by the appended claims.
