The present invention relates to a drip coffee maker and, more particularly, to a multi-cup drip coffee maker allowing multiple cups to be placed thereon to continuously receive drip coffee with different flavors.
Coffee and tea are the refreshing hot drinks for people after they get up in the morning. Recently, coffee becomes a globally popular beverage due to penetration of westernized lifestyle everywhere. Coffee shop chain prospers rapidly in answer to that call.
The ways of making drip coffee can be classified as manual drip and automatic drip. Given the manual drip as an example, hot water seeps through the ground coffee and the paper filter placed on an empty cup, and is then collected in the cup. As we know, ground coffee of different flavors needs to have different ways to brew drip coffee. Although releasing flavors of ground coffee to the maximum extent, manual drip fails to be effective in coffee brewing to make both ends of flavor and quality meet.
Given the automatic drip as an example, ground coffee is filled in a container, which is placed on a drip coffee maker, such that steam pressure of hot water entering the container brews coffee and the drip coffee is collected in an empty cup. Even though automatic drip is faster than manual drip in terms of brewing drip coffee, automatic drip can provide one cup of drip coffee at a time. Meanwhile, automatic drip fails to fully release flavors of ground coffee. Under the circumstance, drip coffee made by automatic drip at most can be taken for refreshing purpose without having the enjoyable coffee flavors therein.
An objective of the present invention is to provide a multi-cup drip coffee maker, which continuously and automatically brews multiple cups of coffee, provides different ways of pouring hot water over ground coffee by using the driving mechanism in the coffee maker to drive a coffee outlet seat to move and/or oscillate, thereby fulfilling advantages of coffee flavor similar to manually brewed coffee and reduced coffee brewing time for assurance of enhanced coffee brewing efficiency and quality of brewed coffee.
To achieve the foregoing objective, the multi-cup drip coffee maker includes a casing, a user interface, a displacing mechanism, a first driving mechanism, a second driving mechanism and a control unit.
The casing has a front panel, a first side panel, a second side panel, a receiving chamber and a filtering cup shelf.
The second side panel is opposite to the first side panel.
The receiving chamber is defined between the first side panel and the second side panel.
The filtering cup shelf is mounted inside the receiving chamber.
The user interface is mounted on the front panel.
The displacing mechanism is pivotally mounted on inner walls of the first side panel and the second side panel and has a coffee outlet seat movably mounted on the displacing mechanism to be moveable between the first side panel and the second side panel.
The first driving mechanism is mounted on the inner wall of the first side panel and is connected with the displacing mechanism to drive the displacing mechanism and the coffee outlet seat to be movable left and right between the first side panel and the second side panel.
The second driving mechanism is mounted on an outer wall of the first side panel, and is pivotally connected with the displacing mechanism to drive the displacing mechanism and the coffee outlet seat to oscillate forward and backward.
The control unit is mounted on the outer wall of the first side panel, and is electrically connected to the user interface, the first driving mechanism and the second driving mechanism, configures multiple positioning points along a longitudinal direction of the filtering cup shelf with each positioning point corresponding to a location for a corresponding filtering cup to be placed, receives a configuration signal sent from the user interface, and transmits a driving signal to the first motor drive according to the configuration signal to drive the first driving mechanism to operate to drive the displacing mechanism for the displacing mechanism to drive the coffee outlet seat to move to any one of the multiple positioning points or transmits another driving signal to drive the second driving mechanism to operate to drive the displacing mechanism for the displacing mechanism to drive the coffee outlet seat to oscillate forward and backward with respect to a corresponding positioning point.
As can be seen from the foregoing structure, after users configure the type of coffee to be brewed and the way of coffee brewing through the user interface, the user interface transmits the configuration signal to the control unit, and the control unit sends the driving signal according to the configuration signal to the first driving mechanism or the second driving mechanism for individual or dual operation. Hence, the multi-cup drip coffee maker can continuously brew multiple cups of coffee and pour hot water over ground coffee in the filtering cup as configured in the way of coffee brewing to implement coffee brewing similar to manual coffee brewing and continuous brewing of multiple cups of coffee, thereby reducing coffee brewing time and raising quality of brewed coffee.
Other objectives, advantages and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
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In the present embodiment, the displacing mechanism 30 includes a sliding track 301, a first timing belt 302, a first timing pulley 303 and a second timing pulley 304. Two ends of the sliding track 301 are pivotally mounted on the inner walls of the first side panel 102 and the second side panel 103. The first timing pulley 303 is mounted on a front portion of the sliding track 301 and is located on the end of the sliding track 301 that faces the first side panel 102. With joint reference to
In the present embodiment, the displacing mechanism 30 further has a hose retaining member 32 mounted on the sliding track 301. The hose retaining member 32 has a first hose 321 retained therein with one end of the first hose 321 connected to the coffee outlet seat 31. When the coffee outlet seat 31 is moved, the first hose 321 is prevented from falling off and being clogged or entangled. The hose retaining member 32 may be a hollow chain with the first hose 321 mounted inside the chain.
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When the first motor 41 rotates, the third timing pulley 43 is driven to rotate, the second timing belt 44 is driven to drive the first timing pulley 303 to rotate, and the first timing belt 302 is driven to displace so as to move the coffee outlet seat 31 leftward and rightward.
The second driving mechanism 50 is mounted on the outer wall of the first side panel 102, is pivotally connected with the displacing mechanism 30, and includes a second motor 51, a second motor drive 52, a fourth timing pulley 53, and a third timing belt 54. The second motor 51 is mounted on the outer wall of the first side panel 102. The second motor drive 52 is mounted on the outer wall of the first side panel 102 and is electrically connected to the second motor 51 and the control unit 60. The fourth timing pulley 53 is mounted around a spindle of the second motor 51 and is axially parallel to the second timing pulley 304. The third timing belt 54 is mounted around the second timing pulley 304 and the fourth timing pulley 53.
When the second motor 51 rotates, the fourth timing pulley 53 is rotated, the third timing belt 54 is driven to drive the second timing pulley 304 to rotate, and the sliding track 301 is driven to oscillate forward and backward.
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In the present embodiment, the first driving mechanism 40 needs to drive the displacing mechanism 30 to move the coffee outlet seat 31 between the first side panel 102 and the second side panel 103 until the coffee outlet seat 31 is aligned with the positioning point of a corresponding filtering cup 71, to oscillate the coffee outlet seat 31 with respect to the positioning point, or to both move and oscillate the coffee outlet seat 31.
In the present embodiment, the multi-cup drip coffee maker further includes a first two-way solenoid valve 61, a second two-way solenoid valve 62 and a two-way throttle valve 63. The first two-way solenoid valve 61, the second two-way solenoid valve 62 and the two-way throttle valve 63 are electrically connected to the control unit 60. One port of the first two-way solenoid valve 61 is connected to the other end of the first hose 321, and the other port of the first two-way solenoid valve 61 is connected to one port of the two-way throttle valve 63 through a second hose 611 and one port of the second two-way solenoid valve 62. The other port of the second two-way solenoid valve 62 is connected to a third hose 621 to evacuate cold water. The other port of the two-way throttle valve 63 is connected to a fourth hose 631 and is connected to a hot water supplier through the fourth hose 631.
In the present embodiment, the first two-way solenoid valve 61 controls hot water to flow into the coffee outlet seat 31. The two-way throttle valve 63 serves to control a flow rate of hot water flowing in. The second two-way solenoid valve 62 serves to evacuate cold water retained in the hoses.
During operation, the control unit 60 sends a signal to activate the two-way throttle valve 63 and the first two-way solenoid valve 61, such that hot water flows to the coffee outlet seat 31 through the fourth hose 631, the two-way throttle valve 63, the first two-way solenoid valve 61 and the first hose 321. With further reference to
After the multi-cup drip coffee maker stays idle for a while, water in the hoses may become cold. Hence, the control unit 60 sends another signal to activate the second two-way solenoid valve 62 for cold water to be evacuated through the first hose 321, the first two-way solenoid valve 61, the second hose 611, the second two-way solenoid valve 62 and the third hose 621.
In the present embodiment, the control unit 6 further has a communication port 64 for connection with a wired network. Thus, the multi-cup drip coffee maker can be connected to a server through the Internet for software upgrade.
To elaborate the user interface 20, with reference to
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To elaborate operation of the multi-cup drip coffee maker, with reference to
After hot water is filled in the multi-cup drip coffee maker, with reference to
In the present embodiment, the application includes a coffee brewing optimization function, which calculates a coffee brewing time and a wait time for coffee filtering to generate an optimization mode for best brewing sequence, thereby optimizing coffee brewing time and raising coffee brewing efficiency.
Suppose that the coffee outlet seat 31 is moved to be right above next filtering cup 71 and the coffee selected is brewed by way of oscillating forward and backward. With reference to
Besides, in the present embodiment, coffee brewing can be performed by pouring hot water in a helical manner, which involves simultaneous operation of the first driving mechanism 40 and the second driving mechanism 50, allowing the coffee outlet seat 31 to be moved in a helical manner.
In sum, the present invention has the following advantages:
1. Users can configure multiple ways of pouring hot water for coffee brewing to achieve convenient operation.
2. Continuous brewing of multiple cups of coffee with enhanced brewing efficiency.
3. By virtue of the optimization mode for best brewing sequence in the user interface 20, the multi-cup drip coffee maker can arrange an optimized brewing sequence upon brewing multiple cups of coffee according to the ways of pouring hot water for coffee brewing and the wait time to reduce brewing time and increase brewing efficiency.
Even though numerous characteristics and advantages of the present invention have been set forth in the foregoing description, together with details of the structure and function of the invention, the disclosure is illustrative only. Changes may be made in detail, especially in matters of shape, size, and arrangement of parts within the principles of the invention to the full extent indicated by the broad general meaning of the terms in which the appended claims are expressed.