GB2569619A

GB2569619A - Beverage cartridge with fluid flow guiding means

Info

Publication number: GB2569619A
Application number: GB1721621.9A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Halliday Andrew; York Geoffrey; Phillip Jelley Simon; Thomas Ahearn Daniel; James Copley Simon; Elizabeth Knight Sarah
Original assignee: Koninklijke Douwe Egberts BV
Current assignee: Koninklijke Douwe Egberts BV
Priority date: 2017-12-21
Filing date: 2017-12-21
Publication date: 2019-06-26
Also published as: GB201721621D0

Abstract

A beverage cartridge for use in a beverage preparation machine of a type comprising a delivery head, an upwardly directed inlet for supplying water to the cartridge received in the delivery head and a downwardly directed outlet for outflow of beverage. The cartridge 1 comprises an inlet 5, an outlet 6 and an ingredients storage compartment 8 containing one or more beverage ingredients. The ingredients storage compartment comprises flow guiding means 10, such as walls, columns or pillars, arranged such that fluid flowing from the inlet to the outlet through the storage compartment is guided by the flow guiding means. The flow guiding may create a plurality of flow paths, or a tortuous flow path, between the inlet and outlet.

Description

Beverage Cartridge with Fluid Flow Guiding Means

Technical Field of the Invention

This invention relates to a cartridge comprising a beverage material for use in a beverage machine in which fluid is injected into the cartridge and a beverage is extracted under pressure.

Background to the Invention

It is known to provide machines and systems for the preparation of beverages such as coffee, tea and chocolate. Typically, in such systems the beverage ingredients are contained in a cartridge, which is pierced during preparation of the beverage. The machine for use with such cartridges is specially adapted to receive a particular design of cartridge in a brew head and to pass water and/or steam through the cartridge to prepare a beverage which is then dispensed. In the production of coffee using these preparation machines the coffee cartridge is placed in a brewing compartment and hot water is passed though the cartridge at relatively high pressures, thereby extracting the aromatic coffee constituents from the ground coffee to produce the coffee beverage. Typically, such machines operate at a pressure of greater than 6 x 10⁵ Pa. The beverage preparation machines of the type described have to date been relatively expensive since components of the machine, such as the water pumps and seals, must be able to withstand the high pressures.

Advantageously, lower pressure coffee and drink extraction machines are available for domestic use, however achieving the same quality of extract is challenging as the high pressure is not available to ensure even and consistent wetting of the beverage ingredients within the cartridge. As such, a larger volume of beverage ingredients is required which increases the cost of the cartridge.

EP 1 440 912 describes a manifold water distribution system intended to evenly distribute water into the beverage ingredients compartment, which improves the effectiveness of extraction, but increases the complexity of molding of the cartridge, and increases the overall volume of the cartridge, as volume must be given over to the manifold compartment. Extraction may also be improved further as the flow path within the ingredients compartment of the cartridge of EP 1 440 912 is not controlled.

It is an object of this invention to provide a beverage cartridge for use in a beverage machine in which an even and consistent wetting of the beverage ingredients is achieved to improve the effectiveness of extraction even at relatively low water/steam pressures.

Summary of the Invention

According to the invention, there is provided a cartridge for use in a beverage preparation machine of a type comprising a delivery head, an upwardly directed inlet for supplying water to the cartridge received in the delivery head and a downwardly directed outlet for outflow of beverage, wherein the cartridge comprises an inlet, an outlet and an ingredients storage compartment containing one or more beverage ingredients, characterised in that the ingredients storage compartment comprises flow guiding means arranged such that fluid flowing from the inlet to the outlet through the ingredients storage compartment is guided by the flow guiding means.

It will be understood that the by the term “cartridge” as used herein is meant any package, container, sachet, or receptacle which contains one more beverage ingredients in the manner described. The cartridge may be rigid, semi rigid, or flexible.

Advantageously, by guiding the fluid flow within the ingredients storage compartment a more even wetting of the beverage ingredients can be achieved, improving the quality of extraction and hence improving the final beverage. Additionally, by placing the guiding flow means within the ingredients storage compartment, there is little to no effect on the volume of the cartridge or available volume for beverage ingredients.

The flow guiding means may be arranged such that the input fluid is channelled through a single tortuous path. This advantageously has the effect of ensuring complete wetting and maximum extraction from the beverage ingredients. However this requires a higher input fluid pressure to achieve an acceptable fluid flow rate through the cartridge. Alternatively, the flow guiding means can be arranged to guide the fluid along a plurality of concurrently flowing flow paths. This has the advantage of allowing an acceptable fluid flow through the cartridge with a low input fluid pressure, while providing consistent wetting and extraction of the beverage ingredients.

The flow guiding means used may take a number of forms including, but not limited to, walls, columns, pillars, meshes, or perforated films or a combination of these. Different flow

-3guiding means may be advantageous in certain circumstances which may depend on the beverage ingredient in the cartridge. For example, walls provide the most consistent fluid flow guiding, which is useful in situations where routing is most important, such as near to the inlet; whereas columns provide less consistent fluid flow guiding, but introduce a greater level of turbulence and hence aid with mixing, which is particularly advantageous for soluble beverage ingredients.

Porous or mesh elements can advantageously serve the two functions of guiding the fluid and dispersing fluid through a mesh. This allows acceptable wetting to be achieved with fewer flow guiding elements. A perforated film can assist with an even flow distribution of water across and into the ingredients storage compartment.

An additional benefit of providing flow guiding means is that it constrains the distribution of ingredients within the ingredients storage compartment. Flow guiding features can prevent bulk lumps of ingredients, such as partially wetted lumps, from washing across the ingredients storage compartment, instead creating local stress concentrations encouraging the lumps to break up, exposing the unwetted centres. The even flow of water resulting from the flow guiding means encourages even movement of ingredients, avoiding them from being washed to one side. Flow guiding means with small slots or gaps can both create jets that create mixing and better wetting and penetration into the bed of ingredients, as well as acting as a simple multistage filter, reducing the blocking of the final filter and lowering the cartridge back pressure in use. Even before extraction, flow guiding means can beneficially limit the motion of ingredients, for example preventing the ingredients all falling to one side if packed at an angle in transit.

According to a further aspect of the invention, there is provided a beverage preparation system comprising a cartridge as previously described and a beverage preparation machine having a delivery head, an upwardly directed inlet for supplying water to the cartridge received in the delivery head, and a downwardly directed outlet for outflow of beverage from the cartridge.

Detailed Description of the Invention

The invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

-4Figure 1 is a perspective view of a cartridge in accordance with the invention,

Figure 2 is a plan view of the inside of the cartridge of figure 1 as viewed from the extraction side of the cartridge with the lid removed,

Figure 3 is a cross sectional view along line X-X of the figure 2, and

Figure 4 is a cross sectional view showing an alternative embodiment of the cartridge in accordance with the invention.

Figures 1 to 3 show a cartridge comprising a beverage ingredient or ingredients for use in a beverage machine in accordance with one embodiment of the invention. The cartridge 1 is generally circular in shape having a side wall 2 projecting from a circular base 3 and a lid 4 attached to a rim 16 which runs along the periphery of side wall 2. Lid 4 extends in a plane across a cartridge opening through which beverage ingredient(s) is placed during the manufacturing process. Lid 4 is provided with an inlet 5, an outlet 6 and a barcode 7 all of which are disposed on the extraction side 18 of the cartridge.

The inlet 5 and outlet 6 are arranged to interface in use with the inlet and outlet of a beverage preparation machine of a type comprising: a delivery head, an upwardly directed inlet for supplying water to the cartridge received in the delivery head, and a downwardly directed outlet for outflow of beverage. Such a machine is described in EP2148598. The lid 4 covering inlet 5 and outlet 6 of the cartridge are pierced by the machine in use.

For the avoidance of doubt the term inlet 5 and outlet 6 may refer to structures within the cartridge which are opened or accessed when placed in the machine and lid 4 is pierced. Equally the terms inlet 5 and outlet 6 may be structureless and simply be formed when the machine pierces the lid 4 at the areas 5 and 6 indicated on the lid 4 in figure 1 to allow water into and out of the cartridge.

In this first embodiment, the cartridge 1 comprises a substantially circular ingredients storage compartment 8 arranged such that in use water flows into the cartridge through an inlet 5 located close to the periphery of the ingredients storage compartment 8, and beverage flows out of the cartridge through an outlet 6 located close to the center of the ingredients storage compartment. The ingredients storage compartment 8 may contain for example, roast and ground coffee suitable for producing a coffee beverage when in use hot water is flowed under pressure through the inlet, or instant beverage ingredients. The

-5ingredients storage compartment is defined by the lid 4, side wall 2 and base 3 of the cartridge.

Figures 2 and 3 show the flow guiding means 10 arranged within the ingredients storage compartment in the form of substantially concentric rings 13 of decreasing size, with each ring element being broken by a series of slots 11 distributed around the ring. The distribution slots 11 and the relative sizes of the slots of the outer-most ring 12 are uneven to compensate for the inlet 5 being located to one side of the cartridge. This arrangement encourage the fluid flow through the ingredients storage compartment 8 to be more uniform by offering more fluid flow restriction on the side where the inlet 5 is located. In this embodiment, the fluid flow through the inner portion of the ingredients storage compartment 8 is sufficiently uniform with evenly spaced slots in the inner rings 21 of flow guiding means.

As can be seen in figure 3 a filter 14 is applied within the inner portion of the cartridge to prevent ingredient particles moving from the ingredient storage compartment to the cartridge outlet. The filter 14 is smaller than might be needed without flow guiding means as the ingredients are partially held back, limiting the blocking of the filter and maintaining a lower brew pressure.

During manufacture, the cartridge 1 is filled with beverage ingredient(s) through a large opening into the ingredients storage compartment 8. This opening is then closed by lid 4 which may comprise a metallic foil, or a plastics membrane. The lid 4 is also adhered to the flow guiding means 10 such that when the cartridge is under internal pressure the lid 4 cannot lift away from the flow guiding means 10 and allow fluid flow between the lid 4 and the flow guiding means 10.

The carefully selected resistance to fluid flow created by forcing fluid through the slots in the flow guiding means 10 has the effect of distributing the fluid flow paths throughout the ingredients storage compartment 8 providing consistent wetting of the coffee grounds, while allowing an acceptable fluid flow rate through the cartridge 1, even with a low pressure input to the cartridge.

Figure 4 shows a second embodiment of the invention in which the flow guiding means 10 takes the form of a perforated film 19. The perforated film 19 extends across the

-6ingredients storage compartment 8 and around the outlet 6 and may comprise a plastics material. It is attached to the inner side of side wall 2 by heat or other welding means or by adhesive means. Film 19 is spaced away from the lid 4 so that when the lid 4 is pierced by the machine to access the inlet 5 and outlet 6 the film 19 is not pierced. The film 19 is provided with a number of small holes so that as fluid enters the cartridge 1 through the inlet 5 which may just be the pierced opening in the lid 4, the fluid will flow along the flow space 20 between the lid 4 and film 19 and pass through the film 19 into the ingredients storage compartment 8 thus assisting with an even distribution of fluid across the area of the ingredient(s) in the ingredients storage compartment 8.

One or more, or a combination of aforementioned flow guiding means 10 may be used in the same cartridge 1 in accordance with the invention.

Claims

CLAIMS:

1. A cartridge for use in a beverage preparation machine of a type comprising a delivery head, an upwardly directed inlet for supplying water to the cartridge received in the delivery head and a downwardly directed outlet for outflow of beverage, wherein the cartridge comprises an inlet, an outlet and an ingredients storage compartment containing one or more beverage ingredients, characterised in that the ingredients storage compartment comprises flow guiding means arranged such that fluid flowing from the inlet to the outlet through the ingredients storage compartment is guided by the flow guiding means.

2. The cartridge as claimed in claim 1 wherein the flow guiding means are of the form of a plurality of features arranged to create a plurality of fluid flow paths between the inlet and outlet.

3. The cartridge as claimed in claim 1, or claim 2 wherein the flow guiding means are of the form of one or more features arranged to create a tortuous flow path between the inlet and outlet.

4. The cartridge as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the flow guiding means comprises walls.

5. The cartridge as claimed in preceding claim, wherein the flow guiding means comprises columns or pillars.

6. The cartridge as claimed in any preceding claim wherein the flow guiding means comprises a porous or mesh element.

7. The cartridge of claim 6 wherein the porous or mesh element comprise a perforated film.

8. A beverage preparation system comprising a cartridge according to any preceding claim and a beverage preparation machine having a delivery head, an upwardly directed inlet for supplying water to the cartridge received in the delivery head, and a downwardly directed outlet for outflow of beverage from the cartridge.