Brewer

• US 5,638,739 A
• Filed: 07/08/1996
• Issued: 06/17/1997
• Est. Priority Date: 07/08/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Newco Enterprises Incorporated, Smartcup Manufacturing, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Shaanan Holdings Inc.
• Inventors: Shaanan, Gad, Francovich, Walter
• Primary Examiner(s): JENKINS, ROBERT
• Application Number:
  US08/676,410
• Time in Patent Office: 344 Days
• Field of Search: 99/289 R, 99/287, 99/289 T, 99/289 P, 99/289 D, 99/316, 99/317, 99/319, 99/320, 99/279, 99/297, 99/300, 99/302 R, 99/302 P, 426/433
• US Class Current: 99/287
• CPC Class Codes: A47J 31/18 Apparatus in which ground coffee or tea-leaves are immersed in the hot liquid in the beverage container

Abstract

A coffee brewer of the type having an outer fixed cylindrical tube and a fixed piston within the tube. A sliding cylinder slides in sealing contact between the outer cylinder and the piston. The sliding cylinder has a filter at the top thereof. A frame mounts the piston head and the outer cylindrical tube, and motor means are mounted on the frame with a pair of rotors rotatably mounted on the frame, one on either side of the outer cylindrical tube about a lateral axis at right angles to the axial axis of the outer and sliding cylindrical tubes. Each rotor includes an arcuate segment with gear teeth on the periphery thereof. Gear means connect the motor to the rotors for rotating the rotors, and a cam connector connects the sliding cylinder to the rotors for sliding movement of the sliding cylindrical tube during the brewing cycle. A spring mounted sweeper blade extends between a pair of arms, one on either side of the outer cylindrical tube, for sweeping the top of the sliding cylindrical tube and, therefore, the filter. A pour spout is mounted on the frame and is connected to a flexible tube communicating with the sliding cylinder for pouring the coffee from the interior of the sliding cylinder when the appropriate position is reached in the brewing cycle.

Claims

1. A brewer comprising a frame, a first upright cylindrical tube mounted to the frame and having an upper portion with a smooth inner surface and an open top, a second cylindrical tube slidable within the first cylindrical tube in a reciprocating travel cycle along an axial axis of the first and second cylindrical tubes, the second cylindrical tube including a filter means at the top thereof, gasket means provided between the first and second cylindrical tubes to ensure sealing contact between the sliding first and second tubes, the uppermost position of the second cylindrical tube in the travel cycle occurring when the filter means is flush with the top of the first cylindrical tube, a piston head mounted to the frame within the second cylindrical tube and gasket means provided between the second cylindrical tube and the piston head to ensure sealing contact therebetween, a pour spout outlet means in the second cylindrical tube located below the top of the piston head for most of the travel of the second cylindrical tube but above the piston head in the uppermost segment of the travel cycle of the second cylindrical tube, the improvement comprising motor means mounted on the frame, a pair of rotors rotatably mounted on the frame, one on either diametrically opposite positions of the first and second cylindrical tubes about a lateral axis at right angles to the axial axis of the first and second cylindrical tubes, each rotor including an arcuate segment with gear teeth on the periphery of the arcuate segment, gear means connecting the motor means to the rotors for rotating the rotors, and means connecting the rotors to the second cylindrical tube for effecting the reciprocating vertical travel cycle to the second cylindrical tube.

2. The brewer in accordance with claim 1, wherein the means connecting the second cylindrical tube to the rotors includes at least a linear cam track on one side of the second cylindrical tube adjacent and parallel to one of the rotors, and a cam follower means mounted on the rotor to engage the at least one cam track on the second cylindrical tube.

3. The rotor as defined in claim 2, wherein there is a linear cam track provided on opposite diametrical portions of the second cylindrical tube with each cam track adjacent each of the rotors, and each of the rotors includes a cam follower means to engage the respective cam tracks.

4. The brewer as defined in claim 1, wherein a pour spout outlet is defined in the second cylindrical tube, whereby the outlet will be located below the piston head and thereby out of communication with the liquid in a chamber formed by the piston head and the first and second cylindrical tube, but the location of the outlet for the spout means will move above the piston head when the second cylindrical tube moves towards its uppermost position whereby the outlet will be in communication with the liquid in the chamber, the pour spout including a spout dispenser member fixed to the frame and including an inlet which is at the same level as the piston head and a flexible conduit extending between the outlet on the second cylindrical tube and the inlet on the spout dispenser member so that when the outlet is in communication with the liquid in the chamber, the liquid will flow through the flexible conduit into the spout dispenser member.

5. A brewer as defined in claim 1, wherein a pair of wiper arms are pivoted to the housing for rotation about the lateral axis and the wiper arms include doglegs and the second cylindrical tube includes engagement means for engaging the doglegs when the second cylindrical tube is moving in its downward travel and thereby rotating the wiper arms to be loaded against a spring extending between the housing and the wiper arms and locking means for releasably locking the wiper arms in the loaded position, the wiper arms subtending a wiper assembly including a wiper blade for sweeping the waste grounds from the filter when the second cylindrical tube is at its uppermost position with the filter level with the top of the opening.

6. The brewer as defined in claim 5, wherein the housing includes a pair of parallel opposed side walls extending parallel to the axial axis of the first and second cylindrical tubes and at right angles to the lateral axis, the walls having upper portions projecting above the top of the first tube, the upper portions each including a first cam track and the wiper assembly including wiper cam followers connected at each end to the wiper blade, and when the wiper arms are released from their loaded position, the spring urges the wiper arms and the wiper blade across the screen when the second cylindrical tube is in its uppermost position, whereby the wiper cam followers follow the first cam track forcing the wiper blade to sweep the screen and to be in contact with the screen, the upper portions each including a second cam track above the first cam track and a diverting gate means for diverting the wiper cam followers to travel in the second cam track when the wiper arms are being retracted towards a loading position such that the wiper blade is moved out of contact with the filter by means of the cam followers following in the second cam track.