Assembly for use in a coffee machine for preparing coffee

• US 6,021,705 A
• Filed: 09/30/1998
• Issued: 02/08/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Douwe Egberts BV (Mondelez International, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Sara Lee / De N.V. (Sara Lee Corporation)
• Inventors: Dijs, Daniel Albertus Jozef
• Primary Examiner(s): ALEXANDER, REGINALD
• Application Number:
  US09/164,141
• Time in Patent Office: 496 Days
• Field of Search: 99/295, 99/302 R, 99/304, 99/305, 99/306, 99/307, 99/300, 426/433
• US Class Current: 99/295
• CPC Class Codes: A47J 31/0678 Means to separate the cartridge from the bottom of the brewing chamber, e.g. grooves or protrusions

Abstract

The assembly for use in a coffee machine comprises a container having a bowl-shaped inner space bounded by a bottom having at least one outlet opening and at least one vertical sidewall. The assembly further comprises a pill-shaped pouch manufactured from filtering paper and filled with ground coffee, accommodated in the inner space of the container. The pouch extends over the bottom to a position adjacent the vertical sidewall. In the bottom, a number of channel-shaped grooves are provided, extending in radial direction of the container to the outlet opening. The grooves extend from a position located at a distance from the sidewall in the direction of the outlet opening. This prevents bypass.

Claims

1. An assembly for use in a coffee machine for preparing coffee, comprising a container having a bowl-shaped inner space bounded by a bottom having at least one outlet opening and at least one vertical sidewall and, included in the inner space of the container, a pill-shaped pouch manufactured from filtering paper and filled with ground coffee, which pouch rests on the bottom and extends over the bottom to a position adjacent the vertical sidewall, while provided in the bottom are a number of channel-shaped grooves extending in radial direction of the bowl-shaped inner space to the outlet opening and, in use, hot water is fed under pressure to a top side of the container by means of the coffee machine, causing the hot water to be pressed from a top side of the pouch through the pouch for extracting the ground coffee included in the pouch, the coffee extract formed flowing from a bottom side of the pouch and from the container via the outlet, wherein each of said grooves begins at a position spaced from the sidewall and extends in a direction away from the sidewall.

2. An assembly according to claim 1, wherein the channel-shaped grooves extend in radial direction of the bowl-shaped inner space to the outlet opening, each of said grooves extending from the position located at a distance from the sidewall in the direction of the outlet opening.

3. An assembly according to claim 2, wherein the smallest distance between each of said grooves on one side and the vertical sidewall on the other is greater than 10% of a maximum diameter of the inner space of the container.

4. An assembly according to claim 3, wherein the smallest distance between each of said grooves on one side and the vertical sidewall on the other is approximately equal to 20% of the maximum diameter of the inner space of the container.

5. An assembly according to claim 1, wherein the bottom is provided with a number of vertical projections arranged at regular distances relative to each other, said grooves being formed by the interspaces formed between the vertical projections.

6. An assembly according to claim 5, wherein the vertical projections are substantially cylindrical.

7. An assembly according to claim 5, wherein the projections are arranged in rows and columns relative to each other.

8. An assembly according to claim 5, wherein at the bottom side of the projections, the interspaces formed between the projections cover 75-94% of the total area of the bottom that is provided with projections.

9. An assembly according to claim 5, wherein the projections have their top sides provided with round tips.

10. An assembly according to claim 1, wherein the bottom consists of an outer horizontally directed annular bottom part bounding the sidewall and an inner saucer-shaped bottom part bounding an inner edge of the annular bottom part, the saucer-shaped bottom part adjacent the annular bottom part sloping downwards in a direction away from the sidewall.

11. An assembly according to claim 10, wherein the grooves extend in the saucer-shaped bottom part.

12. An assembly according to claim 11, wherein each of the grooves extends from a position located at a distance from the inner edge of the annular bottom part in the direction of the outlet opening.

13. An assembly according to claim 12, wherein the smallest direction between each of said grooves on one side and the inner edge of the annular bottom part on the other is greater than 10% of a maximum diameter of the annular bottom part.

14. An assembly according to claim 2, wherein the grooves have a rectangular cross section.

15. An assembly according to claim 10, wherein in the center of the saucer-shaped bottom part, a recess is provided, the outlet opening being located in a bottom of the recess.

16. An assembly according to claim 1, wherein a bottom of the pouch has a shape substantially corresponding to the shape of the bottom of the container.

17. An assembly according to claim 1, wherein the pouch comprises a disk-shaped top sheet and a disk-shaped bottom sheet which are interconnected adjacent their longitudinal edges, the interconnected parts of the top and bottom sheets forming an annular sealing seam.

18. An assembly according to claim 10, wherein dimensions of the bottom disk-shaped sheet from a center of the sheet to the annular sealing seam correspond to dimensions of the saucer-shaped bottom part.

19. An assembly according to claim 18, wherein the annular sealing seam has dimensions substantially corresponding to the dimensions of the annular bottom part.

20. An assembly according to claim 17, wherein the diameter of the inner space of the container is approximately equal to 74 mm and that the diameter of the pouch is approximately equal to 74 mm.

21. An assembly according to claim 17, wherein the diameter of the inner space of the container is approximately equal to 61 mm.

22. An assembly according to claim 1, wherein the inner space of the container is cylindrical, an axial axis of the inner space being at least substantially vertically directed.