JPH0965980A - Beverage storage system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a beverage storage system capable of serving fresh and tasty coffee anytime, by performing alternatively cleaning a multiplicity of storage tanks to provide a condition to store beverage in at least one storage tank anytime. SOLUTION: Two tanks A and B are set in parallel and alternatively cleaned. The tank A is to be used according to the detected condition when both A and B tanks are cleaned or only the B tank is under cleaning, and when only the A tank is under cleaning, the B tank is decided to be used. Then extraction is started and extracted coffee is introduced into the A tank through an extractor 19, a beverage supply pipe 41, switching device 100 and, if the A tank is decided to be used, via a one branch supply pipe 10. If the B tank is decided to be used, coffee is switched to be introduced into the B tank via the other branch supply pipe 103. Though this system has two tanks of A and B, cleaning of those two tanks is alternatively performed, i.e., Prohibited to perform simultaneously and extracted coffee is made to be introduced into either one of A or B tanks.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a storage device for storing a plurality of beverages in a plurality of storage tanks.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in this kind of vending machine,
For example, JP-A-4-354912 (A47J31 /
As shown in 30) as an extracting device, a beverage such as coffee is extracted from a raw material such as coffee beans, mixed with other sugar or milk, and then poured into a cup for sale. In addition, until now, due to the Food Sanitation Law, it was impossible to store a predetermined amount of the extracted beverage in advance and store it in the vending machine, so conventionally one cup of coffee is extracted from the raw material for each sale. Then, the method of selling was adopted.

According to the extraction for each sale, although there is an advantage that fresh coffee can be extracted and sold every time, the extraction takes time, so that it takes a relatively long time (40 seconds / cup) from selection of a product to sale. The customer has to wait. In addition, since the consumption of consumables such as paper filters necessary for extraction increases, there is a problem that efficient sales cannot be performed.

With the revision of the Food Sanitation Law, it is possible to adopt a system in which a predetermined amount of a beverage is extracted in advance and stored in this kind of vending machine, and the beverage is poured into a cup and sold for each sale. As a publication showing such a structure,
There is JP-A-5-135274. In this publication,
Beverages (coffee) collectively extracted by an extractor for several cups are simultaneously poured into two storage containers arranged in parallel, and the beverage is sequentially supplied from one of the storage containers.

Further, when the amount of the beverage in the storage container becomes small due to the sale, a so-called "first-in first-out" concept is adopted in which the beverage is sequentially extracted and added to this container.

[0006]

According to the apparatus disclosed in the above publication, both storage containers are always used at the same time, and therefore the following problems can be considered. Firstly, since it is necessary to perform a cleaning process for each of these storage containers at a predetermined time for hygiene management, the storage container cannot be used during this predetermined time. For example, in a vending machine equipped with such a container. There is no choice but to stop the sales function. Second, "first in first out"
When the idea of (1) is adopted, the taste of coffee drinks may change with each sale.

The first point will be described in detail below. When making and storing a beverage, it is necessary to always maintain the storage container in a preferable state for storing the beverage. For example, when a coffee drink is made from a powdered raw material (such as ground coffee beans) with an automatic vending machine, it is not possible to perform sufficient preservative treatment (addition of a preservative) like commercial foods. For this reason, it is necessary to perform sanitary maintenance processing (washing step, etc.) such as rinsing and drying on the storage container every day. Among them, in the drying process, a drying treatment time of about 2 hours is required for the treatment of suppressing the growth of various bacteria in the storage container. That is, the selling function of the vending machine must be stopped for about two hours, which causes the user to be dissatisfied. The concept is that vending machines can provide beverages at unmanned stores in 24-hour service areas such as highway service areas, 3 shift factories, even a small number of day and night guards, equipment maintenance personnel, etc. Since it is generally present, the vending machine that has to stop the selling function as described above loses the presence (significance) of the vending machine, which is a fatal issue.

The second point will be described with reference to FIG. The figure shows, for example, 5 cups of coffee are stored in one storage tank, and after 2 cups have been sold, 2 cups are newly extracted and the remaining 3 cups are extracted.
It shows a case where it is mixed with a cup and sold one by one at 5 minute intervals, and the coffee of the first extraction gradually decreases as the sales proceed sequentially. Approximately 1 after 45 to 50 minutes have passed since the first extraction
6% of the first extracted coffee will be sold for sale, which is unacceptable for flavor-conscious beverages (coffee). Generally, it is said that it is preferable that coffee beverages be sold out within about 30 minutes after being extracted. Therefore, in this example, it is preferable that after the first 5 cups have been made and stored, at most 2 cups of supplement (addition) are completed once and the next supplement is conducted, for example, to another storage tank. As a result, the 7th cup (35 minutes after the first extraction) does not remain for the first extraction.

[0009] Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide always fresh and tasty coffee in an apparatus for extracting and storing all at once, and to keep the storage tank always hygienic and not to stop the operation of this apparatus. Is to

[0010]

To achieve this object, the first and second aspects of the present invention store a plurality of drinks in a plurality of storage tanks and derive the beverages from these storage tanks as needed. In the beverage storage device to do, the cleaning of the plurality of storage tanks is not performed at the same time, or the cleaning of the plurality of storage tanks is alternately performed,
At least one storage tank is always ready to store beverages.

The third and fourth aspects of the present invention prevent beverages having different extraction times from entering the same storage tank, or on the other hand, when the storage time of the beverages in the storage tank is a predetermined value or more. Since the extracted beverage is guided to the other storage tank, beverages having different extraction times or different flavors are not mixed in one storage tank.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The vending machine of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. In this vending machine, coffee cooked in the vending machine is provided to a product purchaser in a cup, and FIG. 1 is a structural diagram of a cooking section of the coffee. As shown in the figure, the cooking section 1 is roughly divided into a water supply section 2 and an extraction sales section 3.

The water supply unit 2 is provided on the cistern 11 for storing tap water and on the downstream side of the cistern 11, and pressurizes the water of the cistern 11 to supply water to each part in the vending machine through the water supply pipe 12. Pump (main pump) 13
And cooling the supplied water as dilution water as a cooling pipe 2
A cooling water tank 14 for supplying water to the cup C via 0 and a hot water tank 15 for heating the supplied water to store hot water are provided. In the water supply unit 2, after the water supplied from the water supply is temporarily stored in the cistern 11, the water pump 13 pressurizes the stored water to supply the cooling water tank 14 and the water supply pipe via the hot water tank 15 and the cooling pipe 20. It is supplied to the steam generator 16 described later via 12. The hot water tank 15
The supplied water is heated by the heater 17 to make hot water of 90 degrees or more and stored. The hot water stored in the hot water tank 15 is supplied to an extraction device 19 described later via a hot water valve 18. Further, the cooling water tank 14 stores water cooled by a refrigeration cycle (not shown), and the cooling tank 1
The supplied diluted water is supplied to the cup C through the diluted water valve 21 by passing the supplied water through the cooling water pipe 20 arranged in a meandering manner in the pipe 4.

The brewing and selling section 3 supplies a cup C for supplying a cup C, a coffee canister 23 for storing a coffee powder raw material (beverage raw material), and an extraction device for extracting coffee by mixing the powder raw material and hot water. 19 and a batch tank 24 for storing the coffee extracted by the extracting device 19
, A cream canister 25 for storing cream, a sugar canister 26 for storing sugar, a syrup canister 27 for storing syrup, and sugar and cream supplied respectively from the sugar canister 26 and the cream canister 25 according to a sales order, A mixing ball 28 for mixing with the extracted coffee and a water pump 13
Steam generator 16 for evaporating the water supplied through the filter 29 to the extraction device 19, a cup holder 30 for placing the cup C, and a waste bucket 31 arranged below the cup holder 31. It has and. The filter 29 generates pure water by removing magnesium and calcium contained in the water flowing in the water supply pipe 12, and a compound such as magnesium on the surface of the heat storage body of the extraction device 16 described later. To prevent the adherence.

A steam pipe 32 for guiding the steam generated here is connected to the steam generator 16, and 2
One of the steam pipes 33 is led to the extraction device 19 through the extraction valve 34, and the other steam pipe 35
Is guided to the mixing ball 28 via the mixing valve 36. At the bottom of the batch tank 24, the sales pipe 3
7 and the waste pipe 38 are connected, and the sales pipe 37
Through the sales valve 39, the tip of which is the mixing ball 2
8 of the waste pipe 38, while the end of the waste pipe 38 faces the waste bucket 31 via the waste valve 40.

In the brewing and selling section 3, several cups of coffee collectively extracted in advance by the brewing device 19 are chilled in the batch tank 24 through the beverage supply pipe 41, and a coffee product selection switch (not shown). ) Is pressed, the cup supply device 22 supplies the cup C to the cub holder 30. At the same time, the mixing bowl 28 is supplied with one cup of coffee from the batch tank 24, sugar from the sugar canister 26 and cream from the cream canister 25, respectively, and these are mixed in the mixing ball 28. Is supplied to.

2 and 3 are explanatory views mainly showing the batch tank (storage tank) 24. The same parts as those shown in FIG. 1 are designated by the same reference numerals and the description thereof will be omitted. 2 and 3
In FIG. 1, 100 is a switching device (omitted in FIG. 1), which is an inlet pipe 101 from the extraction device 19 and two first outlet pipes 102 and 103 connected to the batch tank and a second outlet directly facing the cup C. It is connected to the pipe 104. Then, the coffee extracted by the extraction device 19 is batch tank 24.
If it is to be guided to the first outlet pipe 102, 103
On the other hand, when the coffee is guided to the cup C, the coffee is switched to the second outlet pipe 104 to flow.

Specifically, the batch tank 24 is composed of two tanks A and B arranged in parallel, and both tanks A and B are provided.
Have the same structure, and the internal structure is shown in Fig. 4.
It is shown as follows. These tanks A and B include a cylindrical cylinder 42 and an upper lid 43 that closes the upper opening of this cylinder.
And a lower lid 44 that closes the lower opening,
The bolts 45 and nuts 46 penetrating the both lids are integrally combined. Reference numeral 47 is a connection hole provided in the upper lid, to which an overflow tube 48 is connected.
This overflow tube 48 is used for the waste bucket 31.
The beverage that has faced (see FIG. 1) and overflowed in the tank A is guided to the waste bucket 31 through the tube 48. In addition, this overflow tube 48,
It also acts as an air intake when the coffee flows down from the tank A by opening the sales valve and the waste valve described later,
This causes the coffee to flow out of the tank A immediately. A beverage supply pipe 41 is also attached to the upper lid.

The lower lid 44 has a substantially funnel-shaped cross section, and a hole 50 is provided on a side portion of the lower lid 44 to connect to an air pipe 49 (not shown in FIG. 1). Air tube 49
Is erected upward along the left side of tank A,
A pressure sensor 52 is provided in one branch pipe 51, and an air solenoid valve 5 is provided in the other branch pipe 53.
4 and the air pump 55 are connected to each other. Operations of the pressure sensor 52, the air solenoid valve 54, the air pump 55, etc. will be described later. Reference numeral 56 is a heater wound around the cylinder 42, and is controlled to keep the coffee X stored in the tank A at a constant temperature (about 65 ° C.).

On the other hand, the lower portion of the lower lid 44 has holes 5 connected to the sales tube 37 and the waste tube 38, respectively.
7,58 are provided. Both tubes 37, 3
8 is made of silicone rubber and is deformed by being pushed by the tips 71 and 77 of the movable plates 61 and 69 of the sales valve 59 and the disposal valve 60, and the fluid (coffee) flowing to the tubes 37 and 38.
Perform control. Reference numeral 75 is an air vent hole provided in the sales tube 37.

The sales valve (sale means) 59 includes a movable plate 61 for deforming the sales tube, an inverted V-shaped lever 62 for applying a force to the movable plate, and a shaft 63 of the lever 62.
It is composed of a plunger 65 that is raised to the left of the lever and inserted into the electromagnetic coil 64, and a spring 67 that straddles the left end of the lever and the fixed hook 66. Then, at the time of selling the beverage, the plunger 65 is pushed up by energizing the electromagnetic coil 64, whereby the lever 62 pushes the left side up and the right end 68 goes down with respect to the shaft 63, and the movable piece is pushed back to the left side. The deformation of is released and the drink flows down from the sales tube.

On the other hand, the discard valve (disposal means) 60 has a movable plate 69 for deforming the discard tube 38, a V-shaped lever 70 for applying a force to the movable plate 69, and a shaft 71 of the lever 70. The right side of the electromagnetic coil 71
It is composed of a plunger 72 that is inserted in the spring and a spring 74 that straddles the right end of the lever 70 and the fixed hook 73. Then, normally, the plunger 72 is pulled down by energizing the electromagnetic coil 71, whereby the waste tube 38 is deformed by the tip 77 of the movable valve 69 so that the beverage in the tank A does not flow down from the waste tube 38. There is. When the beverage is discarded or a power failure occurs, the electromagnetic coil 71 is de-energized to pull up the plunger 72, which lowers the left end 78 of the lever 70 and pushes the movable piece 69 back to the right side to release the deformation of the discarded tube 38. (See FIG. 4), the beverage is disposed of through the waste tube 38 and the waste bucket 31 (see FIG. 1) from the viewpoint of hygiene.
Be thrown away.

Here, the pressure sensor 52 and the air solenoid valve 54
Are provided in the air pipes 49 from the respective tanks A and B, but the air pump 55 is a confluent pipe of the air pipes 49 (see FIG. 3).
It is equipped with one. The purpose of providing the air pump 55 is to perform sanitary control of the tanks A and B (cleaning process).
The process is composed of a rinsing operation and a drying operation. This step will be described below.

The coffee X stored in the tanks A and B may cause stains on the inner surface of the tank A. In such a case, the inside of the tank A is washed by the following operation. First, the coffee powder raw material is not supplied to the extraction device 19 (see FIG. 1), only the hot water is introduced into the extraction device 19 by opening the hot water valve 18, and this hot water is washed with a pump (not shown). Is supplied to tank A. At this time, the sales valve 59 and the discard valve 60 are closed as shown in FIG.
Therefore, the washing water Y is stored in this tank A. Then, the air pump 55 is operated and the air valve 54 is opened. Then, the pressurized air discharged from the air pump 55 vigorously agitates the wash water Y in the tank A through the air pipe 54 as indicated by the solid line arrow, so that the dirt in the tank A is removed. The time for sending the pressurized air into the tank A as described above varies depending on the size of the tank A, the amount of washing hot water, and the state of dirt, but it is about 1
Minutes are considered appropriate. Next, the operation of the air pump 55 is stopped, and the waste valve 60 is opened for a certain period of time, so that the wash water Y passes through the waste tube 38 and the waste bucket 3 is discharged.
1 (see FIG. 1). After storing the hot water Y in the tank A in this way, the air pump 55 forcedly sent the pressurized air into the tank A. Therefore, the pressurized air effectively removes the dirt in the tank A, and the rinse is performed. The effect is enhanced.

After the rinsing operation is completed, as shown in FIG. 6, the discard valve 60 is closed, and the warming heater 56 provided in the cylinder 42 of the tank A is energized for about 2 hours to make the tank A.
The temperature of the wall surface of the cylinder 42 is increased. After that, the air pump 55 is operated and the air valve 54 is opened to supply the pressurized air to the batch tank A for a certain time (for example, about several tens of minutes). This can shorten the drying time in the batch tank A. The pressurized air introduced into the batch tank A is discharged from the overflow pipe 48 through the connection hole 47. Hygiene in the tank A can be maintained by such a series of rinsing operations and drying operations.

As shown in FIG. 3, two tanks A and B are provided in parallel, and the present invention has been made to solve the technical problem of how to use the tanks efficiently and hygienically. It is a thing. This point will be described below.
In FIG. 3, 200 is a control device for this vending machine,
The air pump 55, the switching device 100, the extraction device 19 and the like are controlled based on the flowchart shown in FIG.

In FIG. 7, when the operation of the vending machine is started, the cleaning process (state shown in FIGS. 5 and 6) is alternately performed in the tanks A and B in step S ₁ . This is to prevent the two tanks A and B from being in the cleaning process at the same time, and to always store the beverage in one of the tanks A and B. Then, in step S ₂ , tank A B
Whether all tanks have been cleaned or only tank B is being cleaned,
Alternatively, it is detected whether only the tank A is being cleaned. In step S _3, light of the detection state of the step S _2, both A tank B tank when in the cleaning only cleaned and tank B is determined to be "A tank use", when in the cleaning tank A Only " Use tank B ”. After that, the extraction is started, and the extracted coffee passes through the extractor 19-beverage supply pipe 41-switching device 100 shown in FIG. If it is determined that “use B tank”, it is switched to tank B via the other branch supply pipe 103.
The extracted coffee step S ₄ to S _7, stored the coffee tank A or tank B, to start selling coffee. Step S ₈ at a predetermined time from the extraction start time during the sale (e.g., 30 minutes) to determine whether or not elapsed, the coffee considered if only the coffee flavor is reduced (oxidized) discarded (step S _9, the waste valve 60 of FIG. 3 open) dispose, leading to step S _10. It determines whether to go or Step S ₂ goes to Step S ₁ in accordance with the degree of contamination of the vessel used in step S _10. On the other hand, if the predetermined time has not passed, the process proceeds to step S ₁₁ , in which it is determined whether or not the sales amount is equal to or more than the predetermined amount (in other words,
Coffee batch tank is determined whether) or equal to or less than the predetermined amount, if the above, starts both extracted at step S ₁₂ for a small coffee amount in the batch tank to add the extracted coffee. On the other hand, if sales volume is less than the predetermined amount continues to sell directly returns to step S _7. Thus, although there are two tanks A and B, the cleaning steps of the tanks A and B are, in other words, prohibited from being performed at the same time.
Moreover, the extracted coffee is introduced into only one of the tanks A and B. As a result, coffee having different extraction times will not be mixed in the same batch tank.

A method different from the above-mentioned control contents (another implementation
There is also a flowchart shown in FIG. Figure 8
When the operation of the vending machine starts at
S ₈₀~ S₈₂Let's start the extraction and
The heater is guided to the batch tank A (the switching device 100 in FIG. 3).
Communicates with 102 side). And step S₈₃Then store in tank A
Start selling existing coffee. Step S₈₄
Then, whether or not the sales amount is a predetermined amount or more (in other words,
Judgment whether or not the amount of coffee in tank A is below a certain amount)
However, if it is above, the amount of coffee in the batch tank is small
Step S₈₅Start both extractions with. Here, step S
₈₆Then, a predetermined time (for example, 15
Minute) If it is not judged whether it has passed or not, go to tank A
Although added (step S₈₇), That time has passed
If so, switch to tank B and flow (step S₈₈). And tank
Sell by A and tank B (step S₈₉),That
After that, discard time (in either tank A or B, the extraction time
30 minutes have passed) and whether or not it has passed (step
S₉₀), If too much, the flavor of coffee is reduced (oxidized)
I think that the coffee is discarded and stepped
(S₉₁, S₈₀) Return to. On the other hand, the specified time must have passed
If so, step S₈₉Transitioned to and continue its sales here
I do. This allows coffee with different extraction times to be different.
It is designed to lead to each batch tank.

[0029]

As described above, according to the first and second aspects of the present invention, the plurality of storage tanks for storing beverages are not simultaneously cleaned, or the plurality of storage tanks are cleaned. Since the beverages are always stored in the at least one storage tank by alternately performing the above steps, it is possible to always store the beverage in this device while maintaining the hygiene control of the storage tanks.

According to the third and fourth aspects of the invention, when the beverages having different extraction times do not enter the same storage tank, or when the storage time of the beverages in one storage tank is a predetermined value or more, Since the extracted beverage is guided to the other storage tank, it is possible to prevent the beverages with different extraction times or different flavors from being mixed in one storage tank, and to prevent the taste from being altered each time the beverage is sold. You can

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing an overall configuration of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a main part of the configuration shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory view centering on the batch tank shown in FIG.

4 is an internal structural diagram of the tank A shown in FIG.

5 is an explanatory diagram showing a cleaning state of the tank A shown in FIG.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing a dried state of the tank A.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the control of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a control different from the control shown in FIG.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing a state of a conventional storage tank.

[Explanation of symbols] A, B (storage) tank S ₁ , S ₂ steps (washing) X beverage (coffee) S ₈₆ steps

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A beverage storage device for storing a plurality of beverages in a plurality of storage tanks and appropriately discharging the beverages from the storage tanks so that the plurality of storage tanks are not simultaneously cleaned. The beverage storage device is characterized in that the beverage is always stored in at least one storage tank. 2. In a beverage storage device for storing a plurality of beverages in a plurality of storage tanks and appropriately discharging the beverages from the storage tanks, the plurality of storage tanks are alternately washed, A beverage storage device, wherein beverage is always stored in at least one storage tank. 3. A beverage storage device in which a plurality of beverages are collectively extracted and stored in a plurality of storage tanks, and the beverages are appropriately extracted from these storage tanks, and beverages having different extraction times are the same storage tank. A beverage storage device, which is characterized in that it is prevented from being put in. 4. A beverage storage device in which a plurality of beverages are collectively extracted and stored in a plurality of storage tanks, and the beverages are appropriately extracted from these storage tanks, and the beverages are stored in one of the storage tanks. A beverage storage device, which introduces a newly extracted beverage to the other storage tank when the staying time is equal to or longer than a predetermined value.