Drink cartridge and method of manufacturing the same

Abstract

A cartridge for preparation of a drink comprises a chamber having a top end for allowing flow of water under pressure into the chamber, a side wall and a bottom end for allowing flow of drink out of the chamber, a supply of soluble solids in the chamber, a solubility promoter adapted to move downward and to conform to the side wall of the chamber during its downward movement within the chamber for facilitating the dissolution of the soluble solids, a flow promoter for facilitating the flow of the drink out of bottom end of the chamber, and a dryer adapted to produce a supply of gas upon contacting the water for drying the cartridge for mess-free disposal.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This is a continuation-in-part application of application Ser. No. 09 / 748,495 filed Dec. 22, 2000, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,740,345 and of application Ser. No. 10 / 190,399 filed Jul. 6, 2002, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,777,007, and a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 10 / 338,151.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] Drinks can be made by adding soluble solids such as cocoa, instant coffee, milk or creamer into hot water and by stirring the water. Such soluble solids can also be enclosed in filter pouches and drinks can made by delivering water through the pouches as taught by Seward et al in U.S. Pat. No. 4,886,674 and Kraft in EP0756844A1. Seward et al. taught a sachet containing a web material for supporting the soluble solids and a nozzle for injecting water into the sachet. Kraft taught a unitary cappuccino kit comprising an outer wall and an intermediate layer attached to the outer wall to define a coffee pouch to con...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0004] In accordance with the present invention, there is provided a cartridge and method for making drinks. The cartridge comprises a chamber having a top end for allowing flow of water under pressure into the chamber, a side wall and a bottom end for allowing flow of drink out of the chamber, a supply of soluble solids in the chamber, a solubility promoter in the chamber for facilitating the dissolution of the soluble solids, a flow promoter for facilitating the flow of the drink out of bottom end of the chamber, and a dryer for drying the cartridge for mess-free disposal. The solubility promoter comprises an upper surface in communication with the top end of the chamber, a lower surface in contact with the soluble solids, a peripheral wall conforming to the side wall of the chamber to prevent water from passing through the interface between the peripheral wall and the side wall, and numerous small openings for distributing the water from the top end of the chamber onto the soluble solids. The solubility promoter is adapted to move downward toward the bottom end of the chamber and to allow its peripheral wall to conform to the side wall of the chamber during its downward movement within the chamber as the soluble solids is being carried out of the chamber by the water as a drink. The dryer includes a predetermined amount of gas-generating solids in the chamber. The gas-generating materials is adapted to be stable prior to contacting the water from the drink apparatus and to chemically produce a volume of gas upon contacting the water. The generated gas pushes the residual water out of the chamber at the end of the drink making process, thereby drying the cartridge for mess-free disposal. The flow promoter comprises a bottom filter, a plurality of elongated cuts on the bottom filter, and a second filter above the bottom filter for restricting insoluble solids from passing through the plurality of cuts during making drink. The plurality of cuts are normally closed to prevent the soluble solids from leaking out of the chamber during transportation and storage of the cartridge, but become large openings during making the drink to prevent clogging of the bottom filter by gels or the like.

[0005] Another aspect of the invention includes a brew station for using the cartridges to prepare a drink. The brew station comprises a brew container having a chamber for receiving the cartridge and an outlet for the drink, a brew head having a seal member for sealing to the brew container and a water inlet connected to the drink apparatus, and a hydraulic press receivable in the chamber for facilitating the interaction between flavor-containing materials and water. The hydraulic press comprises a press plate having a bottom surface for compressing the flavor-containing materials and openings on the bottom surface for distributing water to the cartridge, and an expandable chamber having an upper end connected to the water inlet and a bottom end connected to the press plate. The expandable chamber is operative between an expanded position, in which the water is delivered into it via the water inlet and the water pressure causes it to expand, causing the press plate to move downward to compress the cartridge, and a retracted position, in which drink apparatus stops delivering water and allows the expandable chamber to shrink, causing the press plate to move away up and from the cartridge.

[0006] Another aspect of the invention includes a method of manufacturing the cartridge. The method comprises aligning a mold having a sufficiently deep molding chamber with an expandable piston, placing a bottom filter paper above the mold, pushing the paper into the deep molding chamber with the expandable piston, inflating the expandable piston in the molding chamber to cause the filter paper to adopt the shape of the molding chamber to form a sufficiently deep containing chamber, deflating the expandable piston for facilitating its removal out of the molding chamber, moving the expandable piston out of the molding chamber, filling a predetermined amount of flavor-containing materials into the sufficiently deep containing chamber, and sealing the containing chamber with a top filter paper. The manufacturing method further comprises a step of stabilizing the wrinkles or folds formed during the expanding step on the side wall of the bottom filter paper by heating the bottom filter. Adhesive coating or fibers may be incorporated on or in the bottom filter to further stabilize the folds or wrinkles.

[0009] It is a further object of the present invention to provide a brew head for facilitating the extraction and / or dissolution of the flavor-containing materials in a drink cartridge.

Problems solved by technology

A drawback with Seward et al's sachet and Kraft's cappuccino kit is that water tends to channel through without contacting some of the soluble solids in the sachet or pouch, causing some soluble solids to remain in the sachet or pouch after brewing and wasteful of the soluble solids.

The amount of soluble solids remaining in the pouch or sachet after brewing became unacceptably large when certain types of soluble solids that are less soluble or tend to gel in water were used.

A second drawback with Seward et al's sachet and Kraft's cappuccino kit is their complex structure and associated high manufacturing cost, which prevents them from being affordable by general public.

A third drawback with Seward et al's sachet and Kraft's cappuccino kit is that the space occupied by the soluble solids prior to brewing tends to be filled with beverage after brewing, which beverage drips on countertop or kitchen floor to cause a mess when disposing the used sachet and kit.

An additional drawback with Kraft's cappuccino kit is that the collapse of the creamer pouch after water introduction would cause deformation of the coffee pouch connected to the creamer pouch, which deformation can cause water leakage around the coffee pouch and therefore weak extraction of the coffee grounds.

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