A GRINDING APPLIANCE

Abstract

The present disclosure discloses an appliance, suitable for home use, for grinding oil-containing hard produce, in particular oil-containing seeds, to therefore extract an oily substance product. For example, the appliance may grind sesame to obtain Tahini, or peanuts/almonds to obtain butter therefrom. The present disclosure further discloses a capsule to be received in a grinding appliance such as disclosed herein. The appliance incudes two grinding members, configured to grind the hard produce. Each grinding member has a grooved face that is patterned to be configured for grinding. The hard produce is grinded in the interface defined between the two grooved faces, defining a grinding zone. The grinding members typically have a shape of a circle and are aligned one with the other along a common axis. At least one of the grinding members is configured to rotate about the axis to perform the motion carrying out the grinding in the interface between the members. The hard produce is introduced into the grinding zone via one or more openings in at least one of the grinding members. The openings lead directly into the grinding zone, namely the hard produce that is fed through the openings reaches to a part of one of the grooved faces to initiate the grinding process. The grinding zone is constituted by two grinding portions, an inner grinding portion and a peripheral grinding portion, defining inner grinding zone and peripheral grinding zone, respectively. A peripheral collection zone is disposed peripheral to the peripheral grinding zone and is configured to collect the grinded oily substance product that radially flows from the peripheral grinding portions. The oily substance in the collection zone flows towards a substance collector, through which the oily substance flows for being collected.

Claims

1. An appliance for grinding oil-containing hard produce to extract an oily substance therefrom, comprising: first and second coaxial circular grinding members defining a grinding zone therebetween, the first member being rotatable about an axis with respect to the second member and is coupled to a driving unit for performing said rotation, each of the first and second members having respective first and second grooved faces facing the other on two sides of said zone, each of the grooved faces having an inner grooved portion and a peripheral grooved portion, defining, respectively, inner and peripheral grinding zones, the grooves on the inner grooved portion being configured to urge the produce towards the peripheral grooved portion, the grooves of the peripheral portion having a different pattern than the grooves of the inner portion; one of the first and second grinding members is formed with one or more feeding openings for feeding the produce into the inner grinding zone; a collection zone peripheral to the peripheral grinding zone for collecting the ground oily substance and channeling it to a substance collector.

2-46. (canceled)

47. The appliance of claim 1, further comprising a peripheral wall that is peripheral to the peripheral grinding zone, wherein the collection zone is defined between the peripheral grinding zone and the peripheral wall; and wherein the peripheral wall is circular and has a varying diameter along the axis direction between first and second diameters, the first diameter is selected to define a space from one of the grinding members to form the collecting zone, and the second diameter is larger than the first diameter.

48. The appliance of claim 47, further comprising a base body configured to receive and retain the bottom grinding member of the two grinding members; and wherein the base body comprises the peripheral wall.

49. The appliance of claim 1, wherein each of the inner grooved portions of first and second members is formed of a plurality of inner grooved sections, each grooved section is constituted by parallel grooves having varying lengths; wherein the grooves of the peripheral portion are denser than the grooves of the inner portion; and wherein the grooves of the inner portion and/or the grooves of the peripheral portion are having generally rounded outline.

50. The appliance of claim 1, wherein each of the first and second grinding members is removable and separable from the axis; and wherein the gap space between the two grinding members varies along the radial direction.

51. The appliance of claim 1, further comprising an axle formed along the axis and coupled to a driving motor for being rotated thereby, the first grinding member is coupled to the axle for being rotated thereby.

52. The appliance of claim 51, further comprising a screwing stopper element removably coupled to the axle for retaining the first grinding member on the axle upon being coupled to the axle and for allowing the removal of the first grinding member, upon removal of the screwing stopper element.

53. The appliance of claim 1, wherein the one or more feeding openings are formed at a selected radial distance from said axis; and wherein the radial distance is closer to the periphery of the first and/or second grinding members than to the axis.

54. The appliance of claim 1, further comprising a capsule receptacle configured for receiving a capsule containing said oil-containing hard such that the content of the capsule is allowed to be fed into at least one of said one or more feeding openings.

55. The appliance of claim 54, wherein the capsule receptacle is configured for rupturing a sealing foil of the capsule upon manipulating the capsule when it is received in the capsule receptacle, for allowing the content of the capsule to flow through the one or more feeding openings.

56. The appliance of claim 54, wherein the capsule receptacle comprises a rupturing element for rupturing a sealing foil of the capsule for allowing the content of the capsule to flow through the one or more feeding openings.

57. The appliance of claim 54, wherein the capsule receptacle is rotatable around said axis together with the first grinding member; and wherein the capsule receptacle is coupled to an axle formed along said axis, said axle is coupled to a driving motor for being rotated thereby, the first grinding member is coupled to said axle for being rotated thereby.

58. The appliance of claim 57, further comprising a screwing stopper element for retaining the capsule receptacle and the grinding member on the axle.

59. The appliance of claim 54, wherein the capsule receptacle extends along at least one of the one or more feeding openings.

60. The appliance of claim 1, further comprising an activation unit configured for allowing the rotation of the first member upon manipulation thereon.

61. The appliance of claim 54, wherein the capsule receptacle comprises an activation unit configured for allowing the rotation of the first member upon manipulation thereon; wherein said activation unit is switchable between active mode that allows the rotation of the first member and non-active mode that blocks the rotation of the first member, the activation unit is configured to be switched between non-active mode to active mode upon manipulation thereon.

62. The appliance of claim 1, wherein the grinding member formed with the one or more feeding openings is formed with peripheral upwardly rising walls from a face other than the grooved face, thereby forming a container volume.

63. The appliance of claim 1, wherein the collection zone comprises a collection opening for allowing the extracted oily substance to be discharged through the substance collector; and wherein the collection zone is formed with flow diverting elements for directing the flow of the oily substance in the collection trough to the collection opening.

64. The appliance of claim 1, comprising a top cover configured to be switched between an open-accessible state, in which said one or more feeding ports are user-accessible, and a closed-covering state, in which said one or more feeding ports are covered thereby.

65. The appliance of claim 64, comprising a switch switchable between an active mode that allows the driving unit to operate and a non-active mode that prevents the operation of the driving unit, wherein said top cover is configured for engaging with said switch upon being in a closed-covering state for switching it to an active state.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0059] In order to better understand the subject matter that is disclosed herein and to exemplify how it may be carried out in practice, embodiments will now be described, by way of non-limiting example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

[0060] FIGS. 1A-1E are illustrations of different views of a non-limiting example of the appliance according to an aspect of the present disclosure, in which some of the figures omitting different components of the appliance. FIG. 1A is a perspective view of the appliance; FIG. 1B is a side view of the two grinding members; FIG. 1C is a top view of the bottom, second grinding member; FIG. 1D is a bottom view of the top, first grinding member; FIG. 1E is a perspective view of the appliance, omitting the grinding members.

[0061] FIGS. 2A-2B are illustrations of perspective views of another non-limiting embodiment of the appliance of the present disclosure, wherein some components of the appliance are omitted or added in each figure.

[0062] FIGS. 3A-3B are illustrations of perspective views of another non-limiting embodiment of the appliance of the present disclosure, wherein some components of the appliance are omitted or added in each figure.

[0063] FIGS. 4A-4D are illustrations of different views of a non-limiting example of the capsule according to an aspect of the present disclosure. FIG. 4A is a perspective view of the capsule; FIG. 4B is a top view of the capsule, showing the interior thereof; FIG. 4C is another perspective view of the capsule, showing the external part thereof; FIG. 4D is another perspective view of the capsule.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

[0064] The following figures are provided to exemplify embodiments and realization of the invention of the present disclosure.

[0065] FIGS. 1A-1D are illustrations of different views of a non-limiting example of the appliance according to an aspect of the present disclosure, in which some of the figures omitting different components of the appliance. FIG. 1A shows an appliance 100 that includes a first, top, grinding member 102 and a second, bottom, grinding member 104 coaxial with the first grinding member 102 about an axis Y defined by axle 105. The arrangement of the grinding members one on top of the other can be seen in FIG. 1B, which is a side-view of the two grinding members 102 and 104. The first grinding member 102 is formed with a feeding opening 106 to receive hard produce therethrough. The hard produce that is fed into the feeding opening 106 reaches a grinding zone 108 defined by grooved faces of the first and second grinding members 102 and 104 that face one another. The grinding zone includes inner and peripheral grinding zones as explained below. At least one of the grinding members is rotatable about the axis Y to carry out the grinding process of the produce that is fed into the feeding opening 106.

[0066] Reference is now made to FIG. 1C, in which the first grinding member is omitted with respect to FIG. 1A. As can be appreciated, the second grinding member 104 has a grooved face 110B that defines generally two different grinding zones, an inner grinding zone 112B that is defined between the axis Y and a peripheral grinding zone 114B, which is defined peripheral thereto. As can be seen best in FIG. 1D, which shows the first grinding member alone, the first grinding member 102 has a grooved face 110A that defines an inner grinding zone 112A and a peripheral grinding zone 114A that each matches the inner grinding zone 112B and the peripheral grinding zone 114B of the second grinding member 104. It can be appreciated that the feeding opening 106 is formed at the inner grinding zone 112A of the first grinding member 102. The two grinding members 102 and 104 define together a mutual inner and peripheral grinding zone.

[0067] As mentioned above, the hard produce is fed through the feeding opening 106 into the inner grinding zone to undergo primary grinding therein and be pushed to the periphery due to the rotation of one of the grinding members with respect to the other. The hard produce or the partially grinded oily-substance is urged/guided to the peripheral grinding zone to undergo further grinding therein and the grinded oily-substance product is urged to a peripheral collection zone 116 periphery of the peripheral grinding zone and flows there at a rotational manner to a substance collector 118 for collecting it. The substance collector 118 is may be in the form of an opening at a certain location along the collection zone 116 that practically allows the oily-substance product to be discharged so it can be collected in a container.

[0068] Reference is now made to FIGS. 1C and 1D, in which the grinding zones of the grinding members can be observed. The inner grinding zones 112A and 112B are formed of a plurality of respective inner grinding zone sections 120A and 120B, each section is patterned with a plurality of generally parallel grooves 122 having different lengths. The lengths of the grooves typically gradually decreasing with the distance from the axle 105. Namely, the grooves that a portion thereof is closer to the axle 105 than other grooves are typically longer.

[0069] While each section of the inner grinding zones 112A and 112B has a different grooves orientation (although, there may be two or more sections with a similar orientation), the peripheral grinding zones 114A and 114B have grooves 124A and 124B that have a generally radial orientation with respect to the rotation axis Y.

[0070] The grooves of the peripheral grinding zones 114A and 114B are denser than the grooves of the inner grinding zones 112A and 112B, namely the separation between each two adjacent grooves of the peripheral zones is smaller than the separation between each two adjacent grooves in each section of the inner grinding zones.

[0071] The grooves and/or the separations between the grooves of each of the grinding zones are typically having a rounded or smooth shape with no sharp edges so as to avoid undesired accumulation of substance and to allow relatively easy cleaning of the grinding members at the end of the grinding process. In particular, the fillet portion of the top portions of each groove is relatively large, at times the fillet is in the magnitude of the distance between the lowest portion of each groove and its top portion or greater than this magnitude, e.g. 1.5 folds greater, 2 folds or more. The grooves of any of the grooved portions are characterized by a periodical pattern of peaks and lows. For example, the grooves of a grooved section 120A of the inner grinding zone 112A has a periodical pattern along a horizontal direction HD. The horizontal distance D between each two adjacent peaks 131A and 131B or between each two adjacent lows 133A and 133B is constant in this example, however it is to be noted that in general this distance may vary along the horizontal direction HD. The horizontal distance D is greater than the vertical distance (not shown) between adjacent peak and low along the vertical direction VD (as can be seen in FIG. 1B).

[0072] The grinding members 102 and 104 are removable from the axle 105 to allow their cleaning or other maintenance actions. When the appliance is in operation, the axle 105 has a stopper element 107 at its top portion to prevent the movement of the grinding members along the axle. The axle 105 is connected to the first grinding member 102 and to a driving unit (not shown as it is hidden within the plastic cover) that is configured to rotate the axle 105 and therefore resulting in the rotation of the first grinding member 102 with respect to the second grinding member 104 to carry out the grinding process.

[0073] The first grinding member 102 is formed with peripheral walls 126 upwardly rising from a non-grooved, top face thereof. The peripheral walls 126 define a container volume 128 therebetween in which hard produce can be contained and gradually fed into the feeding opening 106 during operation of the appliance, namely during the rotation of the first grinding member 102.

[0074] Reference is now made to FIG. 1E, in which a base body 111 can be observed, the base body 111 is typically made of one piece. The base body 111 includes abutments or protrusions 113 that are configured to fit into depressions formed at the bottom face of the bottom grinding member 104 (not shown). When the abutments are received in the respective depressions, the bottom grinding member 104 is secured to the base body 111. The base body 111 further includes a peripheral wall 115 having at least two different diameters. The first diameter portion 117 is defined at its bottom portion. The bottom portion is defined by the dimension of the bottom grinding member 104 such that the collection zone 116 is defined between the peripheral grinding zone and the peripheral wall. The second diameter portion 119 is defined above the first diameter portion 117 and has a larger diameter than the first diameter portion 117.

[0075] A diverting element 121 is formed along the flow path of the collection zone 116 at the proximity of the substance collector 118 to divert the ground oily substance from the collection zone towards the substance collector 118. The diverting element protrudes from the second diameter portion 119 of the peripheral wall 115.

[0076] In the figures throughout the application, like elements of different figures were given similar reference numerals shifted by the number of hundreds corresponding to the number of the respective figure. For example, element 204 in FIG. 2 serves the same function as element 104 in FIGS. 1A-1D.

[0077] Reference is now made to FIGS. 2A-2B, which are illustrations of perspective views of another non-limiting embodiment of the appliance of the present disclosure. This embodiment differs from the embodiment of FIGS. 1A-1D by further including a capsule receptacle 230 that is configured to receive a capsule containing the hard produce and allow the feeding of the hard produce from the capsule into the feeding opening 206. The capsule receptacle 230 fits over the feeding opening 206 and includes a rupturing mechanism 232 that is configured to rupture a sealing of the capsule upon manipulation of the capsule in the capsule receptacle, such as placing it in the capsule receptacle and rotating it at a certain degree. The manipulation may be manually, namely by the user or automatically, namely by the appliance upon activation thereof.

[0078] The capsule receptacle 230 is rotatable together with the first grinding member 202. In this example, in addition to be fitted over the feeding opening 206, e.g. by designated attaching arrangement (not shown), the capsule receptacle is linked and secured to the axle 205 and also retained in position along the axle due to the stopper element 207.

[0079] The appliance of FIGS. 2A-2B further differs from that of FIGS. 1A-1D by including a top cover 234, as can be seen in FIG. 2B, that is switchable between an open state and a closed state. When the top cover 234 is in an open state a capsule can be received in the capsule receptacle 230. When the top cover 234 is in a closed state, if there is a capsule that is received in the capsule receptacle 230, it is confined by the top cover 234.

[0080] The appliance further includes a switching mechanism 236 that is configured to allow the operation of the driving unit only when the top cover 234 is in a closed state in particular for safety measures. By this configuration, the driving unit cannot operate when the top cover 234 is opened and therefore the first grinding member cannot rotate, ensuring that the user cannot contact the rotating components during operation of the appliance.

[0081] FIGS. 3A-3B are illustrations showing an example of the appliance exemplified in FIG. 2 with a capsule that is received within the capsule receptacle and a bowl for receiving the grinded substance from the substance collector. The capsule CAP is received in the capsule receptacle 330 such that the opening thereof, which is formed at the most bottom portion of the capsule CAP at the end of a channeling portion therein, is fitted over the feeding opening 306. The bowl BOWL is placed under the substance collector 318 for receiving the grinded substance that flows through the substance collector 318.

[0082] FIGS. 4A-4D are illustrations of different views of a non-limiting example of the capsule according to an aspect of the present disclosure. The capsule 450 includes one compartment 452 for receiving oil-containing hard produce therein (not shown). The compartment includes two different surface levels (or simply “levels”), a first level 454 and a second level 456, elevated with respect to the first level 454. A channeling portion 458 links the first level 454 with an opening 459 that is sealed with a sealing foil 457, for preventing outflow of the hard produce from the capsule 450 prior to use thereof. The channeling portion 458 is designed to be received by a capsule receptacle of a grinding appliance suitable to receive such capsule for grinding the hard produce.

[0083] The first surface level 454 is confined by the channeling portion 458 and first peripheral walls 460. Some sections of the first peripheral walls constitute a section of the external walls 461 of the capsule 450, and a wall linking section 462 of the first peripheral walls 460 links to the second surface level 456, namely the top end of said section constitutes a portion of the second surface level 456. The second surface level 456 is confined by the top portion of the linking section 462 and second peripheral walls that constitute a section of the external walls 461 of the capsule 450.

[0084] The first and second surface levels 454 and 456 are slanted towards the channeling portion 458 to allow hard produce to flow towards the channeling portion 458 and the opening 459 despite the rotational forces during the rotation of the capsule when it is received in an operated appliance.

[0085] The external contour of the capsule 450 is characterized by a depression 464 formed by the shape of the linking section 462 of the first peripheral walls 460 and the second surface level 456. The depression 462 is shaped to conform with the shape of the channeling portion 458 to allow efficient storage of the capsule, wherein the channeling portion of one capsule is received in the depression 462 of a second capsule.