The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 27, 1994
Filed:
Apr. 08, 1991
Ernesto Illy, Trieste, IT;
Illycaffe' S.p.A., Trieste, IT;
Abstract
A conveyor system for a coffee grinder for taking ground coffee from the grinder to the packing machinery, and a laser test-meter used to analyze the granulometry of ground coffee test samples and compare them with a granulometric reference sample that are known. The system of the invention includes improvements which include a first device which continually receives undisturbed ground coffee samples and delivers these samples to a second device in which a gas stream blows a stream of coffee grains down a tube to the test-meter and a second stream of gas flowing at right-angles to the tube disperses any partially aggregated particles before they reach the test-meter. A third device creates a pressurized safety area around each lens of the laser test-meter. The area is partly closed so that laser beams can freely pass, and gas under pressure enters the area preventing coffee grains from entering the area and disturbing the lens. A fourth device sucks the grains from the test area and delivers them into an eddy-chamber from which they are periodically transferred to the system for conveying ground coffee to the packing machinery.