US 12,408,691 B2
Process of calibration of a roasting apparatus
Flavien Florent Dubief, Champagne (CH); Nicolas Bigler, Morrens (CH); Riste Pindjurov, Neyruz (CH); and Vincent Martin, Orbe (CH)
Assigned to Societe des Produits Nestle S.A., Vevey (CH)
Appl. No. 17/997,139
Filed by SOCIETE DES PRODUITS NESTLE S.A., Vevey (CH)
PCT Filed Apr. 27, 2021, PCT No. PCT/EP2021/061009
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Oct. 26, 2022,
PCT Pub. No. WO2021/219654, PCT Pub. Date Nov. 4, 2021.
Claims priority of application No. 20171665 (EP), filed on Apr. 27, 2020.
Prior Publication US 2023/0180814 A1, Jun. 15, 2023
Int. Cl. A23F 5/04 (2006.01); A23N 12/12 (2006.01); G01K 1/02 (2021.01); G05D 23/19 (2006.01)
CPC A23N 12/125 (2013.01) [A23F 5/04 (2013.01); G01K 1/026 (2013.01); G05D 23/1951 (2013.01)] 17 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. Calibration process of a coffee beans roasting apparatus, in order to reproduce coffee beans roasting recipes defined with one specific master roasting apparatus,
said coffee beans roasting apparatus comprising:
a chamber to contain coffee beans,
a heating device configured to supply hot air to the chamber,
at least one first temperature probe to measure the temperature of air supplied by the heating device, said first temperature probe being positioned outside the chamber,
a control system configured to control the heating device and configured to reproduce roasting curves, said roasting curves providing at least a set of points representing the temperature to be applied at discrete successive times ti, respectively, said control of the heating device implementing a feedback loop regulation based on the temperature Treg measured by the at least one first temperature probe,
said calibration process comprising the steps of:
a—introducing at least one second temporary temperature probe inside the chamber of the roasting apparatus to be calibrated or replacing said chamber by a temporary calibration chamber, said temporary calibration chamber comprising at least one second temperature probe,
b—controlling the heating device to reproduce a preset curve Rset, said preset curve providing a series of points representing the temperature Tset@t1, Tset@t2, . . . Tset@tfinal to be applied at preset corresponding successive times t1, t2, . . . , tfinal respectively, said control being based on the temperature Treg measured by the at least one first temperature probe,
c—during the reproduction of the preset curve Rset, measuring the temperature Tcal in function of time inside the chamber at the at least one second temperature probe enabling the determination of at least a set of points,
d—comparing the temperature Tcal@ti measured at least one time ti with the temperature Tref@ti at said same time ti of a pre-determined reference curve Rref obtained with the master roasting apparatus, said reference curve Rref representing the temperature Tref measured in the chamber of the specific master apparatus while controlling the heating device of the master apparatus to reproduce said preset curve Rset, and
e—based on this comparison, calibrating the roasting apparatus by applying a correction to the feedback loop regulation, preferably by applying a correction to the temperature Treg measured by the first temperature probe or by applying a correction to the temperatures T@ti provided by the roasting curves to be reproduced by the roasting apparatus.