Patent 10485371 was granted and assigned to Schaerer Ltd on November, 2019 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
The invention relates to a modular brewing unit for a coffee machine, comprising a brewing part and a drive part, which are arranged parallel one beside the other in a common frame, wherein the brewing part, arranged concentrically along a common first axis, has an upper piston, a lower piston and, between the two pistons, a brewing cylinder with a cylindrical bore for accommodating the two pistons, a brewing chamber being formed in the process, and wherein the drive part comprises a spindle which extends along a drive axis, parallel to the first axis, is mounted in the frame such that it can be rotated about said drive axis and is in engagement with the brewing cylinder and the lower piston such that, during a brewing cycle, upon rotation of the spindle, the brewing cylinder and the lower piston are displaced along the first axis relative to the upper piston, which is fixed in the frame. Different brewing units are realized in a simplified manner in that the drive part can be combined with brewing parts of different designs in order to provide for different brewing conditions.