Beverage Capsule With Aluminum Base for Reliable Piercing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing beverage capsules made mainly of plastic face issues with piercing during the beverage preparation process, leading to inadequate sealing and preservation of powdered substances, requiring additional oxygen-impermeable wrappers.
Innovation Solution
A capsule design featuring a bowl-shaped bottom portion made of aluminum, combined with a plastic tubular lateral wall, ensuring hermetic sealing and optimal piercing resistance, while maintaining impermeability to oxygen, with a polymeric layer preventing direct contact between the powdered substance and aluminum.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If capsules are made mainly of plastic material, then manufacturing cost is reduced and ease of manufacture is improved, but piercing reliability deteriorates and oxygen impermeability is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The capsule combines plastic material for the tubular lateral wall with an aluminum bottom portion. This composite structure allows the plastic to provide manufacturing advantages while the aluminum ensures reliable piercing and oxygen impermeability, resolving the contradiction between ease of manufacture and piercing reliability.
2Ease of manufacture
If capsules are made mainly of plastic material, then manufacturing cost is reduced, but oxygen impermeability deteriorates requiring additional wrappers
Solution Approach 1:
The aluminum bottom portion inherently provides oxygen impermeability, eliminating the need for additional oxygen-barrier wrappers while maintaining cost-effectiveness. The plastic tubular wall is complemented by this metallic base to achieve both manufacturing ease and protective functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
Only the bottom portion requiring oxygen impermeability is made of aluminum, while the tubular lateral wall can be made of plastic. This localized application of different materials optimizes both cost and protective properties without requiring complete aluminum construction or additional wrappers.
3Ease of operation
If piercing elements pierce the bottom of the capsule, then beverage extraction is enabled, but capsule sealing and preservation are compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The aluminum bottom portion is specifically designed with localized properties (such as thickness variations or structural features) that enable reliable piercing while maintaining overall capsule sealing. The material's inherent properties allow it to be pierced controllably while preserving integrity elsewhere.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The capsule ensures effective preservation of powdered substances and reliable piercing by beverage machine elements, maintaining oxygen impermeability without the need for additional wrappers, and is cost-effective to produce.
Implementation Method 1
a polymeric layer preventing direct contact between the powdered substance and aluminum
Implementation Method 2
ensuring hermetic sealing and optimal piercing resistance, while maintaining impermeability to oxygen
Data Source
AI summary
A capsule for making beverages comprising a cup-shaped containment body (2) in turn comprising a tubular lateral wall (5) and a bottom portion (6) and forming inside it a containment chamber (4) which contains a powdered food substance; a closing element (3) is fixed to the containment body (2) to close it. The bottom portion (6) comprises a bowl-shaped first sheet made of a first material having a resistance to piercing and tearing which is less than that of a second material constituting the tubular lateral wall (5), and comprises a central zone (9) extending transversally to the central axis and a connecting wall (10) which is connected to the central zone (9) and which comprises at least one component of extension parallel with the central axis, the connecting wall (10) being connected to the tubular lateral wall (5) at the first edge (7).