Beverage Capsule with Bellows-Like Base for Compression and Sealing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing coffee capsules have limitations in deformation, brewing process optimization, sealing effectiveness, and counterfeiting protection, with a fixed base design that restricts adaptability and fails to ensure consistent extraction quality.
Innovation Solution
A capsule with a bellows-like base configuration that allows defined deformation, enabling variable indentation and sealing, and incorporating a guarantee function against tampering, with features such as V-shaped grooves and spiral folds for enhanced flexibility and security.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If the capsule base is designed as a rigid fixed structure, then the manufacturing is simple and cost-effective, but the adaptability to different brewing systems and deformation control is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The capsule base is designed with a bellows-like structure that allows dynamic deformation during the brewing process. The base can be pressed inwards by a stamp to reduce chamber volume for compression, then expanded by hydraulic pressure from introduced liquid to enable base movement from inside to outside. This dynamic behavior allows the same base structure to adapt to different brewing systems and processes.
Solution Approach 2:
The base is constructed with a bellows-like configuration consisting of multiple fold lines that create a flexible, expandable structure. This flexible design allows the base to deform in a predefined manner when pressed from outside, while also enabling it to move outward when hydraulic pressure is applied from inside, providing versatility for different brewing applications.
2Reliability
If the capsule base is made deformable to enable compression and sealing, then the brewing process optimization is improved, but the guarantee function and protection against counterfeiting is weakened
Solution Approach 1:
The patent incorporates a guarantee function that can detect undesired manipulations in the penetrable zone area. While the base is deformable for brewing optimization, the guarantee function provides visual or physical indication (such as color changes or structural indicators) that reveal if the capsule has been tampered with, thus maintaining protection against counterfeiting despite the deformable nature of the base.
3Ease of manufacture
If the base is pressed inwards abruptly and erratically, then the deformation process is simple, but the sealing effect and extraction quality is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The bellows-like structure with multiple fold lines enables the base to deform in a controlled, progressive manner rather than abruptly. The fold lines guide the deformation process to achieve uniform pressing-in that improves sealing effect between the base and penetration means, while still allowing relatively simple manufacturing through stamping or molding processes.
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 bellows-like design improves brewing quality by compressing coffee powder before extraction, enhances sealing during brewing, and provides a counterfeiting deterrent through irreversible deformation upon tampering, expanding the capsule's application range and ensuring optimal extraction.
Implementation Method 1
the base can be elastically or plastically deformable in the cold state
Implementation Method 2
the base can be elastically or plastically deformable in the cold state
Implementation Method 3
the base of the capsule can be moved from the inside to the outside by the action of hydraulic force as a result of the introduction of a liquid into the chamber of the capsule
Data Source
Figure 1~3
Figure 4~6
Figure 5a~6a
AI summary
A capsule (1) that can be used in a device for preparing a beverage contains a rotationally symmetrical capsule body (2) with a flexible bottom (4) that it can be pressed in from the outside inwards by the application of force. This flexibility is achieved by a bellows-like configuration of the bottom (4) in the form of a bellows (11).