Brewable beverage making cup adaptor for cartridge type coffee making machines
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Cartridge-type coffee making machines, such as Keurig and Nespresso, suffer from inadequate flavor extraction due to rapid water flow through brewing materials like coffee and tea leaves, as well as air bubbles preventing proper mixing and increasing pressure, leading to quick water exit without sufficient steeping time.
Innovation Solution
A brewable beverage making cup adaptor with a chamber design that includes an inlet for pressurized hot water, a discharge opening for brewed liquid, and a third opening for air removal, utilizing a float valve and annular air chamber to manage air and pressure, ensuring proper mixing and extraction of flavors by allowing air escape during filling and maintaining pressurization during brewing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If the outlet opening has a greater area than the inlet opening in the refillable basket, then the device can be inserted into the Keurig machine without puncturing devices, but the hot water flows very rapidly out through the outlet discharge opening with very little steeping or residence time
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the parameters of the outlet opening by providing multiple outlet openings with adjustable opening areas. The opening area of the outlet openings can be adjusted to be smaller than the inlet opening area, thereby controlling the water flow rate and increasing the steeping time while maintaining ease of insertion into the Keurig machine.
2Device complexity
If the only inlet opening is the punched hole in the foil lid through which the water is supplied, then the packet structure is simple, but there is nowhere for the air to escape and the pocket of air prevents the water from rising in the packet to properly mix with all of the coffee grounds
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the single inlet opening into multiple inlet openings and adds separate outlet openings. This segmentation allows for dedicated air escape pathways while maintaining water supply functionality, enabling proper mixing of water with coffee grounds without significantly increasing overall structural complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces air escape openings as intermediary structures that facilitate air removal during the brewing process. These openings act as mediators between the water supply system and the brewing chamber, allowing air to escape while water enters and mixes with the coffee grounds.
3Device complexity
If the inlet and outlet punched holes are basically the same size, then the packet structure is simple, but the water quickly flows through the coffee and out the punched outlet hole without sufficient steeping time
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the parameters of the outlet openings by providing multiple outlet openings with adjustable opening areas that are smaller than the inlet opening area. This parameter adjustment controls the water flow rate to achieve sufficient steeping time for flavor extraction while maintaining a relatively simple packet structure.
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 solution enhances flavor extraction by ensuring sufficient steeping time and agitation of brewing materials, preventing air locks, and maintaining pressurization to efficiently extract flavors from coffee, tea, and other brewable materials, improving the brewing process in cartridge-type machines.
Implementation Method 1
a third opening for air removal, utilizing a float valve and annular air chamber to manage air and pressure, ensuring proper mixing and extraction of flavors by allowing air escape during filling and maintaining pressurization during brewing
Implementation Method 2
pressurized hot water fills the chamber and the air escapes therefrom. The arrangement also provides for increased pressurization of the chamber when the pressurized hot water fills the chamber and the air is removed from the upper portion of the chamber
Implementation Method 3
provides agitation and turbulence of the hot water entering the adaptor or packet, providing an improved mixing of the water with the material therein, to better extract the flavor from the material
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
AI summary
A brewable beverage making cup adaptor for cartridge type coffee making machines of the type having an inlet spout for supplying pressurized hot water, includes a cup body defining a chamber for holding a brewable material; a lower closure closing a lower end of the cup body, and including a small discharge opening through which a brewed liquid is discharged; an upper cover closing an upper end of the cup body, and including an inlet opening adapted to be positioned below the inlet spout for the supply of pressurized water to the cup body, and an offset valve opening for fluidly connecting the chamber with ambient atmosphere; and a valve for closing the valve opening when the chamber is filled at least at a predetermined level with the pressurized water and for opening the valve opening when the pressurized water in the chamber falls below the predetermined level.