Countertop Candy Maker With Staged Mixing for Botanical Dispersion
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Candy making machines suffer from inconsistent dispersion of botanicals and flavoring, leading to unreliable performance and poor quality candy products with unpleasant texture and aftertaste.
Innovation Solution
A candy making apparatus with an ingredient staging section, heating and mixing vessel, cooling chamber, and removable molding tray, equipped with a control module, temperature sensors, and feed mechanism to ensure consistent ingredient mixing and controlled processing, resulting in high-quality candy products.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Extent of automation
If traditional candy making machines are used, then production can be automated, but ingredient dispersion becomes inconsistent leading to poor quality
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-staging ingredients in measured portions before the mixing process begins. The ingredient staging section prepares and positions precise measurements of sugars, gelatin, and botanicals in advance, ensuring consistent dispersion from the start of mixing rather than adding ingredients during the process.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary ingredient staging section between ingredient storage and the mixing vessel. This intermediary section includes mechanisms for precise measurement and staging of ingredients, acting as a mediator that ensures accurate portioning and consistent dispersion into the mixing vessel, thereby improving manufacturing precision while maintaining automation.
2Device complexity
If simple mixing is used, then device complexity is reduced, but ingredient mixing becomes unreliable producing unpleasant texture and aftertaste
Solution Approach 1:
The mixing mechanism maintains continuous useful action through controlled heating and stirring cycles. The system continuously heats the ingredient mixture to specific temperatures while maintaining stirring, ensuring thorough and reliable mixing of botanicals and flavorings throughout the entire process, producing consistent texture and taste without requiring overly complex mechanisms.
Solution Approach 2:
The system achieves reliable mixing by changing physical parameters of the mixture, specifically temperature and viscosity. By heating the ingredients to controlled temperatures, the system reduces viscosity and enhances mixing efficiency, ensuring thorough dispersion of botanicals and flavorings. This parameter-based approach improves reliability without significantly increasing device complexity.
3Productivity
If manual ingredient handling is used, then ingredient quality can be monitored, but production efficiency decreases and consistency suffers
Solution Approach 1:
The ingredient delivery system operates on a self-service basis through automated feeding mechanisms. The system automatically stages, measures, and delivers precise portions of ingredients from storage containers to the mixing vessel without manual intervention. This self-service automation maintains production efficiency while ensuring consistent ingredient delivery through controlled portioning mechanisms.
Solution Approach 2:
The system incorporates feedback mechanisms to monitor and maintain consistency in ingredient delivery. Sensors and control systems track the staging and delivery of ingredients, providing feedback that ensures precise measurements are maintained throughout production. This feedback loop preserves manufacturing precision while enabling automated high-speed operation.
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
Ensures consistent dispersion and mixing of ingredients, producing candies with desired texture and enhanced taste by using a control module to manage heating, cooling, and ingredient delivery.
Implementation Method 1
a heating element adapted for heating the heating and mixing vessel
Implementation Method 2
a cooling element adapted for cooling the cooling chamber
Implementation Method 3
The first temperature sensor is adapted to sense a mixing temperature of the ingredients in the heating and mixing vessel
Implementation Method 4
The second temperature sensor is adapted to sense a setting temperature in the cooling chamber
Data Source
AI summary
A countertop candy making apparatus includes an ingredient staging section, a heating and mixing vessel downstream from the ingredient staging section, a cooling chamber downstream from the heating and mixing vessel, and a removable molding tray in the cooling chamber. Candy making ingredients are delivered from the ingredient staging section to the heating and mixing vessel where those ingredients are heated and mixed to form a candy formulation before being delivered into the molding tray in the cooling chamber.