Coffee Pad Shell and Filter Structure for High-Pressure Sealing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing coffee machine pads are prone to deformation under mechanical or hydraulic forces, leading to inconsistent fluid seals and potential bypass of hot liquid, resulting in poor beverage quality and inefficiencies, especially when preparing high-pressure beverages like cappuccinos and latte macchiato.
Innovation Solution
A coffee machine pad with a flexible first sheet and a rigid shell, featuring a flow-restricted outlet opening and a second sheet that forms a filter barrier, allowing for high-pressure operation without bypass, and designed for easy assembly with a fluid collecting structure to ensure even extraction of beverage ingredients.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If a soft pillow-shaped pad structure is used, then the pad is easy to manufacture and assemble, but the pad deforms under mechanical or hydraulic forces leading to poor fluid seals and liquid bypass
Solution Approach 1:
The pad is divided into a rigid shell structure and a flexible sheet component. The rigid shell provides structural integrity and maintains the fluid seal under pressure, while the flexible sheet is connected to the shell at perimeter edges to provide sealing functionality. This segmentation resolves the contradiction by assigning different functional requirements to different parts of the pad structure.
Solution Approach 2:
The pad combines rigid and flexible materials in a composite structure. The rigid shell provides mechanical strength and shape retention, while the flexible sheet provides sealing capability. This composite approach allows the pad to maintain reliability under hydraulic forces while remaining easy to manufacture and assemble.
2Stability of the object's composition
If a rigid grid structure is added to prevent agglomeration and collapsing, then the pad maintains its shape under pressure, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of adding a complex rigid grid structure throughout the pad, the invention segments the structural support function to only the perimeter edges where the flexible sheet connects to the rigid shell. This localized support approach maintains pad shape stability without requiring a complex overall structure.
3Productivity
If the outlet opening is enlarged to allow high flow rate, then the beverage preparation is faster, but the beverage volume and intensity are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The outlet opening parameters (size, shape, number) are optimized to achieve the desired balance between flow rate and beverage intensity. The rigid shell with controlled outlet openings allows regulation of fluid dynamics parameters to maintain both productivity and beverage quality.
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 pad achieves a high-pressure fluid seal, maintaining beverage quality and intensity, enabling the preparation of intense coffee drinks with visual separate layers, such as cappuccinos and latte macchiato, while preventing liquid bypass and ensuring efficient extraction of soluble ingredients.
Implementation Method 1
the first sheet and the second sheet each form a filter that allows an aqueous fluid, including water, and the beverage to pass and that forms a barrier for the beverage preparation product
Implementation Method 2
a beverage preparation product for preparing the beverage wherein the beverage preparation product includes a product soluble in an aqueous fluid
Implementation Method 3
The at least one outlet opening includes a flow restriction for the beverage. In particular, the flow restriction reduces the volume of the beverage, when used in a coffee machine with a time controlled supply of aqueous fluid
Data Source
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AI summary
Pad (1) for use in a coffee machine for preparing at least one part of a single beverage serving which pad, for use in the coffee machine, adapted to receive an aqueous fluid that is supplied under pressure so that the aqueous fluid is forced through the pad for obtaining the at least on part of the beverage serving that then exits the pad. The pad includes a covering defining an interior space that is filled with a beverage preparation product for preparing the beverage wherein the beverage preparation product includes a product soluble in an aqueous fluid. The covering comprises a flexible first sheet (3) and a rigid shell (7), wherein the first sheet and the shell are connected to each other around their perimeter edges, and wherein the shell is equipped with at least one outlet opening (11). The pad is further equipped with a flexible second sheet (27) that is positioned on a bottom of the shell, wherein the second sheet is located between the beverage preparation product and the shell and wherein the first sheet and the second sheet each form a filter that allows an aqueous fluid, including water, and the beverage to pass and that forms a barrier for the beverage preparation product. When in use an aqueous fluid under pressure is supplied to the first sheet of the pad the aqueous fluid flows through the first sheet to the beverage preparation product so that the beverage is formed. The beverage then flows through the second sheet and via the at least one outlet opening leaves the pad. The at least one outlet opening includes a flow restriction for reducing the volume of the beverage, when used a coffee machine with a time controlled supply of aqueous fluid.