Coffee Roaster Drum with Conductive Rear Wall and Automated Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Small coffee roasters require significant user expertise and attention to produce high-quality roasted coffee beans, and they often generate hot, smelly exhaust air that necessitates proper ventilation or costly treatment, with suboptimal cooling leading to inferior roasting results.
Innovation Solution
A coffee roasting system with a roasting unit featuring a drum with a thermally conductive rear wall, a rotatable drum rotor, and a control unit that automates the roasting process by controlling temperature, air flow, and pressure, including a cooling unit and exhaust air treatment system to ensure uniform roasting and safe exhaust air handling.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of moving object
If a small coffee roaster is used for roasting coffee beans, then the device size and cost are reduced, but the roasting quality becomes inconsistent and requires substantial user expertise and attention
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs self-monitoring and self-adjustment through automated sensors and control mechanisms. The temperature sensor continuously monitors the roasting process and the control unit automatically adjusts heating and air flow parameters, eliminating the need for constant user attention and expertise while maintaining consistent roasting quality in a compact device.
Solution Approach 2:
The system incorporates a temperature sensor that continuously monitors the roasting process and provides feedback to the control unit. The control unit processes this feedback and automatically adjusts heating elements and air flow parameters to maintain optimal roasting conditions, ensuring consistent quality without requiring user expertise.
2Productivity
If conventional coffee roasters are used, then roasting capability is achieved, but hot and smelly exhaust air requires costly treatment and good ventilation
Solution Approach 1:
The system converts the harmful exhaust air into a beneficial resource by directing it through a heat exchanger where it pre-heats the incoming air for the roasting process. This not only reduces the harmful thermal load but also improves energy efficiency by utilizing the waste heat that would otherwise be discarded.
Solution Approach 2:
The system introduces an exhaust air treatment unit with a heat exchanger as an intermediary between the roasting chamber and the environment. This intermediary component processes the exhaust air by recovering heat and reducing odors before discharge, thereby mitigating the harmful effects while maintaining productive roasting operations.
3Temperature
If conventional cooling methods are used for coffee beans after roasting, then cooling is achieved, but the cooling process is suboptimal and results in inferior roasting quality
Solution Approach 1:
The system merges the cooling function with the existing exhaust air treatment unit by integrating a heat exchanger that serves dual purposes: treating exhaust air and cooling the roasted coffee beans. This combined approach enables efficient cooling that prevents quality degradation while utilizing the same infrastructure for exhaust management.
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 system enables high-quality coffee roasting with minimal user expertise, reduces exhaust air issues, and provides efficient cooling, resulting in consistent and high-quality roasted coffee beans while minimizing operational complexity and environmental impact.
Implementation Method 1
a drum rotor (112) which is rotatably arranged inside the drum (111)
Implementation Method 2
a drum (111) with a thermally conductive rear wall (11111)
Implementation Method 3
the cooling of the coffee beans subsequent to the roasting is often unsatisfying
Implementation Method 4
coffee roasters generally produce hot and smelly exhaust air that calls for use in a well ventilated environment
Data Source
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AI summary
Disclosed is a coffee bean roaster (1). The coffee bean roaster (1) includes a roasting unit (11), a sensor arrangement, and a control unit (13). The roasting unit (11) has a drum (111) with a transparent and removable front wall (1112). The roasting unit (11) further has a hot air supply (114) and a rear wall heater (116) to heat a rear wall (11111) of the drum (111). The sensor arrangement includes a roasting bean temperature sensor (12a). The control unit (13) is configured to receive a control input signal as a function of time, wherein the control input signal includes the roasting bean temperature signal and the roasting bean color signal, and is further configured to automatically generate a control output signal as a function of time in dependence of the control input signal thereby controlling operation of the drum heater (116) and the drum rotor drive (113) to roast the coffee bean s inside the drum (111) according to a predetermined selected roasting profile, wherein the selected roasting profile include s a desired roasting bean temperature as a function of time, a target roasting bean temperature and a target roasting bean color, wherein the control unit (13) is configured to determine if an end-of-roasting-condition is met, wherein the end-of roast ing condition includes the coffee bean s inside the drum (111) having the target roasting bean temperature.