Coffee and Tea Dosing Block With Pivoting Agitation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Fully automatic coffee and tea brewing devices face issues with coffee bean freshness, inadequate grind adjustment for espresso, clogging, and inconsistent dosing, leading to unsatisfactory beverage quality, while tea brewing with extracts or concentrates lacks quality and flow issues.
Innovation Solution
A dosing system featuring a pivoting agitation device with a dosing block and sliding plate mechanism, including a reverse taper coupling and vibrating arms to ensure consistent and precise dispensing of coffee and tea, maintaining freshness and preventing clogging, and a method for dosing tea leaves that involves storing them in a container and agitating to ensure proper flow.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If coffee beans are stored in a hopper for extended periods, then the device can maintain a ready supply of coffee, but the beans lose freshness and go stale
Solution Approach 1:
The coffee storage system is divided into multiple compartments or sections within the hopper, allowing different batches of coffee beans to be stored separately. This segmentation enables the system to manage freshness by serving from the most recent batch first while preserving older batches, thus maintaining both supply availability and freshness reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-grinding coffee beans into grounds and storing them in the hopper with controlled atmosphere (nitrogen flushing). This preliminary preparation allows the coffee to be ready for immediate dispensing without requiring long-term storage of whole beans, thereby maintaining freshness while ensuring supply availability.
2Extent of automation
If a fixed grinder is used in the automatic brewer, then the device operates automatically without manual adjustment, but the grind cannot be adjusted for different beverage types such as espresso
Solution Approach 1:
The grinder is designed with adjustable parameters that can be dynamically changed based on the selected beverage type. The system includes multiple grind settings or adjustable grind chamber configurations that allow the automatic brewer to adapt its grinding characteristics for different beverages (e.g., finer grind for espresso, coarser for drip coffee) while maintaining automatic operation through electronic control.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes physical parameters of the grinding process (such as gap size, rotation speed, or chamber pressure) depending on the beverage selection. This allows the same grinder mechanism to produce different grind sizes and characteristics automatically, providing versatility for various beverage types without sacrificing automation.
3Device complexity
If ground coffee is dispensed through a simple gravity-fed system, then the device structure remains simple, but the system tends to clog and provide inconsistent dosing
Solution Approach 1:
The dosing mechanism incorporates a vibrating element (such as a vibrating paddle or vibration motor) that agitates the ground coffee in the hopper and dosing chamber. This vibration prevents grounds from bridging or clogging in the dispensing pathway and ensures consistent flow and dosing accuracy, while adding only minimal complexity to the overall device structure.
4Productivity
If tea extracts and concentrates are used for brewing, then large volumes of tea can be produced quickly with extended shelf life, but the quality is not as high as traditional tea bags
Solution Approach 1:
The brewing system is designed to accommodate multiple types of tea products (traditional tea bags, loose leaf tea, extracts, and concentrates) through a universal dosing and brewing mechanism. This allows the system to select and process different tea formats based on quality requirements, enabling high-quality traditional tea preparation while maintaining the productivity benefits of concentrated formulations when appropriate.
5Device complexity
If conventional brewing methods are used for tea leaves, then the brewing process is simple, but the tea leaves may not flow or brew as desired
Solution Approach 1:
The tea leaf dosing system incorporates vibration to agitate and fluidize the leaves in the storage and dispensing chambers. This mechanical vibration ensures that tea leaves flow smoothly and consistently into the brewing chamber, preventing bridging and ensuring reliable dosing, while adding minimal complexity to the brewing process.
Solution Approach 2:
The system introduces an intermediary mechanism (such as a dosing chamber or transfer mechanism with controlled atmosphere) between the tea leaf storage and the brewing chamber. This intermediary ensures proper flow characteristics and prevents degradation of tea leaves during handling, improving brewing performance without significantly complicating the overall process.
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 provides fresh, properly dosed coffee and tea with improved taste by maintaining coffee freshness, ensuring precise grind and dosing, and enhancing tea leaf flow, resulting in a fast and efficient brewing process adaptable to various beverages.
Implementation Method 1
The box shoe may be attached to the dosing plate for pivoting about the dosing block. The pivoting action may serve to agitate the material in the box shoe.
Implementation Method 2
One or more cams may be mounted about the box shoe for cooperating with the one or more wheel pins. As the dosing plate moves forward, the wheel pins and cam blocks may force the cams downward so as to lower the box shoe.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2~3
Figure 4~5A
AI summary
A doser for dispensing a predetermined dose of material. The doser may include an agitation device, with the material stored in the agitation device, and a dosing block cooperating with the agitation system.