Full-Immersion Coffee Brewer With Pressurized Air Extraction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional coffee brewing systems fail to properly immerse coffee grounds in water, leading to under or over extraction, and lack efficient infusion and cleaning mechanisms, resulting in inconsistent brewing and manual handling.
Innovation Solution
A full immersion brewing system that automatically immerses coffee grounds in heated liquid, uses pressurized air to speed up infusion, and includes a dispensing and cleaning mechanism with a filter to ensure consistent brewing and automatic extraction material removal.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional drip brewing systems are used to heat water and pass it over coffee grounds, then the brewing process is simple, but the coffee extraction is inconsistent leading to under or over extraction
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses pressurized air (pneumatics) to agitate and immerse coffee grounds in water, creating consistent extraction. The air pressure system ensures uniform water distribution through the coffee bed, eliminating the under/over extraction problems of drip systems while maintaining manageable device complexity through automated control.
Solution Approach 2:
The system employs periodic air pulsing during the brewing process to continuously agitate the coffee grounds, ensuring consistent extraction throughout the brew time. This periodic action maintains uniform saturation and extraction conditions, improving reliability without requiring complex manual intervention.
2Reliability
If coffee grounds are fully immersed in water for proper extraction, then extraction quality improves, but the infusion time increases to 3-4 minutes
Solution Approach 1:
Pressurized air is introduced during infusion to agitate coffee grounds and enhance water penetration, accelerating extraction rates. This allows the system to achieve complete extraction in reduced time by improving mass transfer efficiency between water and coffee particles through air-driven convection and agitation.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses air-induced vibration and agitation of coffee grounds to increase surface area exposure to water, enhancing extraction efficiency. This mechanical disturbance prevents channeling and ensures uniform water distribution, allowing faster extraction while maintaining quality.
3Loss of time
If conventional expresso systems use pressure to speed up infusion to 20-30 seconds, then infusion time is reduced, but the system requires manual cleaning of the filter chamber
Solution Approach 1:
The system automatically cleans its own filter chamber using reverse flush cycles where pressurized water flows backward through the filter to dislodge and remove coffee grounds. This self-cleaning mechanism eliminates manual cleaning requirements while maintaining the fast infusion times achieved through pressurized brewing.
Solution Approach 2:
Periodic reverse flush cycles are automatically initiated after brewing cycles to clean the filter chamber. This periodic self-maintenance action removes accumulated coffee grounds without user intervention, preserving ease of operation while enabling rapid infusion times.
4Reliability
If a filter is used to prevent extraction material from being served, then brewed liquid quality improves, but the filter requires cleaning after each use
Solution Approach 1:
The filter is automatically cleaned by reverse flush cycles that use pressurized water to blow coffee grounds off the filter screen into a waste chamber. This self-cleaning function maintains filter performance and brewed liquid quality without requiring manual cleaning, thereby improving productivity by eliminating a recurring maintenance task.
Solution Approach 2:
Coffee grounds captured on the filter during brewing are automatically discarded into a waste chamber through reverse flushing. This automated disposal system maintains filter cleanliness and brewed liquid quality while eliminating manual cleaning requirements, improving overall system productivity.
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 achieves consistent brewing by controlling infusion time and automatically dispenses brewed liquid while cleaning the brewing chamber, reducing manual effort and ensuring optimal extraction.
Implementation Method 1
uses pressurized air to speed up infusion
Implementation Method 2
heat a liquid; e.g., water; to a predetermined temperature
Implementation Method 3
through a filter to prevent the extraction material from being served
Data Source
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AI summary
A full immersion brewing system includes an immersion chamber; an extraction material mechanism for introducing extraction material into the immersion chamber; an infusion mechanism for introducing heated liquid and pressurized air into the immersion chamber; and a drain/dispensing mechanism for dispensing, through a filter, infused liquid from the immersion chamber and for enabling removal of extraction material from the immersion chamber. The filter prevents extraction material from being dispensed from the immersion chamber. When the drain/dispensing mechanism is in a first position, infused liquid is dispensed through the filter, and when the drain/dispensing mechanism is in a second position, the filter is positioned so that extraction material and liquid is dispensed without going through the filter. The full immersion brewing system includes a cleaning mechanism for cleaning the immersion chamber and the filter.