Horizontal Throughflow Coffee System to Reduce Raw Material Usage
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional methods for making hot beverages with a cream or crema layer, such as espresso, face inefficiencies at low pressures, resulting in suboptimal froth quality and uneven coffee extraction due to vertical flow through coffee pads, leading to raw material wastage and reduced efficiency.
Innovation Solution
A system that facilitates a substantially horizontal throughflow of liquid through coffee products using a nozzle assembly with air inlets and strategically positioned inlet and outlet openings, allowing for effective extraction and froth creation with reduced raw material usage, optimized by using a smaller amount of coffee product while maintaining quality.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If vertical flow through coffee pads is used in conventional systems, then the system structure is simple, but the extraction is uneven and raw material efficiency is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent inverts the conventional vertical flow direction by implementing horizontal throughflow. The liquid inlet is positioned at the periphery and the outlet at the center of the pad, causing liquid to flow horizontally through the coffee grounds rather than vertically downward. This inversion ensures uniform saturation of the entire coffee bed, maximizing extraction efficiency and raw material utilization.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from one-dimensional vertical flow to two-dimensional horizontal flow across the coffee pad. By positioning the inlet at the periphery and outlet at the center, the liquid traverses the coffee grounds in a radial horizontal pattern, ensuring all areas of the coffee bed are equally utilized for extraction, thereby improving productivity.
2Reliability
If high pressure (9-10 bar) is used to create crema layer, then froth quality is good, but the system requires high pressure equipment and consumes more energy
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the flow direction parameter from vertical to horizontal, which fundamentally alters the extraction dynamics. This parameter change enables effective crema formation at low pressures (0.5-3 bar) because the horizontal flow ensures uniform saturation and efficient extraction, eliminating the need for high-pressure equipment and reducing energy consumption while maintaining reliable froth quality.
3Quantity of substance
If more coffee product (5-7 grams) is used in the pad, then the beverage has sufficient body, but raw material consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
By inverting the flow direction to horizontal with inlet at periphery and outlet at center, the patent maximizes the utilization of each gram of coffee. The uniform radial flow pattern ensures complete saturation and extraction from the entire coffee bed, allowing sufficient beverage body to be achieved with only 3-5 grams of coffee instead of the conventional 5-7 grams, thereby reducing raw material consumption.
4Ease of operation
If liquid inlet is positioned centrally in conventional systems, then the system structure is simple, but water seeks path of least resistance and flow distribution is incorrect
Solution Approach 1:
The patent inverts the conventional central inlet positioning by placing the liquid inlet at the periphery and the outlet at the center of the pad. This inversion ensures that liquid flows horizontally outward to inward through the coffee grounds, following a controlled radial path that maximizes contact with all coffee particles, preventing the water from seeking paths of least resistance and ensuring correct uniform flow distribution.
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
This approach reduces raw material usage by 35-45% while ensuring efficient extraction and maintaining or improving froth quality, allowing for a good crema layer formation at lower pressures, such as 1.5 bar, with adjustable air inlet for desired froth quantity and type.
Implementation Method 1
the pressure drop of the fluid over the cup is very small, so that a hot beverage can be prepared at a low supply pressure of the liquid
Implementation Method 2
providing a nozzle assembly in or on the raw material container, wherein the nozzle assembly is provided with a number of inflow openings arranged as air inlet in the side wall thereof
Data Source
AI summary
The invention relates to a system and a method for making a hot beverage such as coffee. The system according to the invention comprises: - a raw material container in which raw material for the hot beverage is arrangeable, wherein the raw material container is provided with a liquid inlet, and an outlet with a substantially horizontal flow through the raw material; - a nozzle assembly connected operatively to the outlet and provided with an inlet, an air inlet and a nozzle; and - an outflow connected operatively to the nozzle for delivery of the hot beverage.