Pad comprising a soluble beverage preparation product for use in a coffee machine
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing coffee machine pads are prone to deformation and fluid bypass due to soft materials, leading to inconsistent beverage preparation and low pressure drops, making it difficult to prepare high-quality beverages like cappuccinos and latte macchiato with standard machines.
Innovation Solution
A coffee machine pad with a flexible first sheet and a rigid shell, featuring a flow-restricted outlet opening and a fluid collecting structure, which ensures a secure seal and maintains high pressure drops, allowing for the preparation of intense beverages with high dry matter content and visual separate layers.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If soft pillow-shaped pads made from interconnected filtering paper sheets are used, then the pad is easy to manufacture and inexpensive, but the pad deforms under pressure, loses homogeneity, and allows fluid bypass
Solution Approach 1:
The pad is divided into multiple functional layers: a rigid support structure (grid or shell), flexible sealing sheets, and a filling compartment. This segmentation allows each layer to perform its specific function - the rigid structure provides stability, while the flexible sheets provide sealing, resolving the contradiction between manufacturability and structural reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The pad combines different materials with complementary properties: rigid materials (plastic grid, shell) for structural support, flexible materials (foil, plastic sheets) for sealing, and porous materials (filtering paper) for fluid passage. This composite structure resolves the contradiction by integrating the advantages of each material type.
2Reliability
If the pad edges are manually adapted to the compartment shape, then fluid seal is improved, but the operation becomes complex and time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The pad is pre-formed with a rigid support structure and pre-attached sealing sheets that are already configured to match the compartment shape. This preliminary preparation eliminates the need for manual edge adaptation during insertion, resolving the contradiction between seal quality and operational simplicity.
Solution Approach 2:
The pad uses flexible sealing sheets (foil or plastic) that can conform to the compartment surfaces while being pre-attached to the rigid structure. These flexible films provide reliable sealing without requiring manual manipulation, resolving the contradiction between seal reliability and ease of operation.
3Quantity of substance
If high pressure drop is achieved through flow restriction, then intense beverage with high dry matter content is produced, but the outlet opening becomes a bottleneck for flow
Solution Approach 1:
The outlet opening is equipped with a flow restriction element (needle valve, restrictor) that creates localized flow resistance only where needed. This allows high pressure drop and beverage concentration at the outlet while maintaining adequate flow rate through the rest of the pad structure, resolving the contradiction between beverage intensity and 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 pad enables the preparation of intense, high-quality beverages with visual separate layers by maintaining a secure seal and high pressure drop, preventing fluid bypass and ensuring consistent beverage production.
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
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
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
AI summary
Pad 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, is 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 and a rigid shell, 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. The pad is further equipped with a flexible second sheet 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 in a coffee machine with a time controlled supply of aqueous fluid.