Screen-Printed Boiler Structure for Fast High-Pressure Heating
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Solution Overview
Problem
Boilers for hot beverage machines face challenges in quickly heating highly pressurized liquids while maintaining low complexity and production costs, as existing solutions are either inefficient or excessively costly due to high material and assembly requirements.
Innovation Solution
A boiler design featuring a body with a screen-printed resistance and a support that forms a sealed enclosure with a single, monolithic inner wall, reducing the number of sealing interfaces and parts, thus simplifying the structure and reducing costs while withstanding high pressures.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If a block of metal with embedded resistive element is used, then the boiler structure is simple, but the thermal inertia is high and heating time is long
Solution Approach 1:
The boiler is divided into two separate parts: a support structure and a body with screen-printed resistance. This segmentation allows the heating element to be integrated into a thinner, more responsive body while maintaining structural support separately, reducing overall thermal mass and heating time.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention changes the material and structural parameters of the boiler body, using a screen-printed resistance on a thin substrate instead of embedded resistive elements in thick metal blocks. This parameter change reduces thermal inertia while maintaining heating capability.
2Productivity
If screen-printed resistance boilers are used, then heating speed is improved, but pressure resistance is insufficient for high-pressure beverages
Solution Approach 1:
The body is designed with a circular cross-section and curved surfaces, which distribute mechanical stress more evenly under pressure. This curvature provides structural strength to withstand high pressures (up to 16 bars) while maintaining the thin-walled design necessary for rapid heating.
Solution Approach 2:
The boiler uses a composite structure combining a screen-printed resistance layer on a substrate that provides both thermal responsiveness and mechanical strength. This composite approach enables the thin body to resist high pressures while maintaining fast heating capability.
3Strength
If multiple sealing interfaces are used to withstand high pressure, then pressure resistance is improved, but manufacturing complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The support and body are designed to form a single integrated sealed enclosure with minimal sealing interfaces. By merging the structural and heating functions into two main components that directly mate, the invention reduces the number of seals required while maintaining pressure integrity.
Solution Approach 2:
The circular cross-section and curved surfaces of the body provide inherent structural strength that distributes pressure loads, reducing the need for multiple reinforcement seals. The geometry itself contributes to pressure resistance, simplifying the sealing requirements.
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 boiler efficiently heats pressurized liquids while minimizing complexity and production costs, allowing for rapid beverage preparation and reduced energy consumption by distributing pressure homogeneously and reducing thermal inertia.
Implementation Method 1
a body having an outer wall covered with a screen-printed resistance
Implementation Method 2
the pressure in the heating chamber is partially applied to the longitudinal wall the section of which is circular, which makes it possible to avoid pressure concentrations
Data Source
AI summary
A boiler (100) for a machine for preparing beverages, intended to heat a liquid pressurized to at least 8 bars, so that the heated liquid can brew a product, with the boiler including:a body (1) having an outer wall (2) covered with a screen-printed resistance (14) and an inner wall (3);the inner wall (3) of the body (1) having a longitudinal wall (4) which has a circular cross-section, as well as a bottom wall (5);an inner element (30) having an outer face (35) for defining, together with the longitudinal wall (4), at least a portion of heating chamber (102);a liquid inlet (10) and outlet (12);a support (20) so configured as to cooperate with the body (1) so as to form, together with the longitudinal wall (4) and the bottom wall (5), a sealed enclosure (101) including the heating chamber (102).