System for producing beverages by infusion
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Solution Overview
Problem
Coffee machines face reliability issues due to incorrect dose insertion and removal, leading to suboptimal coffee quality and potential safety hazards from unsuitable doses breaking under infusion conditions.
Innovation Solution
A beverage production system that uses an axial stop mechanism to prevent unsuitable doses from being inserted into the infusion chamber by matching the dose's perimeter or shape with the machine's design, ensuring only compatible doses are used, thus enhancing safety and maintaining machine integrity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If an axial stop mechanism is added to prevent incompatible doses, then machine reliability and safety are improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The axial stop is positioned in advance along the insertion path to prevent incompatible doses from reaching the infusion chamber. This preliminary blocking action ensures that only compatible doses can be properly inserted, thereby improving machine reliability without requiring complex detection or rejection mechanisms during the infusion process.
2Reliability
If the axial stop is positioned to block incompatible doses, then dose compatibility is ensured, but the ease of operation is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The axial stop creates a localized geometric constraint at a specific position along the insertion path. This localized feature selectively blocks incompatible doses based on their dimensional characteristics while leaving compatible doses unaffected, maintaining ease of operation for correct users while ensuring dose compatibility.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If the axial stop mechanism is implemented, then harmful effects from incompatible doses are prevented, but manufacturing costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The axial stop mechanism extracts or removes the harmful function of incompatible doses by physically blocking them before they can cause damage. This simple geometric feature isolates the protection function from the main infusion mechanism, preventing harmful effects while adding minimal manufacturing complexity.
Data Source
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AI summary
The present invention relates to a system (10) for producing beverages by infusing a dose (50) of a product to be infused, comprising: an infusion chamber (7) defined by first (42) and second (22) chamber portions, at least one of which is movable; an actuator (40) arranged to command closing of the chamber; a closing device (60) comprising upstream closing means (61) and downstream closing means (62) making it possible to block and allow access to and exit from the infusion chamber, respectively; the system being arranged such that the system comprises at least one supply line (24) configured to supply the chamber (7) with fluid to be infused and being characterised in that the first chamber portion (42), which is rigidly connected to the actuator (40), comprises at least part of said supply line (24).