Tapered Multi-Sided Brew Basket and Filter Pack for Coffee Saturation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing electric coffee brewing machines suffer from inefficiencies where heated water can flow around the coffee filter and not saturate the coffee grounds properly, leading to weaker or underdeveloped brewed coffee.
Innovation Solution
A brew basket with an internally tapered multi-sided three-dimensional shape and a complementary filter pack with a liquid permeable pouch containing coffee grounds, ensuring heated water flows through the grounds effectively before discharge, enhancing saturation and extraction efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If heated water is introduced into the brew basket, then the brewing process can proceed, but some water may flow around the coffee filter without saturating the coffee grounds, resulting in weaker and underdeveloped coffee
Solution Approach 1:
The brew basket is divided into distinct functional zones: an upper brewing chamber for water distribution and a lower collection chamber with a conical funnel section. This segmentation ensures water flows through the coffee grounds in a controlled path, preventing bypass flow and ensuring complete saturation of the coffee bed.
Solution Approach 2:
A conical funnel structure acts as an intermediary element between the upper brewing chamber and the lower collection chamber. This funnel guides the water flow through the coffee grounds, ensuring that all water passes through the coffee bed and cannot flow around the filter, thereby improving saturation quality while maintaining brewing efficiency.
2Productivity
If water flows through coffee grounds to extract coffee, then brewed coffee is produced, but water may discharge without充分 interacting with grounds, reducing extraction yield
Solution Approach 1:
The conical funnel design creates a continuous water flow path that maintains constant contact between water and coffee grounds throughout the brewing process. The converging walls of the funnel ensure water progressively saturates the coffee bed from top to bottom, maximizing extraction yield while maintaining efficient brewing speed through continuous flow.
Solution Approach 2:
The conical funnel geometry changes the flow parameters of water as it descends through the coffee grounds. The decreasing cross-sectional area of the funnel increases water velocity and pressure progressively, enhancing extraction efficiency while maintaining overall brewing speed through optimized flow dynamics.
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 solution improves the saturation of coffee grounds, resulting in a stronger and more developed brewed coffee by ensuring that heated water effectively interacts with the coffee grounds, reducing waste and enhancing extraction yield.
Implementation Method 1
a liquid permeable pouch containing coffee grounds
Implementation Method 2
heated water flows through the coffee grounds until accumulating at least a select amount of solids per unit of heated water
Data Source
AI summary
A brew basket is provided for use in a beverage brewing machine. The brew basket includes a body defining a brewing reservoir that extends along a longitudinal length from an open top to a bottom end having one or more openings. The brewing reservoir has an internally tapered multi-sided three-dimensional (3D) shape. The brewing reservoir having a first cross-sectional area at the open top that progressively narrows along the longitudinal length of the multi-sided 3D shape to a smaller second cross-sectional area proximate to the one or more openings at the bottom end. The open top is configured to receive heated water from the brewing machine during a brewing operation with brewed beverage discharging from the one or more openings. The multi-sided 3D shape of the brewing reservoir configured to receive a filter pack having a generally tapered multi-sided 3D shape similar to the multi-sided 3D shape of the brewing reservoir.