This project is a large-scale project, it involves building around a coffee machine which is not in the design scope of the project and will be bought separately off the shelf.
The purpose of the machine is to engage the customer with fascinating mechanisms while the coffee is being brewed. The customer will see a fake process displaying coffee beans falling into the cups, being ground and then travelling into the machine for brewing. The ball will fall from the top of the ball loop and like a roller coaster, fall down and back into the system again. Finally, the butterfly will flutter and the coloured water will flow in the spiral pipes. Furthermore, the machine also incorporates adding different flavours to the coffee and has an auxiliary function to dispense juice of various flavours. This project was a joint venture between mechanical, electrical and firmware teams.
The partial design was passed onto me by another team member and I completed it, after that, we started prototype manufacturing where I supervised everything and built every system one by one from the ground up instructing the team.
Rigorous manufacturing work was done in building this machine and various manufacturing techniques were involved including welding, fabrication, machining, 3d printing and both metal and plastic laser cutting.
The Syringe Mechanism for adding Viscous Flavours to the Coffee
Juice Pipe manifold on the left; Syrup Mechanism for less viscous Flavours on the right
Butterfly Mechanism
Ball Loop (Left); Ball Screw (Right) for transporting the ball up
Ball Returning Rail
Large 3d Printed Parts
Spiral Pipe Holder (Left); Cup Holder (Right) bilayer with SS304 and Aluminium 6061 to increase stiffness in cantilever design
3d Printed Ball Screw reinforced by steel pipe in the middle
Complete 3d Printed Ball Screw
Ball Loop Mechanism Testing
Front Plate Mechanisms Testing
