Coffee grinding technologies

Company name

Coffee Technology S.r.l.

project title

TEMCA

dimension and location

SME - Crema (CR)

The problem

Coffee Technology S.r.l. is an engineering company specializing in the design and manufacture of coffee grinders for domestic and professional use.

In the field of coffee grinders and grindstones, whether they are for domestic or professional use, there are no (according to the experience and knowledge that Coffee Technology S.r.l. has) scientific/mathematical solutions capable of supporting the operators in the sector in the design of these components, without them having to resort to the massive execution of particle size tests (size and distribution of the particles generated by the process) and flow rate. The “design” process results in a series of iterations aimed at verifying whether the modification/improvement made to the product (modification/improvement based on the experience of the engineers) returns the desired results; this process, by its very nature, entails a very high cost in terms of economics, time, material and company resources to achieve the goal.

The solution

Thanks to the collaboration with MADE4.0 and the Politecnico di Milano, it was possible to study a plan with a scientific/mathematical approach to the previously defined problem. This plan can be summarized in the following three points:

Technologies

  1. Defining the chemical, physical and mechanical characteristics of the coffee bean by conducting laboratory tests and collecting information from relevant scientific journals.
  2. Mathematical modeling based on finite element methods (FEM) and discrete element methods (DEM) in order to realize through a “Digital Twin” a tool capable of predicting the functioning of the product with the aim of reducing/azzerating the resources required to perform laboratory tests
  3. Use of DoE procedure according to Taguchi’s method to identify the set of processing that can confer a significant increase in performance in terms of strength and wear and friction.

Impacts

  1. Significant reduction in economic, material and physical resource costs of performing laboratory tests
  2. Reduction in product “time to market”
  3. Transmission to the customer of the scientific approach used, in order to elevate the company’s image in the industry from a company with a “craft” footprint to a company with scientific-mathematical knowledge.

Benefits for the company

  1. Reduction of costs to test the product
  2. Reduction in design costs
  3. Reduction in response time to customer needs/requirements
  4. Ability to translate its knowledge based on experience gained over the years, into scientific knowledge supported by mathematical models
  5. Definition of a repeatable and reliable design process 

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