MMAE 432
"The Hussars"
DISPENSSO
A Better Way to Season
For the final project, two different methods of kitchen and lifestyle improvement were considered. The first came in the form of a liquid dispenser module, which measured and poured the right amount of a shot or serving. Due to cost constraints and more competitive solutions, This idea was dropped. Instead our team focused on solving a multitude of common problems which plague consumer dispensing containers and machines in the current market...
In order to design and develop a spice dispenser which competes with stablemate products from the likes of KitchenAid and CuisineArt, a new approach to its operation needed to be used.
Typical dispensers rely on a manual push-button system, which make use of a linkage, a rocker and a form of a cam or slider mechanism. Though these dispensers benefit from simplicity in kichen use, they clog easy and are rendered useless when clumping occurs.
In addition to functional issues, the parts and container space are difficult to clean and use too much material in the manufacturing process. Such dispensers are suffer from powder compression, which results in a wildly inaccurate dispensing of spice, a significant problem in an area where a teaspoon can make a difference between a balanced dish and an overwhelming one. In order to obtain accurate dispensing, laboratory-grade powder dispensers need to be purchased for hundreds or thousands of dollars. For our consumer product design, Dispensso provides a tailored solution to these problems.
The solution comes in the form of an isolated, vibratory metering system. Spices are held in sealed vessels attached to existing spice containers. The user can take a salt or pepper shaker with standard manufactured threads and immediately screw the container to the plumbing. Ths allows for little to no special preparation steps from purchase to machine, eliminating messes created from pouring.
The spices are dispensed by a servomotor drive and rack and pinion, a system powerful enough to clear the toughest, densest clogs which may occur. The tray channel is held to close tolerances and uses a food grade aluminum tray in a hypoallergenic brass sleeve for smooth, hygenic dispensing.
Clogging and clumping are completely eliminated with an isolated spring damper system. This system used a series of tuned vibrating motors which cause granular excitation need to break up large clumps, recirculate spices with moisture content, and allow the grains to better take up the funnel volume to dispense without clogs, in a way analogous to liquids. Compression is virtually eliminated and a more consistent dispensing volume is achieved.
An optional burr grinder attachment allows for the granulation of peppercorns, coffee beans and fennel seeds to achieve precise grain sizes and intense flavor.