A team of engineers from Karfidov Lab, an engineering design laboratory created within NUST MISIS, has developed a prototype of a portable wireless coffee machine small enough to fit into a car’s cup holder. This battery-powered miniature device can both serve as a full-fledged coffee machine and a water cooler, and can be operated using a mobile app.
iBarman is how the developers called their invention. It is the size of a thermal cup that takes water, two coffee capsules, milk and sugar or tea. It is powered by regular batteries and operated using a touch panel. The coffee machine has a 350 ml reservoir that both brews coffee and can be used as a removable cup. The upper part of the device contains a separation plate that goes down as the water leaves the reservoir on the lower end and reemerges from the top as a hot drink.
Dmitry Vasiliev, Development Director at NUST MISIS’s engineering company.
The time it takes to make beverages depends on the desired temperature and volume. For instance, it will take one minute to brew an Americano coffee. And it will take 40 to 60 seconds to cool it down to 15 degrees, while a freezer needs as much as 10 minutes to achieve the same result. This means that with water and capsules, car drivers can obtain a professionally brewed coffee or tea on the go, or use the device for chilling water or other drinks.
The project team has completed the assembly of a prototype and is testing it. The engineers are now working on reducing its weight, since the prototype weighs 1 kilogram. The device is expected to hit serial production in 2017. Megistone, the Russian start-up that commissioned the project, said that the price of the device will be comparable to that of a budget coffee machine.
In the future, NUST MISIS and Karfidov Lab engineers intend to make two modified versions of the device. The first one will only serve as a cooler, and will be substantially smaller and lighter than the original product, and the second will be designed to brew coffee in the most extreme conditions. It will have a sturdier body and a powerful battery, as well as infrared irradiation for killing bacteria in raw water. This version of the coffee machine will hold even more capsules.
“iBarman is a striking example of an innovative project in which author`s original idea is embodied due to our young developers` brilliant engineering solution. Development of a portable coffee machine is a creation of fundamentally new high-tech product which has no analogues in Russia and abroad”, said Alevtina Chernikova, Rector of NUST MISIS.
