Design of a Coffee Machine
(2008) MMK920Innovation
- Abstract
- This master thesis is written in collaboration with the company Caran AB in Lund, now known as Semcon Caran AB. Semcon Caran AB is a large Swedish consulting firm who were hired by the principal LG Håkansson, an entrepreneur from Svedala.
The purpose of this thesis is to design a coffee machine for use in the home environment. The thesis is written in collaboration with two other students, Sevan Biglarian and Erik Offenbartl. The aim is to make a design that will suit the construction that Sevan and Erik will make. The construction will be presented in another thesis.
The methods used were one described in the book Product design and Development written by Karl T. Ulrich and Steven D. Eppinger and also a method described in... (More) - This master thesis is written in collaboration with the company Caran AB in Lund, now known as Semcon Caran AB. Semcon Caran AB is a large Swedish consulting firm who were hired by the principal LG Håkansson, an entrepreneur from Svedala.
The purpose of this thesis is to design a coffee machine for use in the home environment. The thesis is written in collaboration with two other students, Sevan Biglarian and Erik Offenbartl. The aim is to make a design that will suit the construction that Sevan and Erik will make. The construction will be presented in another thesis.
The methods used were one described in the book Product design and Development written by Karl T. Ulrich and Steven D. Eppinger and also a method described in Engineering Design Methods – Strategies for Product Design written by Nigel Cross. The reason the two are combined is because some steps described by Ulrich and Eppinger are better suited when constructing and there are measurable units. Aesthetical design is harder to evaluate on those basis.
A schedule was established which resulted in a project plan and a Gantt-schedule. The problem was made concrete and divided into sub-problems. When the current marked had been scanned and specifications were set up it was time to start generating ideas. The ideas were evaluated based on the specification and presented to the principal. One idea was further developed and a mock-up was made.
Some specifications were that the coffee machine should be sold at a medium price range; it should be easy to use and look attractive.
The machine designed has three curved surfaces, the sides and the front. A water tank containing 1.9 l of water is placed on the top of the machine. The water tank is easy to remove, clean and fill this makes the tank more hygienic. On the right hand side of the body there is a door which enables the change of the coffee granule container. The front has a door where a dosage mechanism will come out. To make the machine easy to use there are only two buttons with symbols to show what they do. The buttons are placed in
a logical order from left to right. First the strength is chosen then the “play”-button is Lund Institute of Technology pushed to start the machine. There is an indention beneath the dosage door to show the user where the cup ought to be placed. When play is pushed a red diode, situated under the water tank, is lit on the top of the machine to indicate that it is working. To indicate that the coffee is finished a green diode lights up for 10 seconds.
There are two alternatives of producing the machine, either an exclusive machine can be made with a tank of transparent polypropylene and a body of brushed aluminium or a more budget variant made completely in polypropylene. Because the machine handles fresh water that is to be drunk the health aspect is very important. Polypropylene is approved by FDA, Food and Drug Administration, as a material that can be used for foods and beverages.
When this project is starting to come to an end many lessons have been learnt. It has been valuable to se how real product development processes work. It has also been interesting to se some of the disputes that may occur between engineers and designers and how they may be solved. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/1496286
- author
- Svenäng, Martina
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- MMK920
- year
- 2008
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- language
- English
- id
- 1496286
- date added to LUP
- 2009-10-27 08:59:05
- date last changed
- 2010-02-01 14:40:04
@misc{1496286,
abstract = {{This master thesis is written in collaboration with the company Caran AB in Lund, now known as Semcon Caran AB. Semcon Caran AB is a large Swedish consulting firm who were hired by the principal LG Håkansson, an entrepreneur from Svedala.
The purpose of this thesis is to design a coffee machine for use in the home environment. The thesis is written in collaboration with two other students, Sevan Biglarian and Erik Offenbartl. The aim is to make a design that will suit the construction that Sevan and Erik will make. The construction will be presented in another thesis.
The methods used were one described in the book Product design and Development written by Karl T. Ulrich and Steven D. Eppinger and also a method described in Engineering Design Methods – Strategies for Product Design written by Nigel Cross. The reason the two are combined is because some steps described by Ulrich and Eppinger are better suited when constructing and there are measurable units. Aesthetical design is harder to evaluate on those basis.
A schedule was established which resulted in a project plan and a Gantt-schedule. The problem was made concrete and divided into sub-problems. When the current marked had been scanned and specifications were set up it was time to start generating ideas. The ideas were evaluated based on the specification and presented to the principal. One idea was further developed and a mock-up was made.
Some specifications were that the coffee machine should be sold at a medium price range; it should be easy to use and look attractive.
The machine designed has three curved surfaces, the sides and the front. A water tank containing 1.9 l of water is placed on the top of the machine. The water tank is easy to remove, clean and fill this makes the tank more hygienic. On the right hand side of the body there is a door which enables the change of the coffee granule container. The front has a door where a dosage mechanism will come out. To make the machine easy to use there are only two buttons with symbols to show what they do. The buttons are placed in
a logical order from left to right. First the strength is chosen then the “play”-button is Lund Institute of Technology pushed to start the machine. There is an indention beneath the dosage door to show the user where the cup ought to be placed. When play is pushed a red diode, situated under the water tank, is lit on the top of the machine to indicate that it is working. To indicate that the coffee is finished a green diode lights up for 10 seconds.
There are two alternatives of producing the machine, either an exclusive machine can be made with a tank of transparent polypropylene and a body of brushed aluminium or a more budget variant made completely in polypropylene. Because the machine handles fresh water that is to be drunk the health aspect is very important. Polypropylene is approved by FDA, Food and Drug Administration, as a material that can be used for foods and beverages.
When this project is starting to come to an end many lessons have been learnt. It has been valuable to se how real product development processes work. It has also been interesting to se some of the disputes that may occur between engineers and designers and how they may be solved.}},
author = {{Svenäng, Martina}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Design of a Coffee Machine}},
year = {{2008}},
}