Engineering the Perfect Coffee Mug 145
Nerval's Lobster writes "From the annals of Really Important Science comes word that a research assistant who picked up his B.S. just seven months ago has invented a coffee mug designed to keep java at just the right piping-hot temperature for hours. Logan Maxwell, who got his undergraduate degree in chemical engineering from North Carolina State University in May, created the "Temperfect" mug as part of his senior design project for the College of Engineering. Most insulated mugs have two walls separated by a soft vacuum that insulates the temperature of a liquid inside from the temperature of the air outside. Maxwell's design has a third layer of insulation in a third wall wrapped around the inner basin of the mug. Inside is a chemical insulator that is solid at room temperature but melts into a liquid at 140 degrees Fahrenheit. The insulator – which Maxwell won't identify but swears is non-toxic – turns to liquid as it absorbs the extra heat of coffee poured into the mug at temperatures higher than 140 F, cooling it to a drinkable temperature quickly. As the heat of the coffee escapes, the insulating material releases heat through the inner wall of the mug to keep it hot as long as possible; a graph mapping the performance of a prototype shows it could keep a cup of coffee at between 128 F and 145 F for as long as 90 minutes. "Phase-change" coffee-mug insulation was patented during the 1960s, but has never been marketed because they are difficult and expensive to manufacture compared to simpler forms of insulation. While working on the Temperfect design, Maxwell met Belgian-born industrial designer Dean Verhoeven, president of consulting form Ancona Research, Inc., who had been working on a similar design and had already worked out how to manufacture a three-walled insulated mug cost effectively. The two co-founded a company called Joevo to manufacture the mugs." According to the Joevo Kickstarter page, you can get one starting at $40. For that much, I'd like a clever lid like this Contigo has.
Coffee Joulies in a mug (Score:5, Informative)
This is just the same approach as Coffee Joulies [joulies.com], which is a former Kickstarter project. I have a bunch of these, they work well. No need for a custom mug.
Not ... exactly. (Score:3)
This is just the same approach as Coffee Joulies [joulies.com], which is a former Kickstarter project. I have a bunch of these, they work well. No need for a custom mug.
Well, it's not quite the same as coffee joulies, for a number of reasons.
... you won't lose the integrated joulies. ... different name.
... but it's not breaking new ground.
First, it's integrated/built in.
Second, well
Third... uh
Seriously though, this is just an improvement on the thermos. A fancy improvement, and it might even be more effective
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Seriously though, this is just an improvement on the thermos. A fancy improvement, and it might even be more effective ... but it's not breaking new ground.
Nothing that hits the shelves as a consumer product is ever 'breaking new ground'. Its always standing on the shoulders of what came before; and has already cut its teeth in niche markets that needed and could afford the high early adopter price for research and development for the incremental improvement over what was already out there.
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Two layers of insulation? Push, I have three layers!
Fuck it, we're going to five layers (Score:3)
I called it.
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Rube Goldberg much?
Standard mug, pour, whack some milk in, drink in ten-fifteen. Problem solved.
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To me the very idea of paying US$40 for a cup that will keep coffee at an "insipid" temperature is not
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Plus the joulies clunk around in any mug, making a fair bit of noise.
Use them in an open topped mug and they smack you in the teeth as the mug gets emptier.
And they displace beverage, meaning you need a refill sooner.
Re:Coffee Joulies in a mug (Score:5, Insightful)
This is just the same approach as Coffee Joulies [joulies.com], which is a former Kickstarter project. I have a bunch of these, they work well. No need for a custom mug.
Sometimes the reason for having is in the having, not in the utility. Any geek knows this.
If Apple sold an insulated iMug people would queue up for it. You know this to be true.
they'd also be suing samsung for patent infringement with their damnable galaxy adro-mug
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You're already getting phase change. How greedy are you?
I'll take mine with some of these pallets generating too much heat at Fukushima.
Not hot enough for industrial power production? Ship it here, I would save some gas.
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As noted in the summary and on the Kickstarter page, these mugs use a phase change material to absorb the extra heat and basically play it back as the coffee would otherwise cool.
Another very common phase change material is ice and the behavior is very similar
Re:Coffee Joulies in a mug (Score:5, Interesting)
Sorry, but it's EXACTLY the same approach. As others have mentioned, this mug works like coffee joulies does. And interestingly enough, the paraffin wax that coffee joulies uses melts at 140 degrees Fahrenheit. I would be extremely surprised if Logan Maxwell wasn't also using paraffin. It's cheap, readily available, and non-toxic. The only thing different is the extra layer of insulation around the cup.
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Came to say this - the description sounds exactly like they are using a layer of wax.
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So, take out the plug, fill with melted wax, replace plug, and enjoy?
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It could also be sodium acetate.
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Checking Wikipedia, "Sodium acetate trihydrate crystals melt at 137.12ÂF / 58.4ÂC, (to 136.4ÂF / 58ÂC)"
... which I think leaves sodium acetate in the frame too.
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... which I think leaves sodium acetate in the frame too.
That was my first thought when I heard the description. Especially when they mentioned the solid -> liquid transition.
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Same applies to the paraffins too, though IIRC they've a lower specific heat of fusion.
I recall my Dad having a wrenched wrist muscle which he had to heat treat several times a day by building up a "wax cast" onto it. Probably the waxes used there were around the right temperature range too.
With the waxes you could adjust the useful temperature range by mixing two waxes.
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Yep - as jcochran says,it's just a repackaging in a dedicated mug. The Joulies web site says:
"Their polished stainless steel shells are full of a very special phase change material (an ingredient in food) that melts at 140F. When you put them in your coffee this PCM begins melting, absorbing a LOT of heat in the process and cooling your coffee down much faster than normal.
"Where does all that heat go? It’s stored right inside your Coffee Joulies. When your coffee reaches 140F (the perfect drinking tem
Different trick - same result (Score:1)
It's just adding "thermal mass", like the old trick of putting a lot of stuff in a furnace to keep the temperature more stable.
So it's a different trick, but it looks like both tricks get the job done in a lot of cases. You'll see a very slow decline in temperature with the lumps of stainless steel and a steady temperature then a sharp decline with the phase change material. So long as you drin
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If by "lumps of stainless steel" you mean Joulies, you missed that the Joulies have phase-change-material inside - probably the same stuff as this mug. This is why I said it was the same trick.
OK then - same trick (Score:2)
Meh I want better (Score:1)
These tests must be performed where relevant on both the mug, the lid and the mug with the lid.
It must not loose more than 20 percent of the initial energy of the contained liquid for 1 hour.
It has to survive a
dishwasher
washing machine
dryer
It must survive a 60 gravity impact on every facet on
concrete
steel
tungsten
tungsten carbide
It must to survive the effects of a solid tungsten carbide cutting tool for 10 seconds.
It has to survive all of this at -40, -20, 0 , 25 and 150 Celsius.
At nominal room temperature i
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Joulies don't work [marco.org].
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Well I'm not good at them fancy maths, but for $40 I can get a mug or $60 I can get them beans...
Now the beans might work for more than one mug, however, generally I only drink one cup of coffee at a time, so to me the mug seems to make more sense.
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Doesn't anyone get the irony of a guy name Maxwell making Coffee?
The best part of waking up is having Maxwell make your cup.
Granted Maxwell coffee isn't the best coffee but still most of you growing up got the stupid song in your head.
I'll wait for the MSDS/Patent Filing (Score:3)
The insulator – which Maxwell won't identify but swears is non-toxic
I think this is a case where it most certainly needs to be disclosed in an MSDS and/or patent filing (though more likely in the MSDS, as the patent filing is allowed to be vague).
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The insulator – which Maxwell won't identify but swears is non-toxic
I think this is a case where it most certainly needs to be disclosed in an MSDS and/or patent filing (though more likely in the MSDS, as the patent filing is allowed to be vague).
MSDS sheets aren't required for consumer products in most places in Canada. They're a workplace 'thing'.
Nevermind the fact you can get an exemption for 'trade secrets'.
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The insulator – which Maxwell won't identify but swears is non-toxic
I think this is a case where it most certainly needs to be disclosed in an MSDS and/or patent filing (though more likely in the MSDS, as the patent filing is allowed to be vague).
I dunno. I have a Sigg insulated drink bottle, which holds 1L and if I pour hot green tea into it, it will still be hot the next day. Larges contributing factor in coffee cooling in a cup has to be surface area at the top. Evaporation takes energy with it, so minimize exposure at the top and your coffee will stay hot longer.
Rather like those dang travel mugs where I can't drink the hot coffee for about an hour after I bought it >:(
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If the material is separated from the beverage by the cup's inner wall, its not an FDA issue.
It may be a CPSC issue if the inner cup was would bee thin enough to puncture easily (such as if you stir your hot chocolate), but there would seem to be no reason for a dangerously thin wall.
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.
I have a near perfect one... (Score:5, Funny)
It holds 800ml.
If you need insulation, you are drinking it too slow.
perhaps the ability to add an iv-drip
Re:I have a near perfect one... (Score:4, Insightful)
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That would be a work place risk, probably already covered by OSHA.
If you want to get everyone pissed off, just file an OSHA complaint. They will descend on your workplace and find fault with everything from the floor tile to the overhead lights.
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That would be a work place risk, probably already covered by OSHA. If you want to get everyone pissed off, just file an OSHA complaint. They will descend on your workplace and find fault with everything from the floor tile to the overhead lights.
Depends on the locality. I filed one against a summer employer for clearly unsafe activities. Common practice was to get in a clogged hopper with the conveyor underneath still running. The site supervisor advocated the practice. An extremely serious and obvious safety hazard. OSHA looked the other way.
The company went bankrupt 2 months later.
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Another solution (for those that frequent coffee shops) is actually specifying beverage temperatures. When I go to starbucks, for example, I order my lattes at 140 degrees. Its a bit cooler than the normal, scalding temperature, and just right for drinking right away.
Wrong shape (Score:2)
No wonder the world hates us. (Score:5, Insightful)
A $40 coffee mug. Come here and let me slap you.
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I would pay $40 for it, if I could use it to hold ice cold soda at around 35 degrees F. Is this thing reversible?
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Unfortunately, it wouldn't work. In order to get what you want, you'd need to find a phase change material with a melting point of about 35 degrees F. And even then, it's unlikely to work since the beverage you'd be pouring into the mug would be already very close to 35F and as such, there wouldn't be much or any energy transfer between the beverage and the phase change material. But if you did get such a mug, you could store it in the freezer. Then the phase change material would freeze and when you used t
I don't need my coffee kept hot for hours. (Score:1)
I just need it hot enough until I finish drinking it.
And having coffee sit around at 140 degree will eventually make it taste like shit.
It's a cool design and invention, but it's one that should be applied somewhere else.
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Wait, what does the time of day have to do with thermodynamics? If the coffee and insulating material are both heated to the same temperature then there is no way it would cool things down *more* quickly than if there were no insulation at all. Especially if you rinse the mug out with some hot water first to add some heat to the system before putting the coffee in. There is no disadvantage to this system...
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Wait, what does the time of day have to do with thermodynamics?
Thermodynamics is already being blamed for the heat death of the universe, even though that hasn't happened yet. It tends to drink a lot, which can leave it hung over in the morning sometimes.
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Well, that is part of the appeal. It’s supposed to rapidly cool your coffee down to 140 degrees – the perfect tempura to drink it at – and hold it at that temperature.
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cool down your coffee.
Isn't that the selling point? To use the inner insulator to remove some of the excess heat, bringing it down to a perfect temperature? And once they're in thermal equilibrium, using further outer layers of insulation to maintain the two inner layers roughly in equilibrium?
Re:disadvantage... (Score:4, Informative)
As others have pointed you - you missed the point.
It cools to 140, and then holds near 140 for as long as possible, because 140 is the optimal coffee temperature -- or so sayeth the coffee gods.
That said, I spent a lot of time explaining to people with the "new aluminum beer bottles" that "gets cold faster!" also means "gets warm faster" for all the same reasons.
espresso? (Score:1)
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coffee vs espresso is, frankly, a matter of taste. they're completely different drinks. that said, the cafe americano is an anachronistic abomination.
and by 'american style', i'll assume you mean 'good'. american coffee culture has, by now, matched and surpassed the european in terms of quality, diversity, and most of all, snobbery, whether you want espresso or drip/french-pressed.
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Having travelled through North America, this 'summer', it is possible to get decent coffee made from an Italian espresso machine. Just look for independent local cafeterias staffed by hipsters with beards. :) Pour overs have become a post-espresso fad.
The secret is to 'have here'. Coffee-to-go is another story - if the store wraps your latte's disposal container in a cardboard sleeve to prevent hand scoldage then they're doing it wrong - 'experts' have remarked that flavour and nutrients in the milk are des
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and by 'american style', i'll assume you mean 'good'. american coffee culture has, by now, matched and surpassed the european in terms of quality, diversity, and most of all, snobbery, whether you want espresso or drip/french-pressed.
Ummm.. I take it you've never been to Europe?
Espresso diluted with hot water being called an Americano is appropriate from a continental European standpoint.
Over here, an espresso is the basis for coffee. If you want a powerful espresso they use less water, and you get a ristretto. If you want a regular cafe, you get a lungo. The serving of water is done right in the machine, and is whether the barista gives you a long or short "pull" (literally on old style machines you pull a lever to put water in a p
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Is refusing to eat spam meat snobbery then?
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Anyone can criticize anything, big deal.
And this isn't ideal for "American style" anything. It's ideal for keeping a certain quantity of hot liquid hot. Feel free to fill it with a latte, cocoa, tea, apple cider, mulled wine, or your own urine if you feel so inclined.
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Sunk cost (Score:5, Funny)
It'll never sell to me. There are sunk costs involved. I have too much engineering invested in non-linear coffee consumption as cheap mugs and paper cups lose heat. Slowly at first, with much intake of the aroma. Then cautious sips, then normal sips, then fairly heavy consumption somewhere between 1/2 and 2/3rd of the way down. It ain't broke. I'm not fixing it. It works anywhere. No need to buy an expensive mug, take it with me everywhere, wash it, and worry about losing it.
Re:Sunk cost (Score:5, Informative)
In economics and business decision-making, a sunk cost is a retrospective (past) cost that has already been incurred and cannot be recovered. Sunk costs are sometimes contrasted with prospective costs, which are future costs that may be incurred or changed if an action is taken.
In traditional microeconomic theory, only prospective (future) costs are relevant to an investment decision. Traditional economics proposes that economic actors should not let sunk costs influence their decisions. Doing so would not be rationally assessing a decision exclusively on its own merits.
Sunk costs should not affect the rational decision-maker's best choice. However, until a decision-maker irreversibly commits resources, the prospective cost is an avoidable future cost and is properly included in any decision-making processes.
Evidence from behavioral economics suggests this theory fails to predict real-world behavior. Sunk costs do, in fact, influence actors' decisions because humans are prone to loss aversion and framing effects.
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Economic theory be damned. I'm going all-in on ignoring their product.
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Um, at a personal level it's known as "doubling down" on an investment in money or time because you don't want to lose that investment (even though you already have). It's highly irrational, although as a rule of thumb (which is how we tend to operate) probably not that bad--otherwise we may be prone to giving up on endeavors too soon.
Buyer's remorse is just that, being remorseful. It doesn't have the effect of causing you to continue to make irrational economic decisions.
"Failure is not an option"... okay,
The Insulator is Spam (Score:5, Funny)
The unnamed insulator is Spam. Not sure if that makes it toxic or non-toxic, though.
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Not practical (Score:1)
Unless the "phase change" material is quite massive, making the mug heavy, there is no way that a thin layer can literally cool a piping hot drink enough to be useful, let alone act as a temperature maintainer. A well built thermal mug can also keep a hot liquid between 128 and 140F for 90 minutes. This smacks of a bit of a con. Well done, con.
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Mystery Material Is Probably Gallium (Score:1, Interesting)
My money is on Gallium:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallium
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aolRO9eteSk
It melts at 30C and is actually non toxic. Maybe he alloys something with it to bump the melting point up a little, though, basic thermo tells me an alloy will melt at a lower temp.
Anyway, there are variations on this that aren't so nicely non-toxic due to components like: tin, bismuth, antimony and lead.
http://scitoys.com/scitoys/scitoys/thermo/thermo4.html
Re:Mystery Material Is Probably Gallium (Score:5, Informative)
My money is on good old-fashioned paraffin wax, which (at least in the bulk candle variety that I bought in my hippie candle-making days) melts at exactly 140F.
Cheap and food-grade (it coats many candy items) and pretty light.
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Sorry, but a melting point of 30C is entirely too low. That's about 85F and that is the temperature that the cup of coffee would be soon brought down to until all of the gallium melted. The 140F ( 60C) temperature mentioned points towards paraffin wax which is commonly used as a phase change material for maintaining temperatures http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraffin_wax#Properties [wikipedia.org]
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Heavily salted bacon grease? Coconut oil/Copha? Any ideas for something that's going to last and melts at 60C?
As for basic thermo - look for a binary phase diagram for an alloy between two metals of different melting points. There will be some compositions where the melting point is higher than that of the one with the lower melting points. Tin-Lead is a good one to look for, you'll notice that with a lot of tin the melting point is higher than t
Writing comprehension fail (Score:2)
90 minutes is not "hours." It's not even plural; it's less than 2 hours.
Re:Writing comprehension fail (Score:4, Informative)
Any quantity over one is plural, including 1.5 hours. For that matter, while fractions between zero and one are generally written in the singular form (1/2 hour), the equivalent decimal forms are typically plural (0.5 hours). Zero is always plural. Really, the only quantity guaranteed to use the singular form is exactly one.
That said, you're correct that the quantity-free "hours" would generally imply at least two hours, regardless of the fact that 90 minutes converted to hours would be written with a plural. That's because it doesn't include potential fractions of an hour, only whole numbers.
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90 Minutes??? (Score:1)
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I'm home brewing caffeine patches. DMSO and Mountain Dew.
Beeswax? (Score:3)
My guess is the mystery insulator material is beeswax. At least, the temperatures are about right, it's non-toxic, and doesn't oxidize AFAIK.
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You beat me to it! Wax meets all of the criteria.
Pfft... (Score:4, Funny)
What a piker.
Just line your coffee mug with plutonium. That'll keep it warm.
Cool... or hot? (Score:2)
I just set my ceramic mug on top of my Apple Airport, that seems to keep it warm.
No one taking coffee seriously should buy this... (Score:3)
This is precisely one thing that irks me about living in the US. People get the coffee culture completely wrong, they even say things like "let's grab a coffee". In civilized countries, you never *walk* around with a coffee. You sit down, spend 10 focused minutes on an espresso and maybe conversation and then go on doing things with both hands. Walking around holding some significant fraction of gallon of coffee is just pointless - you get gorilla arm, you never enjoy coffee and you never enjoy a real break.
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there are times when I simply don't have the time to sit down and chat for a while
I really don't understand how one could interpret that to mean that I *never* have time to sit and enjoy a cup of coffee. Or whatever beverage I like. There are plenty of times at work where I'll take 10-20 minutes and enjoy a cup of green tea while just relaxing. But occasionally, I may have a meeting that I have to go, immediately following an hour or two of trying to work through some bugs in code. In that three hour block, I would like some coffee, but there aren't any breaks possible.
Maybe you guys
For coffee maybe not (Score:1)
Techs guide to a decent cup of coffee (Score:2)
Seems relevant.
http://www.tidbitsfortechs.com/2013/10/a-techs-guide-to-a-decent-cup-of-coffee/ [tidbitsfortechs.com]
Filthy Casuals (Score:2)
Hell, part of the social ritual is the host refilling the beverage, a demonstration of their ability to provide an abundance to a guest.
First Don't Tip Over (Score:2)
I'll never understand the fascination with beverage container designs that encourage spilling. Ever since getting a Highwave Hotjo [amazon.com] several years ago, I've been able to keep coffee (or masala tea more often these days) next to my electronics projects all day. Its shape resists spilling and it even has a nonskid mat on the bottom. I've had mine for, gosh, probably six or seven years and it's still as good as new.
Temperature stability seems likle a great idea, but this vessel design only seems well-suited f
Not the perfect mug: this is.... (Score:2)
This is.
From Cliff Stoll's Acme Klein Bottles
mark "wish it wasn't quite that expensive...."
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Right, forgot slashdot edits URLs... Notice spaces before www....
http:/ [http] /www.kleinbottle.com/index.htm
and the mug, er, "Klein Stein"
http:/// [http] www.kleinbottle.com/drinking_mug_klein_bottle.htm
It's called WAX (Score:1)