Hello All,
I sincerely apologies for the lack of communication. Many struggles over the past month but progress is still being made! As always, there’s good news, bad news, and lessons learned. I’ll start by highlighting the 3 main issues we’ve been running into.
We’ve been noticing some installation challenges and sealing issues for the heating elements that we use. The coil has a positive and negative side for wiring each of which seals with a rubber o-ring. It’s difficult to control the parallelism between these two planes which means that in many cases, one o-ring gets compressed more than the other which leads to inconsistent sealing. I designed a custom teflon gasket which will allow for compression differences between the two sides without impacting sealing. We should have these parts in by the end of the month.
The second issue has been the fill tube that leads from the boiler up to the grouphead. The manufacturer did no make the bends as tight as needed which has led to installation challenges for the tubes that are out of spec. We’re able to “cherry pick” the good tubes and build with those for now. I’ve designed and sent a jig for the manufacturer to 3D print and validate all bends for another batch of tube. We should also have these by the end of the month which will significantly reduce the time it takes for the final stage of assembly where the grouphead mounts onto the top plate.
The third issue comes from CE compliance. We passed the EMC/EMI portion of compliance testing with the caveat that we add a mains filter to our IEC inlet (where the plug goes into the machine). This means that we’ve had to source a new IEC socket that mounts into the back cover. The good thing is that this is one of the final steps of installation but the bad news is that the IEC sockets that have built in filters require an opening that is a few millimeters larger than our original design.
The quickest way to accomplish that is through laser cutting or waterjetting the back panels to enlarge the cutout. I just got the first quote for that work this morning and expect another quote by the afternoon both from local shops. Unfortunately all shops are booked 2 weeks out but the actual work should only take a week which means these would be completed early May. With it being the last step in the assembly process we can still continue to build and test machines until we receive these. I have already sourced the filters and will get those ordered this week to have that inventory in stock by the time the covers are complete.
The lab is writing up compliance documentation now which technically allows us to start shipping in the US/ Canada. Phase 2 of the testing is general safety. With the tried and true design of levers I’m hoping for no snags in this portion of the test as long as we have all the correct warning labels in the necessary locations.
I will not give any specific dates that we will start shipping by since that clearly didn’t work well for me in the past but new machines are being build up each week from the good parts that we have on had and the assembly process will only before more efficient when we receive the new parts at the end of the month. We’re currently looking at early May to have the laser cut panels back in hand and back on the machine so one that happens we’ll have another update with details on product shipping out soon after!
Springs. When testing over the past few months I was finding that the 8 bar spring was really only producing about 7 bar pressure. When looking back into my calculations I realized that I had actually decided to use a 7.75 bar spring which had significantly increased lifecycles but due to typical losses in a mechanical system was only producing 7.25 bar. I went back to my calculations and working with the spring manufacturer to have some sample 8.5 bar springs made with an expected lifespan of over 100,000 cycles.
I didn’t feel comfortable selling an 8 bar spring and delivering a 7 bar spring so I ordered inventory of the new design which came in last week. As a gift for the patience, everyone in this first batch of machines will receive the 7 bar spring that I had originally ordered.
Packaging design is going well but also had some delays. We switched to a molded pulp insert design earlier this year which more structurally sound and made packaging all the components much simpler. Those samples came in a few weeks back and fit great. Those pieces are now in production and should receive them early May.
SCA Expo in Portland this week! William and I will be there with black, white, and stainless production machines on display at our Booth 1057! Now that we’re in production, we’ve entered the Argos into the design competition for Best New Consumer Preparation and Serving Equipment (Electrical) which you’ll be able to see on display. We will have the new Zerno Z1 on display at our booth and will be pulling shots at 11am and 2pm each day of the event. We will only pull ~10 shots each session since our small lever isn’t optimal for continuous commercial use. If you’re interested in checking out the Argos or the Zerno in use then swing by the booth to try out some coffee.
If anyone is still looking for a pass to the expo we have a few free 2 day passes left to give out so send an email and we’ll make that happen!
Argos assembly line
First few podercoated machines
All wired up
Molded Pulp packaging insert sample fitment.
Sincerely,
Ross Ainsworth