The setting for our next get together of the Project X members was the grand old Great Northern Hotel in Newcastle's CBD

This iconic venue, with its palatial surrounds, was once the “in” place to meet for journalists from the close by Newcastle Herald offices and the business elite of the area. The night we chose was also a weekly get together for the local Jazz and Swing bands. It was quite a cool atmosphere for the discussion on what the world’s most unique espresso machine would look like and how it would perform.

We had all agreed at this point that a machine concept has to break all barriers and be nothing like traditional equipment. One of the main points we all decided on was to try to move away from the traditional box design that most machines resemble in order to hide the moving bits away from the bench top. This concept has already been experimented with, but not yet commercialised. Getting it from concept planning to a working model will be the challenge.
We looked at all facets of the machine design on the night, from PLC control for temperature, with feedback control from remote heating extremities for perfect temperate control, now vital to all high end espresso equipment. The group also looked at options for the locking in of group handles, with some new concepts that would do away with bad ergonomic practices now experienced by most baristas. Repetitive strain injury is becoming very common among baristas in very busy espresso bars, where they are doing above 50 kilos a week. Luke Shilling has worked in ridiculously busy espresso bars and is already showing signs of hand and wrist damage from twisting in group handles. The engineers in the group were keen on self aligning electromagnets, and the concept was well out there as a space age solution. These concepts are common in the petrochemical industry.

John Winter, our mechanical engineer, agreed the next step of the project was to start pulling down some traditional espresso equipment and modifying the parts to suit the new design concept. Greg Gibbs from Boema had a big range of project equipment and parts that he put forward to John to start with in his Newcastle workshop.

The next meeting was agreed to be at the Boema factory in Wetherill Park, so we could all go through the evolution of espresso equipment in Australia. Boema, being in the business for over 50 years, had a good collection of historic equipment we could dissect in our plans, taking in the good design points.

Nick Ciavarella from Sprocket Roasters added that he would like to see an outcome of the project be tested in a busy espresso bar before going to market.

With his experience in his busy espresso bar, he would be able to get the ergonomics right and test the machine over different peaks in workload. This led the conversation back to temperature control and the way water fl owed through heat exchangers and the ancient method of pumping water using centrifugal pumps that have a lag in start up. Hydraulics is a bit of a passion for John Winter, and he had some pretty novel concepts hitting the table in regards to instant and constant pressure delivery with this style of system.

I don’t believe the next meeting will have the cool vibes of the 1920s Jazz trumpets in the background, but it will be equally interesting being involving with all of the gang at the Boema factory. It will be fun to see the evolution of espresso in our market from this iconic Australian business.

By Sean Edwards