There’s nothing quite like a freshly brewed cup of coffee to start the morning off right. I’d imagine it’s even better when the coffee beans are roasted right there at home. The GE-backed Maker community of FirstBuild has been tasked to make this at-home coffee roasting possible from Autodesk Fusion 360 straight to the kitchen counter in their latest 3D design competition, held in collaboration by FirstBuild, Autodesk, and coffee retailer Sweet Maria’s. The Louisville-based FirstBuild challenged their community to design a coffee roasting system that was compatible with a home oven, and so a number of makers took to the multi-faceted Autodesk software to try and fabricate and functional and fashionable home coffee roasting device.
“Autodesk Fusion 360 was created for exactly the type of design disruption that this challenge celebrates,” said Mike Geyer, Autodesk director of Evangelism & Emerging Technology. “It’s a tool that’s well-suited to the new ways of making products—empowering every stage of the design process from concept to fabrication.”
The winner of the design competition was Ottawa-based mechanical engineer Stephane Arthur Kiss, who designed the sleekly modern and contest-winning City Roaster. The City Roaster is designed to sit comfortably in a home oven, equipped with two risen handles to remove once the coffee beans are roasted and ready to brew. Behind Kiss, in second place, was the Cool Beans Coffee Bean Roaster, a solar panel-like roasting device designed by two engineers from GE Appliances named Hunter Stephenson and Steven Morse. Placing in third was the Float + VacuBean, a roaster created by Rochester-based industrial designer Chia-Chen Lee, which, to me, sort of resembles a raffle drum (those hamster wheel-like devices that spin lottery balls).
“The coffee roasting challenge illustrates the power of the maker community,” said FirstBuild Director Venkat Venkatakrishnan. “It also shows how FirstBuild has created a physical and online community of makers who innovate, motivate and build on each other’s ideas to create the kinds of products that consumers want.”
The ultimate challenge for all of the contestants during the design process was ensuring maximum airflow to the coffee beans, while also making sure the the beans could be safely and easily removed post-roasting. Though it’s unclear exactly which contestant won what prize, FirstBuild provided over $15,000 in various prizes including a 3D printer, a desktop CNC mill, Fusion 360 software, and even some fresh coffee beans provided by competition sponsor Sweet Maria’s. With impressive results, the FirstBuild Challenge seems to have succeeded in their goal, to bring freshly roasted coffee to the homes of coffee lovers around the world. And, thanks to the FirstBuild community, there may soon be an even better way to wake up than with Folgers in your cup.
