HEICO
Enjoy hot drinks at the right temperature.
Project Name
Heico
Duration
August - November 2018
Team
Germaine Tan, Danique Drost
The Brief
Understand the process of designing a product to integrate with downstream engineering and manufacturing process; to lower development cost and reduce time to reach market. Design with accommodating key internal components in mind.
Tackling the Brief
A thermos is meant to maintain the temperature of its contents, but often it does its job so well we end up scalding ourselves on the first few sips. So we wondered, how might we eliminate the ambiguity of “the right temperature” for a better drinking experience? We found that most people leave the bottle cap open for the drink to cool. And, they usually have to guess whether the temperature is right by either testing with their lips or tongue. This process is unpleasant, inefficient and troublesome. So we wondered, how might we eliminate the ambiguity of “the right temperature” for a better drinking experience?
We explored with the different ways to cool drinks using familiar gestures such as shaking, stirring, spinning and pouring. We also looked into the science behind different cooling methods and focused on cooling through exposure to the environment. In the end, we combined the gesture of pouring and heat conduction of the material as our main cooling mechanism. We did some form explorations and considered other aspects, like add-ons, that will enhance the drinking experience.
Heico works by cooling a portion of your drink in advance. The cooled portion mixes with the piping hot liquid when you tilt the bottle, ensuring your drink is always hot but not to the point of scalding. Using the mechanism of a one-way valve, simply tilt the bottle and the hot drink from the flask will flow into the cooling chamber.
The cooling chamber is intentionally made transparent to increase the rate of heat loss. A red strip will appear when the temperature is >52°C and is deemed unsuitable to drink. With this visual indicator, users can tell instantly when it is safe to drink, thus eliminating the need to test before drinking.
