The research and development of new products in the sector of professional appliances goes hand in hand with the evolution of consumptions and of productive and sales requirements. The result are “small size” machines with “big” performances.
Featuring “smaller” sizes and great user-friendliness that, according to the target, makes them accessible for less experienced people, too. However, without losing high performances and functions, on the contrary. The professional appliance world is facing, with research and product innovation instruments, the demand rising on the market for performing machines usable with different modalities and in contexts differing from standard ones. Where the size compactness and reduction make them accessible in terms of management, cost control and simple installation in narrow working spaces, too. Inner components are in the forefront, involved in the design process according to the new concept and called to grant the same performances assured by the standard appliances of the range. Two the examples we have analysed, coming from the world of coffee machines and professional refrigeration.
Constant quality without wastes
The professional coffee machine pursues in the small-size appliance a new opportunity of industrial development, concerning both the product innovation and the capability of focusing the attention on the rising targets in the consumer world. As demonstrated by Rancilio Group, headquarters at Villastanza di Parabiago (MI), producer of professional coffee machines with high technology and design contents recently become part of Ali Group. In addition to conventional and super-automated machines, and to the instantaneous and electronic coffee grinders-dosers that have always characterized its offer in the Professional sector, the professional system for capsules and pods has made its début in the Rancilio Baby 9 range, with fast installation and use, constant and high-quality cup product and – especially – high size compactness. Target of the Group is developing the portioned segment in the Ho.Re.Ca. field, integrating user friendliness, also for unexperienced personnel, high use flexibility and technological equipment in line with the professional Rancilio range. The starting point for the definition of the concept first and of the product afterwards, is the will of granting the constant cup product without wastes, also in view of a high use flexibility. “The market of single-portioned coffee outlines a competitive scenario in strong evolution– explains Carlo Carbonini, Head of R&D of Rancilio Group -. A sector that is becoming increasingly popular also in the professional channel due to the use practicality, the absence of wastes, the variety of tastes and drinks, quality of the product in cup, which a product like Baby 9 can supply to customers”. A phenomenon that is not an evolution but a revolution meeting consumers’ needs. “Enabling everyone (experienced and not) to prepare a good coffee is the turning point. In simple, clean and effective manner and taking up a minimum space. At the office, in restaurants, in company canteens, in other words in all those places where the delivered quantities would have never justified or allowed the use of professional appliances. Smashed consumptions, lack of training of the new sector workers, saving in the purchase and management costs, need of a high-quality offer for the world featuring low sales are all reasons that have led us to the development of Baby 9: the answer by Rancilio to the single portion in pod or capsule for the micro-Ho.Re.Ca. channel. Sophisticated aesthetics, detail care and exclusive design are in perfect family feeling with the top products of the conventional range by Rancilio. The coffee machine assures great use practicality since it needs much shorter heating times (less than 15 minutes). During the working day each espresso, the first as well as the last one, will be always excellent with Baby 9”. Compared to a “standard” product in the same category, proposing a “small size” appliances required a mini-revolution of the design to the company.
“The necessary operation of size reduction of a part of inner components in order to compact the machines sizes, reducing costs and proportioning it to the foreseen mission was carried out paying great attention to performance and reliability aspects – adds Carbonini -. Baby 9 grants great reliability and high performances to users. Handles for water and steam utilities, keyboard with industrial design, ergonomic professional filter holders and highly functional cup-holder grids represent in short the characteristics of Baby 9 recalling the class of professional coffee machines. Baby 9 is equipped with internal 4-litre tank that allows the barman a comfortable water loading with a simple access from the top part of the machine. Besides, a light signal warns the user about the need to executing the relative refill. The two independent dispensing groups with separate switching on and the steam heater manageable independently allow modulating the energy consumption according to customers’ real needs in the various day times: the barman will freely decide whether to keep only one of the two dispensing groups in operation in the hours with less customer turnout”. The system composed by professional machine-portioned coffee, which allows even unexperienced people or those consuming few coffees during the day to obtain an excellent result in cup, is – reminds Carbonini – a pair recently identified and required an innovative sequence of stages, from the design to the prototype and the finished product. The research and development team of Rancilio Group “has initially carried out a thorough analysis of market and technical feasibility, involving the primary technical and commercial partners. In this way, they have determined the reference product targets and technical requisites. Then they assessed on the prototype the achievable technical performance in comparison with the expected one and they designed the final product architecture and the range programme. Afterwards they proceeded to the styling definition phase and, through various simulation and prototyping steps, they achieved the definitive design”. The activities of industrialization, organization of the supply chain and process validation were carried out by the research and development team in agreement with all business divisions: “For the efficiency of a design of this kind – further specifies Carlo Carbonini – it was essential the capability of sharing and coordinating all the available competences and skills in the company. After the validation phase of manufacturing processes and product field tests, the latter performed in collaboration with customers, results were further analysed and, since there was correspondence between them and the targets established at the beginning, the productive start was deliberated”.
Smaller overall dimensions, more capacity
Afinox, company headquartered at Marsango (PD), since 1980 has been designing, producing and marketing equipment for the preparation, conservation, refrigeration and showcasing of foods for the professional catering sector. The product range goes from freezer cabinets to blast chillers, from display units to food islands, from chilled counters to pizza counters. The target, in this case, concerns the supply of refrigeration technologies to small-size commercial activities and small realities in the food and retail sector. Symbol of this industrial research course is the freezer cabinet Mekano Green 400. This product, underlines Giulia Figari (Marketing Department di Afinox), was born from the need of offering a freezer cabinet specifically dedicated to the fish conservation in commercial activities with small productive capacities but anyway as suitable for the integration into small-size environments and laboratories needing the availability of a cabinet/display unit for the conservation of vegetables, pizza dough or a wine display unit. In this case, we are speaking of a static cabinet, delicate in the fish conservation and equipped with an air conveyor system on the back for the maintenance of the homogeneous temperature.
Mekano Green 400 is, in Afinox’s programmes, not only a stylistic but also a conceptual upgrading of the conventional static cabinet for the fish conservation. “Besides the air conveyor on the back, compared to the model already available in the catalogue, we have increased the capacity while keeping small sizes unchanged – further explains Figari -. The cabinet allows introducing two additional small tanks compared to the predecessor, attaining the 30% increment of the loading capacity”. Focus on sustainability. “The Mekano Green line is composed by a broad range of specific products for gastronomy, confectionery and ice-cream making characterized by several innovative functions for the energy saving, the environment protection and the cost monitoring, and also Mekano Green 400 complies with the same green philosophy thanks to the ecologic blowing agent and the version with eco-friendly R290 gas”. The Afinox standard of product devising and implementation has provided the imprinting to the processing of Mekano Green 400, cared by the in-house research and development department. The target, summarizes Giulia Figari, “was renovating deeply the concept of a specific product for the fish conservation, maintaining the guidelines but offering something more: an easily customizable machine for numerous other uses and needs. The priority was identified in the maintenance of precise and small sizes, easily adaptable to environments and laboratories with often narrow spaces. The attention always paid to the international panorama and to a more and more competitive market imposes and leads us towards an eco-sustainable research, therefore aimed at the creation of products not only with high performances but also environmentally friendly”.
