Similar Products: Blender

I’m looking for other products that might be similar, mechanically, to how a blender carafe fits into the base.

The specific task is transfer of power (AC electrical) from the base into the carafe. Anyone that works or designs products for behind a bar making drinks, maybe in a commercial kitchen. Could even be in a medical environment. Somewhere where gunk can get into the mechanical connection and gum it up if it isn’t done right.

Concepts I’ve already considered are like induction charged toothbrushes (but that would be too low of a current).

This is what I’m thinking:

Again…looking for mechanically similar parts where a carafe, or main body is placed into a base in a commercial setting (e.g. needs to be more rugged than consumer).

Are you mostly worried about how to make the electrical connection? Pogo pins are very reliable even in gunky situations. We used them for all the charging connections on our old rugged devices. Put the male end facing up (So liquid can drain down into a pocket below) and the other surface can be flat so it’s easy to wipe clean.

Blade connectors are also useful in that they self wipe, but they’ll be harder to clean around and will collect visible gunk even if it doesn’t impact the electrical contact.

As long as the mechanical base can be keyed so it can only go in one way.

Yes, this is effectively the problem our client is trying to solve, so I’m looking for examples of real world commercial/rugged products that show what you’re saying. The general thinking of the team at the moment is that pogo pins will gunk up and be ineffective. So I would love to see examples where they’re used in sloppy situations.

Rotating/oscillating electric toothbrush.

Don’t have any of our old research photos handy but those cradles got used anywhere from meat processing plants to hospitals so they would see liquid etc pretty frequently.

Another consideration is can the connector be “hidden” behind some kind of sealing door that can spring open when connected and pop closed when you pull the top out. That would prevent errant margarita from making direct contact with the pogos - liquid could drip down the sides of a chamber and out of the unit.

If they are being difficult about the movement of a pogo consider the blade connector. It requires better mechanical alignment which could be problematic but the connectors are self wiping by nature so even if there was goo the sharp edge would clean a clear contact.

How much voltage do you need to move? That will also play into how rugged it can be. If you need to send 110V for some giant heating coil vs 5v for some LED’s the solution might look different.

I have an electric kettle that has a base that transfers electricity to the kettle wirelessly with this centralized little hub. The base and the bottom of the kettle remains cool. All of the heating elements are in the kettle. It is a Breville.

It’s fairly high voltage. Think more along the lines of the heating coil.

I was thinking about heading out to look at kettles like that one. Thanks for the specific brand. That does help narrow it.

Are you looking to transfer power or rotation? If rotation – search magnetic couplings. It’s possible to transfer rotational power without contact.

Electric kettles are basically just oversized barrel connectors with two wipe connectors and a spring loaded dust cover to avoid you from zapping yourself. They also wipe themselves in the act of inserting it, but the problem you’d face here is if you’re in a messy environment (hot water is pretty clean) then theres a chance gunk could pool inside the barrel on the base, so you’d need to think through drainage or sealing as a secondary function.

Those are just formed spring contacts, in the kettle so very basic, they can suffer fatigue over time though (think of your worn out 3.5mm headset jack) where if they’re being used constantly they’ll loosen over time and may wind up losing contact. Pogos are usually rated for a million cycles but since you’re talking about a high current application that might require some more investigation depending on what the product use case calls for.

Awesome…great feedback! Thanks!

Power. Unfortunately, like the kettles shown here, it is exposed to more than just water.

yup, that is the same connector my kettle has.