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Fika - Portable Espresso Machine

by Joshua Sykes

Hero render with environmental context.
Hero render with environmental context.
Secondary render.
Secondary render.
Material selection (render): Machined stainless steel, aluminium with a bead-blasted finish, laser-etched logo, translucent Tritan copolyester, and rubber for gaskets.
Material selection (render): Machined stainless steel, aluminium with a bead-blasted finish, laser-etched logo, translucent Tritan copolyester, and rubber for gaskets.
Exploded view.
Exploded view.

Project Description

Fika is a portable, manually powered espresso machine focused on producing café-quality coffee on the go. It can grind beans fresh, be directly heated to eliminate the need for separate saucepans or kettles, and can texture milk. Its modular design allows it to be configured to suit the style of coffee you drink, by removing the grinder and/or milk-texturing wand.

Designed for the outdoors — camping or short hiking trips — it is manually powered and designed to reach pressures of 9 bar (the ideal extraction pressure for espresso). It integrates an espresso machine, grinder, WDT tool, cup, and milk-texturing wand into one compact, durable product, with space to store two doses' worth of beans in the chamber to save further space.

Most of the prototyping was done with FDM prints to fine-tune tolerances and details, with the final prototype SLM printed in stainless steel and SLA resin for the plastic components.

Prototyping: 4 main 3D-printed models (some with variations) were used to refine the design before the final stainless-steel prototype.
Prototyping: 4 main 3D-printed models (some with variations) were used to refine the design before the final stainless-steel prototype.
Final model: The model is SLM-printed stainless steel and SLA-printed UTR resin. The model is semi-functional and can roughly grind beans and offer low-pressure extraction. Studio shot of portafilter attached to grinder (left); outdoor context with coffee (right).
Final model: The model is SLM-printed stainless steel and SLA-printed UTR resin. The model is semi-functional and can roughly grind beans and offer low-pressure extraction. Studio shot of portafilter attached to grinder (left); outdoor context with coffee (right).

Bio

I'm a passionate and creative industrial designer with a Bachelor's degree in Product Design from the University of Technology Sydney. Focused on creative problem-solving, mechanically oriented product engineering, practical fabrication skills, and user interaction. I love to get hands-on in prototyping and am always keen to learn new skills.

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