Manufacturing Update and Explainer Video

Engineering Update

At this point we are working just among the Berkeley team of engineers to perform root cause analysis. On the team is Beni as our lead who is a current engineering graduate student at UC Berkeley – I can't emphasize enough how talented he is so I thought I'd show you. Below is an explainer video he made detailing the kettle theory. A robust understanding of the nuances of function have allowed us to create more precise hypotheses to test. We've got another student, Ben, who has a strong passion for mechanical engineering and greatly supports with testing and creating our prototype testing jig (with slo-mo camera).

With Beni's analysis we've defined the engine firing cycle into 13 stages (shown in video). We just ran a bunch of tests on return units to find what stages the kettle stops at, compare/contrast to performance in the test jig vs in kettle (heat + steam environment).

At various pressures the kettle stops or starts to whistle. We are now going to put a pressure gauge on the kettle, perhaps put a plexiglass window on the metal kettle body to see into the mechanism and film. Then we’re going to do the hard work of swapping part by part if we don’t reveal pressure changes to improve reliability of play. Another approach will be to test a larger pool of units 30+ to try to find common failures.

This is a learning journey and collecting data is tedious in this high temperature environment. However, I’m confident we’ll learn more quickly with parts and people all in the same place here in the SF Bay Area. Thank you for your support and please – watch the video to see what we are dealing with here – this kettle is incredibly complex and wondrous!