FinaMill Smart Kitchen Mill by Alex Liu is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2020 Platinum A' Design Award in Bakeware, Tableware, Drinkware and Cookware Design Competition Category.
PlatinumKitchenware· 2020
FinaMill Smart Kitchen Mill
by Alex Liu
Client: Elemex Limited
Platinum A' Design Award Winner in Kitchenware Category
Verified Award Winner
Verify Award Status for #94166The Design
About FinaMill Smart Kitchen Mill
FinaMill is a powerful kitchen mill with interchangeable and refillable spice pods. FinaMill is the easy way to elevate cooking with the bold flavor of freshly ground spices. Just fill the reusable pods with dried spices or herbs, snap a pod in place, and grind the exact amount of spice you need with the push of a button. Swap out spice pods with just a few clicks and keep cooking. It’s the one grinder for all your spices.
The Recognition
About the Platinum A' Design Award
FinaMill Smart Kitchen Mill is a Platinum A' Design Award winner, an extremely prestigious recognition granted to truly exceptional, elegant, and magnificent designs. Platinum winners are marvels of creation, testaments to the limits of intellectual creativity, and demonstrate the unmatched professionalism and genius of their designers. These designs are expected to be the most renowned works that define the aesthetics of an era, contribute to the well-being of society, and push the boundaries of art, science, design, and technology. FinaMill Smart Kitchen Mill exhibits a transcendent level of excellence and unequivocally makes the world a better place with its advantageous and worthwhile characteristics. FinaMill Smart Kitchen Mill is a Platinum A' Design Award-winning work that triggers desires, inspires, excites, delights, and sparks great joy.
Where to Get It
Smart Kitchen Mills with Interchangeable Pods
We revolutionize kitchen grinding with our innovative mills featuring interchangeable pods. Experience the bold flavor of freshly ground spices without cross-contamination. Our award-winning design allows single-handed pod swapping, making it easy to grind multiple spices with one powerful, efficient mill.
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Design Interview
What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?
Years ago, I wanted to correct the flaws of an imperfect spice grinder, flaws so deep they had become the norm, and then build from the ground up a brand new grinder nobody had ever seen. A defense against the cross-contamination of flavors. A quicker, more efficient way of changing spices. Single-handed operation. These features were unheard of within the spice grinding industry. The key to our invention came one day when I was working my power tool, and I knew my answer is: interchangeable pod.
What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?
Easy to use and easy to change spices, interchangeable pod has to be refillable.
What are your future plans for this award winning design?
Our goal is to distribute this product to every market that uses dry spices and herbs.
Behind the Design
Press Kit
Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.
- Unique Properties
- FinaMill is a powerful kitchen mill with interchangeable and refillable spice pods. FinaMill is the easy way to elevate your cooking with the bold flavor of freshly ground spices. Just fill the reusable pods with dried spices or herbs, snap a pod in place, and grind the exact amount of spice you need with the push of a button. Switching to another spice is easy, press FinaMill down to release the pod, and press down again to engage with another pod. It is the one grinder for all your spices.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- FinaMill is 85x85x220mm, power by 3 AA batteries or recharge by mini USB. Our goal is to create an efficient electric mill so the users can grind many pods of spice with just a set of fresh batteries. For example, 3 AA batteries our FinaMill grinds over 1 Kg of Salt. Reliability is another area of our concerns, FinaMill has circuitry to protect the motor and gearbox, so it provides years of reliable service. Our quick release mechanism can engage and disengage the pods over 250,000 times.m
- Tags
- Kitchen, cooking, food, mill, grinder, pod, spice, spice mill, spice grinder
- Production Technology
- Electric mills existed for years but failed to extend the benefits beyond milling pepper and salt. The reason is that most come with a tiny cup that is difficult to fill and, there is no way to overcome the cross contamination problem. Our interchangeable pod solves that problem, one spice one pod. Once we extend the usefulness of FinaMill beyond pepper and salt, we developed a quick release mechanism so a user can swap spice pod single handedly, while leaving the other hand to cook.
- Design Challenge
- The biggest challenge was finding a way to make the two rotating pieces work together in harmony. The mill has to turn the pod, and the pod must also be secured firmly into the mill. The mechanical energy must transfer well in order to grind hard materials.
- Research
- Our focuses were in reliability, efficiency and functionalities. Robotic arms were used to determine the life expectancy of the button and quick release. We analyze sound wave during operation to find abnormally in our motors and gearboxes. We measure current loading and heat spots to identify inefficiency. We have developed 6 different pods to find 6 different characteristics of spice.
- Inspiration
- Years ago, I wanted to correct the flaws of an imperfect spice mill, flaws so deep they had become the norm, and then build from the ground up a brand new mill nobody had ever seen. A defense against the cross-contamination of flavors. A quicker, more efficient way of changing spices. Single-handed operation. These features were unheard of within the spice grinding industry. The key to our invention came one day when I was working my power tool, and I knew my answer is: interchangeable pod.
- Project Duration
- The project started over 10 years ago as an idea, and was tinkered with off and on until March 2019. At that time, full dedication was put into the product as a few technical hurtles were finally surmounted.
- Operation Flow
- Fill a FinaPods with your favorite spices, bring the FinaMill above the pod and press down to click it into position. Press the button and the electric motor grinds your spices. Press the pod down against your surface again to release. Then repeat the process for the next pod: select click grind savor.
This is a big improvement over traditional electric mills as they must be dedicated to one spice alone. If it is filled with pepper, it is a forever pepper mill. FinaMill and FinaPods allow you to have any number of spice pods to use with just one mill. - Patents
- Patent no. PTC/CN2019/107332
- Team Members
- Alex Liu
Steven Liu
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