Updates on P3000 - the Production Roaster
We're thrilled to bring you the latest news on the P3000, our next leap in coffee roasting technology.
We're thrilled to bring you the latest news on the P3000, our next leap in coffee roasting technology.
We know that many of you have been waiting for an update on the development of our P3000, and we appreciate your patience. It’s been a year of constant improvements, and today, we are happy to share our latest update, including an estimated timeline for production start, shipments, and scaling of production.
About the P3000
The P3000 is a 3kg user-friendly coffee roaster designed for simplicity and precision. It offers full automation, easy maintenance, and consistent results. It’s a robust coffee roaster, making it ideal for demanding production environments — and easy to learn for new coffee roasters.
The P3000 is a reliable tool for coffee roasting, equipped with advanced sensors to ensure predictable roasting results. Its design focuses on even heat distribution for unparalleled consistency between batches. You won’t be able to taste the difference between two batches of the same coffee roasted with the same profile on the P3000.
Today’s Status
Our team has been constantly working on the P3000 prototype, improving and developing its features. The most significant change since our last update in early 2023 has been the refinement of the P3000’s feature set, as detailed below. It’s all the small things combined that make a great user experience.
As you all know, quality is our biggest priority, and we're dedicating as much time as needed to ensure that the P3000 meets our high standards. Please note that this timeline is an estimate, and changes may occur.
Estimated timeline:
Pilot phase from April 2024
In the pilot phase, a few selected partners will test the P3000 in their own roasteries.Production start September 2024
We are planning on starting production of the P3000 in the autumn. If everything goes as planned, the first units will be shipped out by late autumn of 2024.
Depending on certifications, the P3000 will be shipped to some regions at a later date. More information about this will follow.Scaling of production during 2025
All of our roasters are being produced in Oslo, Norway, and we will begin scaling up our production during 2025.
UPDATED TECHNICAL INFORMATION
Power requirements
We will offer the machine in two versions:
single-phase 230v 32A (7.1kW)
three-phase 400v 16A (9.3kW)
The main difference between them is the heating elements rating and how the machine is wired/configured. It’s possible to re-configure the machine between the two versions.
With the highest-rated version, a full batch size can reach the first crack in 5 minutes.
UPDATES ON THE ADD-ON UNITS
Electric afterburner
We have a functional prototype of the smoke reduction system, and a more refined version is in development. As the capacity of our machine has increased, the power consumption of our afterburner has increased. Our goal is to be able to effectively reduce visible smoke and odor from the roasting process with the power accessible from a single 16A, 230V socket. Easy access for service and maintenance is a high priority as always.
Adjustments to the feeding unit
As promised in our last update on the P3000, there will be a custom feeding unit for the machine that can store up to 100 kg of green coffee and automatically vacuum feed it to the roaster based on your profile weight. The prototype unit is working, and we have a new, improved design ready for pre-production in the coming months.
SENSOR UPDATE
The P3000 collects a lot of data during roasting, and we are constantly looking for ways to improve. For coffee roasting, temperature is still the most fundamental parameter to have control over. It’s no secret that we have added a lot of sensors to the P3000.
Bean temperature
There are two different types of BT sensors. One is super-fast and accurate. The other is stable over time and super accurate. Combining these two sensors, we get the most accurate BT reading possible. We are adding one of each sensor to each side of our symmetrical roasting chamber and giving the user the average of all four sensors.
To achieve the accuracy we are looking for we are developing a calibration chamber to calibrate each bean temperature sensor in house.
Drum temperature
An average of three sensors measures the surface temperature of the roasting chamber drum, located at optimal points along the drum and combining two different types of sensor for the highest accuracy and stability over time.
We can see that the drum temperature stabilizes after an appropriate heat-up or a few batches of coffee. It then follows the coffee roasting process cycle without overheating throughout the day.
Inlet temperature
Having control of the heat going into the roasting chamber is critical for a precision tool like P3000. For an even heat distribution, we are using three heating elements in a row. These are located outside the roasting
chamber, with a pre-mixing chamber for the cold incoming air and a pre-mixing chamber for the heated air going into the roasting chamber (through holes in the drum wall). To control the temperature precisely, each heating element has two custom sensors arranged in opposite locations. This grid of six sensors and an optimised PID ensures the inlet temperature follows your profile exactly.
First crack
First Crack detection in the P3000 proved a challenge as the roasting chamber has a positive pressure inside. We have overcome this problem, and are fine-tuning the algorithm to work across batch sizes and coffees. Development and deployment of more advanced models has been made possible by our integration of OTA (over the air) updates for the first crack module.
Camera
The P3000 integrates a bean camera which displays real-time images of the beans in the drum, replacing a traditional trier. In order to achieve maximum consistency across batches it is essential to remove the destabilising effect of triers on the roasting system. Camera integration is the basis for a suite of future tools to aid decision making, and eventually influence the control system. Colour tracking, the first feature which will be released, gives an indication of the rate of colour change indicative of the velocity of the roast.
As we gear up for the pilot phase and begin planning for production, we remain focused on quality and innovation. Stay tuned for more developments, and thank you for joining us on this journey.
Remember to sign up for our waiting list if you are interested in our P3000 roasting machine!
Updates on P3000 - the hybrid production roaster
Time flies, and it's time for an update on the P3000 - the production hybrid roaster. Yes, you read correctly, the P2000 has now become P3000 because of its upgraded capacity. Our development team is currently working, roasting, and testing on Prototype #6 in the line.
Time flies, and it's time for an update on the P3000 - the production hybrid roaster. Yes, you read correctly, the P2000 has now become P3000 because of its upgraded capacity. Our development team is currently working, roasting, and testing on Prototype #6 in the line (may mention that this version has been heavily retrofitted during the past year).
Getting feedback and thoughts from you, our customers are so important to us when we are developing P3000. Our conversations with Scott Rao have contributed to installing an Inlet temperature sensor and Between Batch Protocol on our sample roaster.
…I’m even more excited for their next, larger machine that collects data from (I believe) 18 sensors as well as a color-reading camera. Exciting times!
- Scott Rao
IT’S GETTING BIGGER
The most important update is that we have now made it possible to roast up to 3kg of coffee. On our current prototype, we use a maximum of 6kW and we have increased this to 6,6 kW on the next version so that you have plenty of power to roast 3kg as fast as you like. As always, we are focusing on quality above cost. The P3000 is built as a very solid construction, with easy access for cleaning and maintenance.
SOME UPDATES ABOUT THE ROASTER
The preferred way to control the roasting process is by having the machine follow a profile based on the inlet temperature sensors. These sensors are located on the outside of the drum, but they are still only 2-3cm away from the coffee. By having them so close to the coffee beans, we get a more accurate measurement of the temperature and instant response to changes in the power input. (you can of course control the machine in different ways)
The roaster is using three heating elements that are individually controlled for optimal consistency. And it has a grid of six custom-made sensors that are measuring the inlet temperature entering the roasting chamber for the highest possible accuracy. Custom heating elements to adapt to different electrical setups will be made available.
On P3000 the drum temperature is measured in three different locations. That is done so that we can get a more precise reading of the energy stored in the roasting chamber. By knowing how much heat is stored and how much energy we are putting in, it’s much easier to recreate roasts accurately.
We have installed two different types of custom-made bean temperature sensors, two k-types, and two RTDs, so we can get a more accurate measurement of the bean temperature. These sensors are located on both sides of the roasting chamber as the chamber is completely symmetric for even heat distribution.
There will also be an option to have a bean temperature IR sensor that uses a grid to measure the bean's surface temperature.
We will use machine learning to enhance the user experience. Some exciting features will be bean temperature prediction in the profile editor and recommended profiles for your coffee. And some less exciting, but very useful features will be predicting your machine’s maintenance need in order to reduce downtime.
TESTING, TESTING…
We have started testing an electrical afterburner to remove the smoke. This will be an efficient unit that will adapt the temperature to the roasting process based on the bean temperature and color of the coffee.
As promised, there will be a custom feeding unit for the machine that can store up to 100 kg of green coffee and automatically vacuum feed it to the roaster based on weight. The prototype unit has been standing unused for almost 8 months as we have focused on the main roasting unit, but we will start testing it now.
We aim to have the development of P3000 ready for release by the end of 2023. Right now we are finalizing all the small details so that we can start producing a pre-production model at the beginning of February. This unit will be a massive upgrade compared to our existing prototype that we showcased in Milano 2022.
More info about ROEST P3000: Read more about it here!
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Updates on R&D of P2000
It’s been a few years since we started development of the ROEST P2000 – Production Hybrid Roaster. In June 2021 we announced the first information and early bird technical specification - now it’s time for an update! We are currently roasting and testing on prototype #5 in the line, while at the same time finalizing the details of prototype #6 (P06).
It’s been a few years since we started development of the ROEST P2000 – Production Hybrid Roaster. In June 2021 we announced the first information and early bird technical specification - now it’s time for an update!
PROTOTYPE #6
We are currently roasting and testing on prototype #5 in the line, while at the same time finalizing the details of prototype #6 (P06). We aim to have this next prototype in production soon as this will be the version our first pilot customer will use.
Technical drawings of ROEST P2000 Prototype #6
THE CHALLENGE
What’s the main challenge right now? It’s a blast roasting 1500g batches, but with 2000g the machine feels a little underpowered. Our solution is to increase the drum size on the next version (P06), optimize the internal ventilation system and improve the thermal insulation at critical areas.
We aim to make a roaster with the ideal batch size from 1000g up to 2000g and with enough power to follow your ideal profile with ease. With full power of 4900W, we can get first crack at around 6-7 minutes depending on the coffee - that’s not bad but we would like a bit more flexibility.
MAINTENANCE
This is a critical area for a small production roaster with a huge appetite:
Daily maintenance includes checking three filters if they need cleaning.
Weekly maintenance includes cleaning the internal ventilation with a metal brush using three simple access points.
A few times a year you can remove the top plates of the roaster and the ventilation system and do a deep cleaning
And finally, for the perfectionist, you can split open the entire roasting chamber and polish everything back to perfection.
How does the P2000 work?
ROEST P2000 works very similar to our sample roaster but with an important difference - the air is pushed in through the entire bean mass (in the sample roaster the air is pushed in through the opening in the drum and sucked out).
Why is this important for the P2000? It makes the machine far more energy efficient than its competitors on the market and reduces the need for extensive maintenance of production roasters. A huge benefit is that we can roast faster with lower temperatures.
HOW IS THE P2000 CONTROLLED
We have a whole bunch of sensors, of course! Each heating elements has its dedicated temperature sensor, and we can measure the precise inlet voltage and compensate for it. We have dual temperature (2x BT and 2x ET) sensors inside the roasting chamber, controlling their dedicated heating element making sure we have identical temperatures across the roasting chamber for the most uniform roast possible.
More info about ROEST P2000: It’s time to go bigger (Posted June 9th 2021)