Portable Cocktail Mixer

Industrial design, engineering, and electronics for a battery-powered drink mixer with adjustable drink strength

Client:

pnümix

Services provided:

Product Design

Mechanical Engineering

Electronics and Embedded Systems

Prototyping

Date:

2023

project summary

pnümix came to SGW Designworks with a partial design and a request for help with the printed circuit board. The engagement grew into full product development, including a new two-pump fluid system, PCBA design, firmware, industrial design, and a custom vacuum-insulated container, for a portable, battery-powered cocktail mixer that lets each user set the strength of their own drink.

Exploded view of a portable drink mixer showing the head unit, PCBA, pumps, and container seals

Challenge

Product Vision

Take a partial design to a portable, battery-powered cocktail mixer that delivers accurate, adjustable drink strength from a single device.

pnümix came to SGW Designworks with a partial design and a clear product idea. Their early design paired an off-the-shelf thermos with a 3D printed collar and a head unit containing a single pump, with two straws drawing from separate cavities: liquor on one side, mixer on the other. The heart of the product was the ability to vary drink strength, so two people could pour very different drinks from the same device.

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The original ask was narrow. The team had electronics wired together by hand and needed a printed circuit board. As SGW reviewed the system, it became clear the product needed a broader hardware development effort. The single-pump architecture left sticky residue in the fluid path and could not tell the user how strong a drink actually was, which undercut the product's main selling point.

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The finished consumer product had to be portable and battery powered, last through a day of use with minimal charging, keep liquor and mixer fully separated until the moment of mixing, and dispense a well-mixed drink either into a cup or directly to the user in a "party mode." All of that had to fit inside a compact head unit with very little room for pumps, valves, electronics, and a battery.

delivery

Final Outcome

SGW Designworks rearchitected the fluid system, designed the electronics, firmware, industrial design, and insulated container, and handed off a design roughly 90 percent ready for production.

SGW's first recommendation was to rework the fluid system to reduce technical risk early. The team moved from one pump to two, paired with a different style of valve, giving independent control of liquor and mixer and much better control over drink strength. Coordinating the two pumps became a key part of the electromechanical and firmware work.

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Separation and accuracy drove decisions through the whole product: the insert dividing the container into liquor and mixer chambers, the pumps, the mixing chamber, and the nozzle. The nozzle went through several design iterations to produce a clean stream when pouring into a cup while still mixing the drink well, and to support drinking directly from the device.

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SGW also designed the double-walled, vacuum-insulated stainless steel container. The team cut open a range of commercial insulated containers to study wall gaps and construction, defined the critical dimensions, and worked with manufacturers before handing the container design off to an insulated drinkware manufacturer.

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On the electronics side, SGW delivered the PCBA design and firmware the client originally asked for, with USB-C charging and power-saving behavior aimed at all-day use. Packaging pumps, valves, a battery, and electronics into a small head unit drove much of the component selection.

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Industrial design and mechanical engineering ran in parallel with the electronics so the form, fluid path, and internal packaging came together as one system. The design was roughly 90 percent complete at handoff, just before final design for manufacturability. The manufacturer completed the remaining DFM work, including the overmolded gasket design. Once pnümix moved forward, product arrived within about three months, and pnümix is on the market today.

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The client was hands-on throughout, visiting the shop regularly and building on their earlier design work. The project drew on industrial design, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and firmware development, with the whole SGW team contributing to the product.