Stumbled on this tamper from AliExpress. No reviews with photos but took a leap of faith and am happy I did. Similar to The Force Tamper in operation but aluminum machined vs stainless steel. Tamp pressure is around 18lbs, the snap gets it up to around 19lbs. 58.5mm base with a fairly square ripple. Super impressed with this piece for under $40 USD.

Almost dropped it when making this one handed vid.

I wonder if the patent expired or the Chinese finally decided to ignore it? The how to do this has been around for maybe 100 years, Force just has a patent on it for coffee.

Compared to the teardown I've seen for the force tamper, this tamper uses a different implementation, definitely not as robust, but I believe similar idea. No clue of patent implications.

MHW-3bomber also has a calibrated tamper and a totally different implementation of the sudden tension release. I'm thinking of grabbing that too to compare.

ira wrote:I wonder if the patent expired or the Chinese finally decided to ignore it? The how to do this has been around for maybe 100 years, Force just has a patent on it for coffee.

Chinese have a very interesting perspective on IP. Basically, "innovate or die" is the way over there. No patents as far as I know.

Obviously the law still applies to products shipped into the USA - I just thought it is a very interesting way to spur innovation compared to the USA where we believe that protecting your IP will encourage people to take the leap and invest in their ideas.