Chocolate 3D Printer Now Available

The folks at the University of Exeter who were experimenting with 3D printed chocolate that actually tastes good have spun off the technology into a commercial venture, Choc Edge. Their first product, the Choc Creator V1, is now available for pre-order.

 

What is it? It's a true 3D printer that is specifically designed to print chocolate. The device uses cartridges containing malleable chocolate that are squished through a syringe. The company says you can "use any other materials in their printer for as long as the material can flow out of the printing head".

 

The Choc Creator V1 has a build envelope of 175x175x70mm, the shortest vertical build we've seen in any recently announced 3D printer. Each cartridge holds 10ml, which isn't all that much, particularly when you realize you'll be eating the printout. Two sizes of nozzles can be used for different print quality. 

 

Software is said to be open source, but there are few details currently available. We'll have to see how the software can produce 3D models that can be efficiently printed using two nozzles. 

 

Their approach to raise money is quite interesting: They're auctioning off the first few units on eBay and then offering pre-orders for "regular" units. The pre-order price is steep:  £2,488 or USD$4000. Evidently the pre-order price is a discount over their proposed regular price of £2,888 or USD$4600. Note: the fine print says: 

 

Choc Edge is in the process of obtaining food grade certification for the Choc Creator printer. Pre-order Choc Creator printer is not currently food grade certified. The printed chocolate is therefore suitable for printing trials and demonstration purpose only and not suitable for consumption.

 

Obtaining food safe designation should not be an issue as they've been researching this aspect for some time. It's not clear whether the eventual food safe designation would apply to all pre-order models or just new units built after that point. It's even possible there could even be a food safe upgrade option in the future for pre-order units. 

 

We think this is a terrific development as many people will be attracted to the notion of a 3D printer in their kitchen that can produce food items, particularly chocolate. However, we think there may be a few challenges: 

 

• The device visually appears quite mechanical and will definitely be out of place in a kitchen. Perhaps future V2 or V3 models could have spiffy white plastic cases? 
• 3D printing is always quite slow and after watching Choc Edge's video, the Choc Creator seems even slower than typical plastic 3D printers. This may surprise uninformed buyers. 
• The low vertical build height suggests there might be issues with tall, stacked chocolate prints. Does chocolate slump? What restrictions on 3D model design exist? 
• 3D Printing workflow is difficult as several complex software tools must be used together. This is beyond the capability of most people and won't change in the kitchen. 
• The syringe size implies prints will be of limited size. Probably this is OK until someone wants to print a full size solid bunny - and it is Easter, isn't it?

 

Nevertheless, the time for kitchen 3D printing has now officially arrived and there is only one thing to say: Yum!

 

Via Choc Edge

Insects Au Gratin

What might you expect to find at an exhibition entitled, "Insects Au Gratin".

 

Why yes, you guess correctly.

 

This exhibition details 3D food printing, but with a twist: the print material is a flour made from "dried insects combined with soft cheese." Why would anyone do this? Because:

 

"Insects Au Gratin looks for new ways of consuming insects and debates the nutritive and environmental aspects of insects as human food."

 

Ok. 

 

Are you ready for 3D printed 20mm insect protein cubes? 

 

Via Scientist Live and Science Gallery

3D Print Meat With Your Imagine 3D Printer

We spoke with Essential Dynamics Sales Manager, Stevie Green regarding their new personal 3D printer, the Imagine 3D Printer. As we reported earlier, this printer is unique among ready-to-go assembled personal 3D printers as it uses syringes instead of the more common hot plastic extruders. This means it is capable of printing room-temperature gooey substances, including food! 

  

Fabbaloo: Is the device actually available for purchase today? 

 

Stevie Green: Yes. We have not gone all out, in marketing our product, only because we've had a large pre-order list that we are working through, right now. Thus, any overt marketing only tests our production limits. We are working around the clock to fix both these situations.

  

Fabbaloo: What examples of food printing have you managed to do with it?  

 

Stevie Green: We have used all meats (chicken, fish, turkey, beef, pork) that have been brought to a soluble state in a blender and then printed into customized shapes. Some of the more extravagant ones have been star shaped sushi's.  Until Imagine, sushi only came in two shapes, oblong and circular.  We have completely redefined these shape.  From now on, sushi will no longer come in only 2 shapes.  It will come in any shape you desire.

 

Since Imagine is a dual syringe system this opens up the opportunity to do fusion foods like never before. You can make salmon shots infused with red wine. This is the ultimate health food. All your omegas, vitamins, and resveratrol, all rolled up into one awesome shot!! New and healthy combinations, new fusions, unusual shapes, it is going to be an explosion of creativity. 

  

Our community website, Mongasso.com, (currently in Beta) is going to be the new center for this creative designing. Here you can engage in creating your own designs, sharing designs, collaborating with others in designing, getting others to design for you. It is the home for all forms of expressions of creativity. By creating a free account on Mongasso, users will have access to the whole world and the talents of people from around the world. 

Fabbaloo: What software is used to prepare food models? Is it the same approach as used for plastic 3D printing, or are there other considerations and software?   

 

Stevie Green: Food models are prepped in the same manner as any other cad file.  We use Google Sketchup.

  

Fabbaloo: How do you handle the foodsafe aspects?  

 

Stevie Green: There are actually only two points on the machine that come in contact with food: The syringes and the build tray. We use a food safe build tray and the syringes, we currently discard after usage. We will be providing washable glass syringes shortly.

  

Fabbaloo: What are your plans for the future? 

 

Stevie Green: Our future consists of many phases but primarily to get people acclimated to the technology.  We want to open up their minds as to the possibilities.  What excites us the most, is what creative things people will make with Imagine.  Once you can Imagine, you can redefine your world.   

 

For more information, check out the USD$2,995 Imagine 3D Printer at their site below. 

 

Via Essential Dynamics

The Imagine 3D Food Printer

There's not a lot of information about this intriguing device, but New York-based Essential Dynamics has released their "Imagine 3D Printer". Now we know you've seen a plethora of personal 3D printers explode onto the market in recent months, but this one is different. Very different. 

 

It doesn't print plastic. 

 

The Imagine uses syringes instead of hot extruders melting plastic. 

 

What can you extrude? Their answer: "If it extrudes, it prints". You can print any gooey substance and that means only one thing: Food! Yes, you should be able to print in Peanut Butter, Chocolate, Cookie Dough, Mashed Potatoes or possibly even Minced Turkey. Two syringes are included so theoretically you can print in two "foods", permitting a wide variety of interesting food experiments. 

 

As far as we know, this could be the first dedicated personal 3D food printer available. You can pick one up fully assembled for USD$2,995. 

 

Via Essential Dynamics

The RepRap Food

Among the numerous successful and unsuccessful 3D printer kits seeking funding on IndieGoGo and Kickstarter is a rather unusual project: The RepRap Food Printer. 

 

The project goals are to develop a rudimentary food printer based on the trusted RepRap platform. While many food printing experiments have taken place on previous RepRaps and you can even purchase a food extruder attachment from MakerBot, this project will "create a 3D printer which is solely to create edibles." This is unprecedented, as far as we know. 

 

What will make this device a dedicated food printer? How about these features:

 

• Agitator for stirring the print media
• Heated bed for "basic cooking functions"
• Ability to extrude food substances

 

We're hoping project leader Jordan Fry will include some food safe features as well, not the least of which is cleanability. He's seeking USD$2300 to develop the design by February 2nd. For a USD$199 contribution you'll be able to purchase the parts for the food printer at cost when the project completes. 

 

We're also hoping this project survives, since the single most asked question about 3D printing we encounter is "can I print food". Let's make it happen!

 

Via IndieGoGo

The Hamburger Shoe

People always get excited about 3D printed food in spite of the fact there are precious few ways to do so. While we await the development of a consumer food printer, others continue to experiment. Shapeways reports on a great experiment in which their member Tristan Bethe 3D scanned his shoe, 3D printed a slightly smaller model of it, formed food-safe silicon around it to form a food mold. 

 

He then simply poured in semi-fluid bread dough and baked himself a shoe. Adding a sole-shaped meat patty completed the "shoe burger".

 

Not exactly 3D printed food, but that's about as close as you can easily get these days. However, a commenter pointed out that the 3D printing step was overkill, as you could simply sacrifice a shoe by hardening it and using the shoe itself to form the silicon mold. 

 

We really need an inexpensive food printer. 

 

Via Shapeways

3D Printed Chocolate That Tastes Good

BBC news reports today on scientists at the University of Exeter in the UK who have developed a new chocolate 3D printer. Instead of extruding tasteless plastic, this printer is capable of extruding liquified chocolate into solid - and edible - objects. The process is similar to other extrusion-based 3D printers: squirt and solidify each layer in succession, gradually building up a complete object. Or food item in this case. 

 

We've seen attempts at chocolate printing before, but mainly they were experiments that simply proved it could be accomplished mechanically. However, as kitchen chefs all know, cooking is more than just tossing ingredients together. The best food comes from careful attention to fresh ingredients, sequencing and temperature control. That's what seems to be the focus of this new chocolate experiment, where researchers wish to find the right way to make the food actually taste good. On the other hand, we think any chocolate is good chocolate!

 

Interestingly, they're also working on a "consumer friendly interface" for people to design their own chocolate objects. 

 

Informal discussions we have with the public about 3D printing invariably drift over to the topic of "food printing". It seems that people have an extremely strong interest in printing food, while the 3D printer manufacturers consistently avoid this capability, instead focusing on industrial or personal manufacturing uses.

 

The first food printers will likely be similar to this experiment, using chocolate and similar feed (food?) material. They'll probably first appear in expensive kitchens to prepare unique desserts or cake toppers for weddings, etc. Eventually if the price comes down and sufficient ecosystem appears, we may see these things show up in kitchens across the land. 

 

Meanwhile, we'll settle for a chocolate bar. 

 

Via BBC and The University of Exeter

Image Credit: David Martin, EPSRC

Eat Your Face?

Easter is the time when many people eat massive quantities of chocolate, often in the shape of "bunnies". But what about other representations? MIT researcher David Carr has developed this thought by creating a CNC-like machine that scans your face and carves it into a chunk of chocolate. A chocolate face-printer. 

 

It seems rather straightforward: you assume the position in the hole and a fixed scanner observes the contours of your mug. Then these contours are reflected identically (scaled) onto a cutter traversing the chocolate. It looks very much like getting a duplicate key cut. Except it's your face. 

 

And that's the problem. Evidently Carr discovered that while people freely eat bunnies, few seem interested in eating their own face. Perhaps people want to preserve the novelty of the item. Or maybe it's just a little too close to cannibalism. 

 

So, um, what are you printing for lunch? 

 

Via Wall St Daily