Philadelphia-based Cocoa Press announced a new chocolate 3D printer, the Cocoa Press 2.0.
The company has been around for quite a while, but we haven’t heard much from them since our last story back in 2020.
Now they’ve announced an entirely new 3D printer that includes a number of intriguing features.
One of the new features is higher print speeds, which is apparently enabled by Klipper firmware. Klipper is used by many polymer 3D printer manufacturers to achieve incredible print speeds of up to 1200mm/s. Speeds of that magnitude are not really feasible for chocolate 3D printing, but Cocoa Press doesn’t yet specify the print speed of the new 3D printer.
Chocolate 3D printing is usually a slow affair due to the nature of the material. I’m very curious to see what speeds can be achieved on this machine. Nevertheless, those making chocolate items will no doubt appreciate the added speed, particularly if the device is used in commercial kitchens.
The Cocoa Press 2.0 includes not only Klipper, but also fully upgraded electronics. Cocoa Press explains:
“Enhanced with BigTreeT ech SKR Pico, BTT PI 1.2, BTT HDMI55, BTT SKSM, and BTT Hermit Crab for high-performance operation.”
If Cocoa Press follows the same approach to materials as their previous devices, we would see the new machine able to handle any chocolate, but if you use their specific mix you can make use of their pre-developed print profiles. In other words, it’s likely an open materials device but with print profiles for their own material.
One quote in the company’s press release is particularly intriguing:
“The new release offers enhanced printing speed, precision, and ease of use with Klipper firmware, an intuitive Press Print UI touchscreen, and a fast-swap extruder system compatible with the forthcoming Cocoa Buddy for multi-color and continuous chocolate printing.”
Multicolor chocolate 3D printing? Chocolate in my experience comes in two colors, brown and white. If the Buddy system is able to print those two chocolate colors there could be some very interesting objects created. The future proofing specifically deals with the extruder: a quick-swap feature apparently allows for a new multicolor system to be swapped in.
The other interesting bit is “continuous chocolate printing”. What could this mean? A belt system? I could imagine a moving belt drop completed chocolate objects in a bin, which could be ideal for small-scale chocolate production.
Cocoa Press will begin accepting pre-orders for the new device starting on Saturday, with a price of US$1,199. They expect to ship sometime “this winter”. Presumably that means winter in the northern hemisphere.
Via Cocoa Press
