3D Printed Chocolate
Problem Statement
Purpose
- The engineering team is designing a chocolate 3D printer for “Be Sweet” bakery.
- Primary goal is to print out chocolate letters for designs.
- The printer will be able to manually change the Z-axis for baked goods.
Scope
- This project will have all its planning and details displayed on our website for future rebuilds.
- The total length of time this engineering team will have to create a functional prototype is 16 weeks.
Description of Product Developed
The final product developed was the chocolate 3D printer with a functional X and Y axis and functional heating element to melt the chocolate. Unfortunately, the Z axis is not operational due to weakness in the material causing failure. The broken Z axis makes the 3d printer not functional because it’s not able to press the plunger down through syringe to allow the chocolate to fall onto the bed. Other than that the other parts of the printer are functional and accurate.
Our Final Protoype
Breif History of Chocolate Printing
Before the age of 3D printing, the intricate task of creating complex chocolate shapes used to be done entirely by hand. Bakers and pastry makers would spend hours upon hours at a time to create only a single piece of chocolatey goodness. However, this left no room for error for bakers meaning that if their design succumbed to excessive force they wouldnt have a second chance. Due to these conditions chocolate toppings were not only rare but expensive, and very limited in thier design.
Engineers and 3D printing enthusisats alike noticed this issue becoming very dominant in the baking scene and began woring in devices that would improve the chocolate-making process. This involved moving all of the heavy lifting of making complex chocolate shapes over to the printer freeing up the baker which allows them to produce more goods. One of the earliest companies that began to produce these complex chocolate goods for bakers around the world was a company called "Choc Edge". This company was based in the United Kingdom and started in 2012 with extensive research on the processes that were needed to turn molten chocolate into elaborate yet intriguing designs without losing that chocolate flavor. The main problem this early company began running into early in theirr process was that all the protoypes they developed became more of a 2D plotter than a 3D model builder. This meant that anything you sent to this company to be printed would only come out a few milimeters thick making them more like elaborate and beautiful paintings rather than impressive 3D structures.
Over the years, more companies became involved and with each new protoype greater strides and even greater innovations were brought into the field of edible 3D printing. Even companies such as Hershey's chocolate came up with a product named "Cocojet" only a few years ago. Hershey;s claimed that this printer is one of the most sophisticated chocolate 3D printers on the market and would be so for years to come. They also claimed that their printer is capable of creating commplex chocolate portraits, helixes, figurines, and almost anything else that your mind could conjour up.