Design and development of pump based chocolate 3D printer

Abstract

The use of 3-Dimensional (3D) printing, known as Digital fabrication (DF) or additive manufacturing (AM), technology in the food sector has countless potential to fabricate 3D constructs with complex geometries, customization, and on-demand production. For this reason, 3D technology is driving major innovations in the food industry. This paper presents the construction of a chocolate 3D printer by applying the pressure pump technique using chocolate as a printing material. Here the conventional 3D printer's design was developed as a chocolate 3D printer. As an improvement, a new extruder mechanism was introduced. The extruder was developed to print the chocolate materials. In the working mechanism, the 3D printer reads the design instruction and chocolate material is extruding accordingly, through the nozzle of the pump to the bed of the 3D printer followed by the design (layer by layer). The special part of this chocolate 3D printer is the pressure pump in the extruder part. That pressure pump provides pressure on melted chocolate from the chocolate container to the nozzle point. The usability and efficiency of the 3D printer were tested with sample designs. The obtained results were presented and discussed. Together with these advances this 3D printer can be used to produce complex food models and design unique patterns in chocolate-based sweets by satisfying customers.