A study on development of three-dimensional chocolate printer

In this study, we developed a 3D chocolate printer and studied the conditions needed for chocolate printing. Because chocolate is a mixture of cocoa mass, cocoa butter and sugar particles, its properties vary with temperature, and care is required in melting and extrusion. A chocolate supply unit is composed of a heating block and a syringe pump. It is integrated with a 3-axis linear robot. In order to be more accurate than the existing 3D chocolate printer is, the system was configured so that the printing line width became 430 uμm. Printing performance was studied according to various parameters. The condition needed for printing lines with a stable width was discovered by the experimental design method and has been confirmed by a 2D line test. These 3D printing experiments showed that it was possible to build a 3D shape with an inclination angle of up to 45° without support. Further, chocolate printing of a 3D shape has been successfully verified with the developed system.