First 3D Chocolate Prints

3D Printing Techologie

Is creating chocolate models, using 3D chocolate printing, the new trend?

As you may know by now, we're living in the era of 3D printing, the cutting- edge technology that has revolutionized our way of life. It has first been used by the manufacturing industry to produce cost-effective, cheap models and product prototypes. Now, scientists can use it to manufacture working human body parts ready for transplant. A lesser but more delicious application of 3D printing is 3D chocolate printing. But, how exactly did it come to life?

In an effort to replace plastic from being the only material used in 3D printing, a team of researchers at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom tried to use chocolate instead of plastic. For their own surprise and the rest of the world's, they succeeded, and 3D chocolate printing was born.

In 3D chocolate printing, the chocolate is carefully tempered then loaded into a specially designed syringe, and deposited into a 2D cross-section on a substrate - like an ordinary printer printing a 2D image onto a piece of paper.

The syringe is then raised by the height of the chocolate line that is being printed and the process repeats layer-by-layer to form 2D, 2.5D and 3D chocolate models and products that are defined by a 3D computer design.

These 3D computer designs can be created using a wide range of techniques, software and programming. Any 3D design program capable of exporting STL files will be able to create designs that can be printed with a 3D printer. Or, you can just search the web for a variety of simple ready-made designs.