Abstract:
In the food industry, 3-Dimensional (3D) printing, also known as Digital fabrication (DF) or
additive manufacturing (AM), has limitless possibilities for fabricating complicated geometries,
customization, and on-demand production. As a reason, 3D technology is driving significant
changes in the food business. The development of a chocolate 3D printer using the pressure pump
approach and chocolate as a printing material is described in this study. 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. Sample designs were used to test the 3D printer's usability and
efficiency. 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 chocolatebased
sweets by satisfying customers.
