The Six Challenges of 3D Food Printing

Yesterday we wrote on TNO’s work towards the challenge of 3D printed food. They’ve been experimenting with various processes and even combined their work with that of traditional chefs to create unique high-end dishes. 

 

But from a 3D printing point of view, we see a series of rather difficult challenges that must be worked through by anyone venturing into the 3D printing of food. 

 

1. Safety: Unlike other types of 3D printing, each item of 3D printed food could potentially be eaten. Therefore food safety is a must. But to achieve food safety, a 3D food printer must certify safety along the entirety of the path food material takes through the device - and that is difficult. 
2. Timing: While you can leave a spool of ABS in your plastic 3D printer for weeks (and perhaps even years) without issue, this will not be the case for many food materials, which could expire within hours. Food materials must be treated very differently. 
3. Structure: Generally the engineering characteristics of food material are not considered during cooking, but when you’re 3D printing them, they are much more important. Food materials tend to be far less strong than even the weakest plastics, meaning 3D printed food can build objects will have some severe build geometry limitations. Consider the chocolate print above, which cannot be made taller without slumping.
4. Designs: If there are severe geometry limitations, then the software used to create 3D models for food printing must account for them. We’re not aware that such software exists yet, and we suspect it could be quite complex due to the vast number of potential printable food materials. 
5. Taste: Unlike plastic 3D printing, you (or someone) may have to consume the output. It must taste good, if not at least barely palatable. How this is accomplished after material travels through a machine is a matter for food scientists. 
6. Multiple materials: Unless it’s pretty special, dishes made from a single ingredient tend to be pretty boring. Thus it seems that a successful food printer would likely have to be able to combine multiple foodstuffs into interesting combination dishes. Plastic 3D printers have had great challenges to develop multiple extruder capabilities, and we expect no less with food printers.

 

Widespread 3D food printing? Probably experimental for quite a while yet. 

Four Possibly Crazy Predictions for 3D Printing in 2014

It’s that time of year again. The fresh new year has sprouted and we now must contemplate things that may come to pass in 2014. 

 

HP Enters the 3D Printing Marketplace - Again: Some years ago HP struck a deal with Stratasys to relabel and resell their uPrint line of (then) inexpensive commercial 3D printers. The deal didn’t go well and faded away after a year or two, perhaps because HP simply didn’t have the experience in the space. Now, however, a new HP CEO has stated that their company will enter the 3D printing space in 2014. With a partnership with an existing company again? We think not; HP may have their own unique 3D printing process cooking in their vast labs. 

 

3D Printing Startups Stall: 2013 saw avalanches of small 3D printer startup companies appearing almost daily on crowdfunding sites such as Kickstarter. Will this continue in 2014? We don’t think so - and not due to a lack of imagination or energy among entrepreneurs. Instead we fear the market is overloaded with personal 3D printing options, so much so that it has become difficult to distinguish offerings. Indeed, even the product names have begun to overlap, making it even more challenging to stand out in an increasingly competitive market. 

 

More 3D Printing Mainstreamness: Perhaps it’s obvious, but interest in 3D printing will continue to rise exponentially. We will see deeper penetration of consumer markets with added media coverage - and certainly attendance at popular 3D print exhibitions and conferences will overflow once again. 

 

3D Systems Releases a Personal Resin 3D Printer: 3D Systems, inventors and holders of patents on SLA/resin technology (some of which are soon to expire) may experiment with a personal 3D printer using high-resolution resin technology. 3D Systems now faces a competitor, Stratasys, who now owns MakerBot. Stratasys will no doubt use its remaining plastic filament oriented patents to move MakerBot’s devices ahead of the pack, leaving 3D Systems’ Cubify line in a difficult spot. The solution? Leverage their existing SLA technology on a new line of resin-based personal 3D printers. 

 

Wait, How Big Will 3D Printing Become?

Market Intelligence company IDC forecasts 3D printing will grow “ten times” by 2017 and that “worldwide hardware value will more than double in the short term.”

 

They suggest that 2D printer companies such as HP and Konica Minolta may enter the 3D market by partnering with existing 3D printing companies. 

 

The forecasted growth seems almost ridiculous, but we suspect it may come true. With  observed market momentum, huge research and development budgets from the big companies and seemingly endless experimentation from smaller startups, it’s clear that things are about to happen. 

 

Stay tuned. 

   

Via IDC

Commercial 3D Printer Companies Focusing on Efficiency

At this year's EuroMold trade show we were able to check out a number of commercial 3D printer companies. These are the organizations that produce the large scale devices capable of printing in exotic materials such as metal, nylon and even ceramics. They're well beyond the price range of personal 3D printer owners, but the technologies they advance often are reflected in personal equipment in years to come. 

 

In 2012, many of the companies seemed to be focusing on size. We saw many machines introduced with larger build volumes, some quite gigantic, like the massive Objet 1000. But in 2013 we observed a different pattern: efficiency.

 

We saw machines with similar characteristics, but with smaller a footprint. We saw machines with better use of materials. We saw machines with faster print times. We saw machines with optimized workflows. We saw machines with combinations of the above. 

 

While these developments are obviously welcomed by industry, we're hoping the improvements trickle down to the personal-level machines soon.