3D Food Printer With Integrated Heating for Simultaneous Cooking
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing 3D printing technologies for edible products require separate processes for formation and cooking, which can lead to inefficiencies and limitations in creating complex, cooked food structures.
Innovation Solution
A three-dimensional printing machine that integrates heating systems and control mechanisms for moving elements, allowing for simultaneous layer-by-layer printing and cooking of food products using multiple ingredients and complex shapes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If separate processes are used for food formation and cooking, then process simplicity is maintained, but productivity decreases due to sequential processing
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines the 3D printing formation process and cooking process into a single integrated system. The printing machine includes heating elements that can cook food materials during or immediately after deposition, eliminating the need for separate formation and cooking steps. This merging of processes directly resolves the contradiction by improving productivity through simultaneous operations while accepting controlled increases in device complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary heating and cooking actions during the printing process itself. By incorporating heating elements within the printing apparatus and activating them during material deposition, the system prepares and cooks food materials in advance of final product completion, rather than waiting for separate post-processing steps. This preliminary action resolves the productivity contradiction by overlapping process timelines.
2Loss of time
If heating systems are integrated into the printing machine, then cooking and printing occur simultaneously, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The heating systems are merged with the printing machine structure, with heating elements positioned to coincide with material deposition zones. This integration allows thermal processing and mechanical printing to occur in the same spatial and temporal domain, eliminating idle time between processes while consolidating system complexity into a unified apparatus rather than separate coordinated systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The integrated heating system maintains continuous thermal action during the printing process. Rather than interrupting printing for separate cooking cycles, the heating elements operate continuously alongside material deposition, ensuring that cooking action is sustained throughout the formation process. This continuity eliminates processing gaps and reduces total time while the heating system remains actively engaged throughout printing operations.
3Adaptability or versatility
If multiple ingredients are used to create complex food structures, then product versatility improves, but manufacturing precision requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments different food ingredients into separate printable materials that can be deposited through dedicated nozzles or cartridges. Each ingredient can be precisely controlled and deposited in specific layers or zones, allowing complex multi-ingredient structures to be built with high precision. The segmentation of materials enables versatile product creation while maintaining manufacturing precision through individualized control of each ingredient's deposition parameters.
Solution Approach 2:
The printing system applies different materials with specific properties to different locations within the food product. By controlling which ingredients are deposited in specific layers or regions, the system achieves local optimization of nutritional, textural, and culinary properties. This local quality approach enables versatile product design while maintaining precision through spatially differentiated material placement rather than uniform application.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables the efficient production of complex, cooked food products by integrating cooking processes with the printing process, ensuring that the food is cooked and shaped simultaneously, resulting in a ready-to-consume product.
Implementation Method 1
a printing head with a heating element capable to heat the printing filament
Implementation Method 2
said heating element being orientable... in order to cook the printed filament at any time during the printing process
Data Source
AI summary
The invention relates to a 3D printing machine for printing cooked foods, which contains at least one printing module comprising at least three main movable bodies:a printing block that includes heating elements able to cook the food simultaneously to the printing thereof;a printing base; andan oven,wherein the main movable bodies being able to slide vertically, independently of one another, along a vertical displacement device.The machine is specially designed for the 3D printing and simultaneous cooking of food products by means of complex elaborations including several ingredients. The invention also relates to a method for obtaining cooked foods using the machine.