TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Three students from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have hacked together a 3D printer that can produce edible Mr Whippy-style ice cream in any shape.
Kyle Hounsell, Kristine Bunker and David Donghyun Kim developed the contraption – a modified version of an existing 3D printer connected to a “soft serve” ice-cream machine – as part of a graduate project in MIT’s additive manufacturing department.
“First, we needed to print into a cooled environment so that the ice cream would hold its shape once printed,” the students explained to 3Ders. “We bought a small upright freezer which was large enough to both put the Solidoodle inside and allow for the full build volume we were aiming for.”
The students built a cooling system using liquid nitrogen to fix the ice cream in place as it was squirted out of the 3D printer’s nozzle into the desired shape. The instant cooling allowed the printer to build up the ice cream layers just as a traditional extrusion-based 3D printer squirts down layers of plastic.
The main reason we feel an ice cream 3D printer is an important addition to current additive manufacturing technology is that it interests children,” the MIT students explained.
The students had to balance the accuracy and printing resolution of the printer to enable interesting shapes and creations with the speed of printing, as no one wants to wait 30 minutes for their ice cream to appear.
THE GUARDIAN | SG
