Chocolate Powder Sintering?

Austin based chocolate company Piq Chocolates has built a 3D printer that uses a laser to melt chocolate powder (I don't think it's cocoa powder) in a process that is basically selective laser sintering. (Here's a video: [www.mystatesman.com])

What kind of a laser would it take to melt chocolate powder?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/15/2014 10:57PM by oatmonster.

... nearly any type with power above some hundred Milliwatts, as dark brown powder is really good absorbing light and so perfect heating up.

But avoid burning/evaporating, or it won't be eatable/enjoyable any more ...

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Viktor
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It's probably a lower powered CO2. But you have to be very careful about how you heat chocolate... it's easy to cause a phase change that makes it not taste that great.

You can tell in the video it's not a C02 laser as it's just a compact diode laser head. Search ebay for burning laser diodes.

Issue #2 of the RepRap magazine had an article on lasers for cutting, probably about the same for making chocolate. (see top of screen Magazine button)

Oops, didn't see the video. Yea you're right -- it's just a red diode laser.

“Everything has a trade off,” Lalla says. “Since you’re fusing powders together, it’s not going to taste like traditional chocolate. It has more of a consistency of a sugar cube because the powder has more surface area. You get a lot of chocolate flavor all at once, but it’s not the silky, milky, creamy chocolate experience.”

I don't think that's an entirely accurate statement. It probably has the consistency of a sugar cube because the chocolate is being overheated by the laser. I can't imagine that chocolate 3d printing can be done well with a laser. It's hard enough to get it perfect using a double boiler...

Thanks, I'll look into burning laser diodes!

I'm not too concerned about how getting great tasting chocolate at the moment. Right now, I'm more worried about getting a powder that will melt well. They seem to be using straight cocoa powder right now, and although it's easy to get, it doesn't contain any cocoa butter, so I can't imagine getting anything with a texture like regular chocolate.

Sounds great for making a shell if the melt temperature difference is enough allow filling with liquid chocolate during/after without ruining the walls.

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My Reprap blog

jds-reprap.blogspot.com

Do you guys think a laser diode pulled out of a DVD burner would work?

Joe that's definitely an interesting idea, but I'm not sure how thin you can make the walls while maintaining structural integrity.

... as said in my first post - any diode with power >100mW can melt dark coloured shugar.

With most of my diodes the achievable spot size at around 40mm distance from the lens is roughly 0.05mm.

With very fine powder (<0.01mm) the 'fused' area is slightly bigger than the spot -- with coarser powders it's depending on the particle size, as the heated spot is surrounded/embedded by solid particles, that sticks to the molten zone.

So my estimation for the finest structures/walls is around 0.1mm for powders with 0.03mm ... and adequate bigger/thicker for greater particle sizes ...

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Viktor
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Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]