3D-printing is on the rise. The number of materials that can be used to create a 3D-printed structure has gotten bigger in the last few years. 3D-printing has spread and is used in many different fields, from mechanical engineering, civil engineering, medicine and others, all the way to food industry. In this thesis research is manly focused on 3D printing of food, more specifically 3D-printing of chocolate. Chocolate is the first material ever used to create an edible 3D-printed structure. Furthermore 3D printing of food has a great potential not just to create a new and exciting eating experience but people are also trying to answer big questions like world hunger and how to create nutritious meals for the astronauts in space with 3D-printing of food.
Firstly in the theoretical part we presented all of the 3D-technologies that can be used for printing food. Then an experiment was done in which 3 different parameters were adjusted, which have the biggest affect on the quality of the end 3D-printed product. The results showed that printing speed, travel speed and the composition of the chocolate paste are three of the most important parameters and those were researched further. In the experiment different settings on the machine were adjusted as well as usage of different chocolate pastes. The aim was to create a good quality chocolate product and to examine the parameters closely. The end results show that for a good quality chocolate product we need the right printing speed so that the layers can depose correctly on top of each other. We also need the right viscosity of the chocolate paste. Throughout the process of printing different chocolate pastes were chosen: dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids - Gorenjka), a mixture of milk and dark chocolate (30% and 70% cocoa solids chocolates – Milka and Gorenjka), chocolate spread Nutella and chocolate frosting Dr. Oetker. The most successful 3D-product was made with was the mixture of the dark chocolate (70% cocoa beans) and milk chocolate (30% cocoa beans).
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