Nataly
Scientists and engineers are constantly coming up with new ideas what to 3D-print, and now, they came up with a quite tasty idea: 3D printer for gummy candy, 3dprint reports.
One German company, called Katjes, which has established itself as a very successful candy maker, has now decided to take things up a notch by creating the world’s first 3D printer for “gum” candy. Everyone is familiar with Gummy Bears, Gummy Savers and Gummy Worms, but wouldn’t it be nice if you could create your very own gummy candy in the shape, flavor, and size desired? Bastian Fassin, CEO of Katjes certainly thought so. So much so, that he decided to team with a colleague named Melissa Snover, who is an entrepreneur and the founder of an organic confectionery brand called “Goody Good Stuff”. They teamed to create a 3D printer unlike anything we have seen before, called “The Magic Candy Factory”.
The Magic Candy Factory looks like a fancy FDM/FFF based 3D printer from the outside, but when you get close, you realize that this machine isn’t printing in plastic. Instead it prints gooey delectable treats — gum candies. That’s right, the same stuff those cute little gummy bears are made up of.
In fact, Snover says that this is the first ever consumer food printer that has been released to the consumer market. The printer allows for consumers to utilize the intuitive iPad based user interface in order to customize their candy, prior to pressing the “print” button. Once printing, watching the machine fabricate a piece of candy is both mesmerizing and amazing, as a heated extrusion system heats up the candy, allowing it to flow through a syringe pump and onto the “build plate” below. This is where the candy cools and hardens as additional layers are laid on top, building up a 3-dimensional piece of candy one layer at a time. It takes just about 5 minutes to print out a 10 gram treat.
Snover has been an advocate of natural candies, and while she doesn’t exactly think that the candies coming off of her printer are healthy by any means, she does believe that if not over consumed, they are a very special treat.
When it comes to designs, the printer currently allows customers to select from 10 different shapes, which include a frog, octopus, butterly and more. There is also an option for creating a gummy fruit greeting card, with names, letters and other custom options on it.
The Magic Candy Factory printers will be available to use in Berlin for a period of 8 weeks during the “beta” phase of development. The ultimate goal, however, is to have these printers available for use wherever families with children are at. This includes places such as shopping malls, amusement parks, and museums.
