Additive manufacturing system and method with interchangeable cartridges for printing customized chocolate confections

摘要

An additive manufacturing system for printing a chocolate confection, the system comprising a platen, a print head, and a cartridge configured to be removably secured to the print head, wherein the cartridge contains a supply of the chocolate material.

主权项

1. A method for printing a chocolate confection, the method comprising:
installing a cartridge to a print head of an additive manufacturing system, wherein the cartridge comprises a compressible reservoir containing a supply of a chocolate material; heating the supply of the chocolate material in the installed cartridge to an extrudable state; compressing the compressible reservoir in a direction along a vertical axis to extrude the heated chocolate material from the installed cartridge onto a platen of the additive manufacturing system to build at least a portion of the chocolate confection using a layer-based, additive manufacturing technique, wherein all supplied amounts of the chocolate material in the cartridge are extruded from the cartridge prior to the chocolate material thickening past a viscosity threshold of the chocolate material.