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Lowestoft Online > Community > General Community > The Lounge > Topic: Printer produces personalised 3D chocolate
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Trigger
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Printer produces personalised 3D chocolate « Posted: 06 July 2011 at 06:49 PM »
Chocolate lovers may soon be able to print their own 3D creations thanks to work by UK scientists.

A 3D printer that uses chocolate has been developed by University of Exeter researchers - and it prints layers of chocolate instead of ink or plastic. Although still a prototype, several retailers have already expressed interest in taking on the device. 3D printing using plastic and metal is already widely used in industry to speed up design work.
Lead scientist Dr Liang Hao told BBC News that chocolate printing, just like any other 3D printing technique, starts with a flat cross-section image - similar to that produced by ordinary printers turning out images. "Then you do a 3D shape - layer by layer, printing chocolate instead of ink, like if you were layering 2D paper to form a 3D shape," he said.

Once a layer is completed, it solidifies, and the machine moves on to the next layer.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14030720

Now that's my kind of printer!  Grin
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funkychick
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Re: Printer produces personalised 3D chocolate « Reply #1 Posted: 06 July 2011 at 06:56 PM »
I wish these scientists would use their brains and funds to solve some real problems
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JollyJapes
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Re: Printer produces personalised 3D chocolate « Reply #2 Posted: 06 July 2011 at 07:02 PM »
Having read this yesterday, I can see the advantages.  I can see in time when costs come down, cake shops and Tescos/Asda etc having them so you can design a chocolate bar to order, like for a birthday etc.  Imagine having a chocolate bar made with your name, or perhaps in the shape of your head!  As the article has mentioned, they also plan on doing designer chocolate through their own website, which is a novel idea for birthdays or christmas presents. 

Having said all this, I do wonder whether the Lounge is the right place for this.  A news article surely should go in the news forum. 
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Jamesw82
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Re: Printer produces personalised 3D chocolate « Reply #3 Posted: 06 July 2011 at 07:04 PM »
Can hardly call this newsworthy.
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Trigger
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Re: Printer produces personalised 3D chocolate « Reply #4 Posted: 06 July 2011 at 07:09 PM »
Quote from: JollyJapes on 06 July 2011 at 07:02 PM
Having said all this, I do wonder whether the Lounge is the right place for this.  A news article surely should go in the news forum. 

Obviously it’s down to a matter of opinion.  I don’t see it as being newsworthy, just an amusing report of a piece of technology - so I judged it as worthy of a place in "The Lounge".  Perhaps it should have gone into the “I.T. Suite”! 
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funkychick
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Re: Printer produces personalised 3D chocolate « Reply #5 Posted: 06 July 2011 at 07:11 PM »
Gosh we can save so many lives with a 3D chocolate bar
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JustStu
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Re: Printer produces personalised 3D chocolate « Reply #6 Posted: 06 July 2011 at 08:38 PM »
why does it have to be able to save lives?
It's not claiming to be a medical breakthrough. Just because you don't see a need for it doesn't mean it's not worthwhile.

It's inventions like this that can spawn all sorts of spinoffs, which you could find medically useful.
For example, someone has invented a pump for farmers which doesn't need any power. It uses the natural pressure of the water to work. You might see that as fairly irrelevant, however the technology he has invented is now been looked at to make mini pumps which could be fitted in veins and arteries to help people with extremely low blood pressure.
You never know where "pointless" inventions may lead.
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funkychick
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Re: Printer produces personalised 3D chocolate « Reply #7 Posted: 06 July 2011 at 08:38 PM »
Like?
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JustStu
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Re: Printer produces personalised 3D chocolate « Reply #8 Posted: 06 July 2011 at 08:44 PM »
Sorry, I've added the example into my previous post. I had to go off to remind myself what the article was I was reading the other day.
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JollyJapes
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Re: Printer produces personalised 3D chocolate « Reply #9 Posted: 06 July 2011 at 08:49 PM »
Personally, I can see a use for that pump in the third world countries.  Farmland may have access to a well or a bore hole with water pressure, but no mains electric power.  This pump could help to port the water to where it is needed, which in turn could help farming in the third world.  This in turn could help alleviate hunger throughout the world, which helps 'us' when we no longer have to subsidise other countries.  This then affects us directly because money otherwise spent on overseas aid can then be used to help people in the UK.  

Just because something has no apparent use for us personally, does not mean it cannot help others.  


Regarding this topic in the Lounge.....
It started off as a copy of an article on the BBC News website.  As such, logically I follow through and believe it to be a news item.  Boatbuilder - an administrator - did only a week or so ago create a new section purely for news articles, precisely so that the Lounge and Debate sections didn't get crowded with this type of story.  Them's the rules!  
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