Laser cut edible decorating sheet and methods of manufacture

A system for producing edible decorations, the system comprising:

• at least one controller;
• a transport system for transporting an edible decorating sheet comprising one or more layers of edible material deposited on a backing substrate, wherein
• the backing substrate comprises a series of traction marks scored into a surface opposite the one or more layers of edible material for maintaining traction with the transport system;
• and
• a laser cutting tool positioned along the transport system, the laser cutting tool comprising a memory, a coordinate system, an optical sensor, a scan head, and a laser source for generating a laser beam directed by the scan head, wherein the laser cutting tool is configured to accept the edible decorating sheet transported by the transport system within a cutting chamber of the laser cutting tool;
• wherein the at least one controller is configured to direct the laser cutting tool to determine, by the optical sensor, a spatial position of at least one feature of the edible decorating sheet,
• register spatial positions on the edible decorating sheet with the coordinate system using the spatial position of the at least one feature, and
• create a plurality of edible decorations from the edible decorating sheet by
• ablating channels through the one or more layers of edible material with the laser beam, thereby substantially separating each edible decoration from neighboring edible material on the edible decorating sheet, wherein,
• for each decoration of the plurality of edible decorations, ablating the channels comprises directing, via the coordinate system, the scan head to follow a respective cutting design stored to the memory of the laser cutting tool;
• and
• wherein, after creating the plurality of edible decorations, the transport system transports the plurality of edible decorations out of the cutting chamber of the laser cutting tool.

A system comprising:

• at least one controller;
• and
• a plurality of production stages for producing edible decorations, the production stages comprising
• a trimming stage comprising a first laser cutting tool, the first laser cutting tool configured to
• accept an edible decorating sheet comprising one or more layers of edible material deposited on a backing substrate, and
• an edible decoration creating stage comprising a second laser cutting tool, the edible decoration creating stage comprising
• a scan head,
• a laser source for generating a laser beam directed by the scan head,
• a coordinate system, and
• a memory;
• wherein
• the at least one controller is configured to
• 1) direct the first laser cutting tool to form, from the edible decorating sheet, a plurality of edible decoration blanks, and
• 2) direct the second laser cutting tool to create a plurality of edible decorations from the edible decorating sheet by ablating channels through the one or more layers of edible material with the laser source of the second laser cutting tool, wherein,
• for each decoration of the plurality of edible decorations, ablating the channels comprises directing, via the coordinate system of the second laser cutting tool, the scan head to follow a respective cutting design stored to the memory of the second laser cutting tool.