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US 8,986,767 B2Granted
Additive manufacturing system and method with interchangeable cartridges for printing customized chocolate confections
AssigneeStratsys, Inc.
InventorJ. Samuel Batchelder
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
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.
Claims17
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.
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 wrapped portion of a chocolate material, the wrapped portion having an aperture in one end;
- heating the wrapped portion of the chocolate material in the installed cartridge to an extrudable state;
- and
- compressing the compressible reservoir in a direction along a vertical axis to extrude the tempered chocolate material from the wrapped portion 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 is extruded from the wrapper and cartridge prior to the chocolate material thickening past a viscosity threshold of the chocolate material.
1 more element
A method for printing a chocolate confection, the method comprising:
- installing a removable cartridge to a print head of an additive manufacturing system, wherein the cartridge comprises a compressible tube and an extrusion tip secured to the compressible tube and the compressible tube containing a supply of a chocolate material;
- heating the supply of the chocolate material in the compressible tube to an extrudable state;
- extruding the tempered chocolate material from the compressible tube 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 compressible tube is extruded from the tube prior to the chocolate material thickening past a viscosity threshold of the chocolate material.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.