Printing Video

Successful Printing (Week 7)

Completed Build

This week we finished the complete build. Here it is with new CNC machines and the pumping system loaded in the syringe. 

The black cylinder to the right is the air tank that would add pressure to the syringe to squeeze out the chocolate.










2D Print Test
This week, we finished putting together the chocolate delivery system and the CNC machine. After assembling, we were left with a chocolate 3D printer. To test out the moving function of the axes, the printer was test programmed to draw a simple square along the x-axis on a sheet of paper using a sharpie marker. The picture picture below shows the successful programmed square drawing.
Here is sample of the coding used to create this square:
G0 Z1
T0 M6
G17
M3
G0 X2.4672588832487308 Y2.4906091370558374
G1 Z-1 F800
G1 X7.548223350253807 Y2.489847715736041 F1500
G1 X7.548223350253807 Y7.571065989847716
G1 X2.467005076142132 Y7.571065989847716
G1 X2.467005076142132 Y2.489847715736041
G0 Z1
M5
M30

3D Chocolate Print Test
To test the chocolate delivery of the printer, we found the right amount of pressure to extrude the chocolate and we programmed the printer to make a hollow pyramid. The picture below shows the successful but flawed extrusion. The objective of printing out an object using chocolate was finally completed. Even though the chocolate pyramid was printed, the product drooped down because the layers did not dry fast enough and the chocolate was still soft. To improve the printing, the temperature of the printing environment will be adjusted to result in smoother surfaces. Also, the formula and temperature of the chocolate will be experimented with to find the best consistency for extrusion.

Chocolate Portion (Week 6)

Chocolate Delivery System

This week, nearly all of the parts has been delivered and we are able to create the chocolate deliver system. To the right is the apparatus containing the tank, a pressuring mechanism, and the delivery with the syringe. The syringe would be moved using the CNC machines to print out chocolate. Not pictured is a bike pump which would be used to add pressure to the tank, allowing chocolate to flow out.

Another important part of the project would be the actual chocolate that we are printing out. The challenging part of this is to get chocolate to be liquid inside the tank and solidifying rather quickly after being secreted. Since the tank is pressurized, the melting point of the chocolate is slightly lower than under normal conditions. This allows the chocolate to be in a liquid state in not-as-hot conditions. On the same coin, this might mean the chocolate can solidify easier after being under normal pressure. However, this pressurized effect might be negligible and a less hot chocolate solution might simply solidify in the tube leading up to the syringe.

http://static.jmslinks.com/
WebService/
ProdAdminImage.ashx?
id=95Chocolate Recipe

We are playing around with a recipe containing chocolate and coconut oil. Coconut oil is a saturated fat, meaning it is solid in room temperature. Adding this to the chocolate would make it more readily to solidify. We draw this inspiration from Smucker's Magic Shell Chocolate. This is a chocolate syrup designed as an ice cream topping.

This chocolate, as can be read from the image, "freezes" in seconds, meaning it would harden really quickly on ice cream. However, we are going for a process that would allow the chocolate to harden even though the platform isn't ice cold. We are still testing out what is the most optimal ratio of coconut oil to chocolate.

Fix ups

At the same time, we are fixing the printing portion of the printer. The CNC machines would be replaced shortly, and we hope to fix the wiring that would not cause the motors to heat up quickly. Also, we are trying to create a better code for printing out chocolate things.

A Speed Bump (Week 5)

This week, we finished wiring the the breadboard and it should correctly deliver the information to the CNC machines.

In this picture, it shows the wiring (in blue) from the Arduino to the breadboard. For the board, the yellow and red wires would run to the CNC machines.

Bad news

When wiring the board to the mounted CNC machines, there was a strange, screechy sound. In the video, the sound can be heard whenever we try to attach the wires. This was the case for two CNC machines, which are responsible for the x and z axis. These two specific CNC machines were from CD drives we salvaged from computers that were headed to the trash, so we believe that had to do with the faulty hardware. We should've tested the machines before we mounted as we have to back track and remove these faulty CNC machines on top of getting new CD drives for new CNC machines.

Better News

We only used two salvaged CD drives to make the CNC machines. For the y-axis, we used a CD drives we got from a store. Although these drives were refurbished, they were tested unlike the salvaged drives, so our y-axis CNC machine works.

We plugged in the y-axis machine and created a quick code that would move the CNC machine back and forth using the arrow keys. As the video to the right shows, the platform is alive and listens to our commands. 

However, we didn't get any breaks at all. The movement of the platform is very rigid so we need a way to lubricate the slider or see if there is any drag on the platform. On top of this, the motor of the CNC machine gets hot super fast. This means that we probably have a shorted wire and have to hunt it down to correct it.

Upcoming

The parts we ordered are coming in and it is really cool to deal with so many new parts. So far, we received the head plug, t-connect, pump, and syringes (we had to explain the syringes weren't paraphernalia for our new-found heroin addiction). We are excited to start the chocolate-delivery system part of the project. At the same time, we are going to have to play with different chocolate recipes to find one with the perfect properties that would allow it to be liquid inside the tank and harden really quick. 

On the side note, fixing the hardware quickly is paramount to getting our project back up to speed. Writing up a fully functional code would also be a project of itself. We have just a handful of weeks left and we are excited to see the final product.