Monday, October 18, 2010
Kitchen Gear Freshly Minted Technology: Inkjet Printing With Sugar
Posted by Dana Kopp Franklin on Mon, Oct 18, 2010 at 4:30 PM
Do-it-yourselfers do the darnedest things. Make magazine's blog features a fascinating gadget created by two members of the online RepRap Forum. (RepRap is decribed as "an open source/open hardware project with the goal of producing 3D rapid prototyping machines that can replicate themselves.")
If you've got an engineering inclination, you can chime in on the RepRap forum, as the creators continue to fine-tune the technology.
This intriguing geegaw is a homemade inkjet printer head that creates text in sugar instead of ink. It was constructed using a piezo buzzer as a control valve, whatever that means. The picture reminds me of the sugar-and-food-coloring letters you can buy in the grocery store to put on a birthday cake — but much, much cooler.
Go here to see the single-drop injection captured on video using a timed strobe.
Meanwhile, the Make blog also reports on an automatic cake decorator that is similar to a Spirograph for icing. The result is pictured left.
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