Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
Brandon found that he was rapidly wasting precious crab powder due to
mechanical problems with the printer and the texture of the crab paste. After
the paste was printed, it would separate or fail to hold its shape once it left the
nozzle. As his valuable mixture was rapidly used up, Brandon realized that
maybe there was another way to experiment with the paste's material properties.
He needed a test material that would be similar in texture and behavior
to ground up crab shells. The answer turned out to be a blend of salt, lour,
sugar, butter and water. Or shortbread cookie dough. “I decided that if I can
make shortbread cookie dough that will hold its shape, that would help me
make tissue scaffolding to help burn victims grow back their skin,” Brandon
explained when I spoke to him on the phone.
“The nice thing about cookie dough is that it's cheap and easy to get,” said
Brandon. “My friends who are bakers thought it was an odd way to do research
but for me, it was a nice change to end up with shortbread cookies to eat at the
end of a long day in the lab,” he laughed. Brandon patched together a custom-
made food printer—a RepRap Prusa itted out with a MakerBot Frostruder—
plus some Luer locks, or nozzles used in medical devices.
Here's Brandon's recipe for 3D printed high-res shortbread:
1 cup of lour
½ cup of powdered sugar
Mix thoroughly
1 stick of butter
½ cup of honey
1 teaspoon of vanilla
¼-½ teaspoon of salt (optional)
Makes 10-15 50cc syringes print with Green Luer lock.
Bake 7-12 minutes at 350 degrees F
A printer “bakes” cookies by using a heated build platform that sits under
the print head. As each cookie is printed out, the heated platform bakes the
raw cookie dough. I like to call this type of baking “inline cooking.”
Even a simple shortbread cookie recipe is a complex engineering process.
Brandon described some of the challenges he faced. “Any baking soda, or bak-
ing powder causes rapid expansion. Water in the recipe will cause the printed
cookie to slump down and spread out.” And of course there's the aesthetic
component. “Finding the right balance between ease of printing and baking
resolution while maintaining taste was the hardest part,” said Brandon.
