Metal 3D Printing in the Food Industry

The Swiss Bühler group specializes in the mechanical industry, particularly in the manufacture of machines for the food industry. In 2018, the company joined forces with Haas-Meincke, a Danish machine manufacturer that produces cakes and cookies of all kinds. Some of the company’s machines are equipped with metal 3D-printed nozzles, offering more freedom in terms of design, complexity, and flexibility. The nozzles are made with metals compatible with food contact by the Danish Technological Institute, which is equipped with four metal 3D printers. Today, the Danish branch has gone further in its projects and uses metal additive manufacturing in the production of finished parts.

When we think of 3D printing in the food sector, we tend to imagine these small desktop FDM machines, capable of extruding dough or chocolate to design an original dish. And, there’s a healthy bit of hesitancy in the consumer market when it comes to eating 3D-printed. It is for this reason that we suggest that you move away from this concept and look at the food industry through another lens, in particular the “behind-the-scenes” of cookie production.

Bühler Meincke makes machines that produce cookies (Photo Credit: Bühler Meincke)

The Choice of Metal Additive Manufacturing

Bühler’s machines that make cookies today are equipped with nozzles from which the dough is extruded, just like the nozzle of an FDM 3D printer from which the plastic filament comes out. These nozzles have specific shapes depending on the imagined cakes. To manufacture them, Bühler went through manufacturing in several parts, assembled via a welding step thereafter; the shapes were too complex to be obtained by a milling process. However, the assembly phase adds additional constraints: by welding, we obtain joints in which bacteria can accumulate. A hell of a limit in the food sector.