Case study: A 3D chocolate making machine

You may well be aware of the 3D chocolate printer which has been in the news recently. Researchers in our College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences developed the machine which "prints" layers of chocolate instead of ink or plastic.

The project is being led by Dr Liang Hao, and is in collaboration with the Brunel University and software developer Delcam. It is funded as part of the Research Council UK Cross-Research Council Digital Economy Programme and is managed by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) on behalf of ESRC, AHRC and MRC.

3D printing is a technology where a three-dimensional object is created by building up successive layers of material. The technology is already used in industry to produce paper, plastic and metal products, but in this case the principles have been applied to chocolate.

The 3D chocolate printer was part of a swathe of research undertaken within the College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences which has lead directly to the establishment of the new Centre for Additive Layer Manufacturing (CALM).

You can read our full news story about the 3D chocolate printing technology here.

How RKT helped

Jim Grant from Research & Knowledge Transfer assisted Dr Liang Hao closely over a number of months, guiding Dr Hao through the RCUK Digital Economy Research in the Wild call for proposals, from initial sandpits to determine which single project from the University should be put forward, to detailed help with writing the grant application.

The Research in the Wild call was not focussed on basic research; instead the intention was to allow augmentation of previous research through further activities and practical tool and prototype development to take ideas closer to routes of adoption. It was therefore important in the application to distinguish precisely what the proposal was about in order to satisfy the objectives of the call. Dr  Hao was able to build on several years of previous work in additive layer manufacturing machine prototyping, and particularly the ChocALM machine which was undergoing development within the College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences. He was also able to engage his very real interest in the social and economic dynamic of user co-creation. In this respect the project focussed on the investigation of tools to empower users in the creation and sharing of their own designs for chocolate products and explored the growth of social networking as a medium for the exchange of information between creators. The exciting aspect for the sponsors was that this could create a mini-revolution in customer interaction raising their ability to interact / control design for manufacture.

RKT was instrumental in emphasising the social and economic impact of this research, and providing suitable focus on this, as well as the technical aspects of the project, in the bid. The underlying philosophy of the project was discussed at length to ensure the right balance was achieved between research and product development, and Jim Grant was further involved in drafting and further iteration of the Impact plan.

Although the Research Council Interview Panel was impressed, the application was not initially funded. Positive comments highlighted where further work was required and an invitation was extended to Dr Haoh to apply again at the full application stage. Despite short timescales, RKT worked on a new draft shaping it in the light of Panel comments and an application was resubmitted in March 2010 with additional team members from the Business School and EMPS. This (larger) project was successful.

Now that Dr Liang Ha's chocolate machine is receiving so much attention, RKT will also be assisting with the potential commercial exploitation and business opportunities of the technology.