Method for rapidly making a 3-D food object
First Claim
1. A freeform fabrication method for making a three-dimensional food object from a design created on a computer, comprising:
- (a) providing a support member by which said object is supported while being constructed;
(b) operating a material dispensing head for dispensing a strand of a food composition in a fluent state, said food composition comprising a volatile ingredient and a primary body-building food material;
(c) operating a material treatment means disposed a distance from said strand of food composition to remove at least a portion of said volatile ingredient for causing said food composition to achieve a rigid state in which said food composition is capable of supporting its own weight while built up in a form of said three-dimensional object; and
(d) operating control means for generating control signals in response to coordinates of said design of said object created on the computer and controlling the position of said dispensing head relative to said support member in response to said control signals to control dispensing of said food composition to construct said object while supported with said support member.
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Abstract
A freeform fabrication method for making a three-dimensional food object from a design created on a computer, including: (a) providing a support member by which the object is supported while being constructed; (b) operating a material dispensing head for dispensing a strand of food composition in a fluent state with this food composition comprising a volatile ingredient; (c) operating a material treatment device disposed near the strand of food composition to at least partially remove the volatile ingredient for causing the food composition to achieve a rigid state in which the food composition is built up in a 3-D shape of the object; and (d) operating control devices for generating control signals in response to coordinates of the design of the object and controlling the position of the dispensing head relative to the support member in response to the control signals to control dispensing of the food composition for constructing the object while supported with the support member. The method optionally includes an additional step of removing the residual volatile ingredient from the resulting 3-D shape or applying a heat treatment to the 3-D shape upon construction of this shape.
104 Citations
37 Claims
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1. A freeform fabrication method for making a three-dimensional food object from a design created on a computer, comprising:
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(a) providing a support member by which said object is supported while being constructed;
(b) operating a material dispensing head for dispensing a strand of a food composition in a fluent state, said food composition comprising a volatile ingredient and a primary body-building food material;
(c) operating a material treatment means disposed a distance from said strand of food composition to remove at least a portion of said volatile ingredient for causing said food composition to achieve a rigid state in which said food composition is capable of supporting its own weight while built up in a form of said three-dimensional object; and
(d) operating control means for generating control signals in response to coordinates of said design of said object created on the computer and controlling the position of said dispensing head relative to said support member in response to said control signals to control dispensing of said food composition to construct said object while supported with said support member. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37)
creating a geometry representation of said three-dimensional object on a computer, said geometry representation including a plurality of segments defining said object;
generating programmed signals corresponding to each of said segments in a predeterminedsequence; and
moving said dispensing head and said support member relative to one another in response to said programmed signals.
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25. The freeform fabrication method of claim 16, wherein said moving step includes the step of moving said dispensing head and said support member relative to one another in a direction parallel to said plane according to a first determined pattern to form an outer boundary of said food composition on said support member, said outer boundary defining an exterior surface of said object.
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26. The freeform fabrication method of claim 25, wherein said outer boundary defines an interior space in said object, and said moving step further includes the step of moving said dispensing head and said support member relative to one another in said direction parallel to said plane according to at least one other predetermined pattern to fill said interior space with said food composition.
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27. The freeform fabrication method of claim 25, further including operating another dispensing head for dispensing a different food material composition, and wherein said outer boundary defines an interior space in said object, and said moving step further includes the step of moving said another dispensing head and said support member relative to one another in one direction parallel to said plane according to at least one other predetermined pattern to fill said interior space with said different food material composition.
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28. The freeform fabrication method of claim 26, further comprising the steps of creating a geometry representation of said three-dimensional object on a computer, said geometry representation including a plurality of segments defining said object, and generating programmed signals corresponding to each of said segments in a predetermined sequence, wherein said programmed signals determine said movement of said dispensing head and said support member relative to one another in said first predetermined pattern and said at least one other predetermined pattern.
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29. The freeform fabrication method of claim 1 wherein
the steps of operating a material dispensing head including dispensing a strand of a first food composition comprising a volatile ingredient in a fluent state to a predetermined location above said support member and dispensing a second strand of a second food composition comprising a volatile ingredient in a fluent state to at least another location above said support member; -
said step of operating a material treatment means including removing at least a portion of said volatile ingredient in said second food composition; and
said first and second strands of food compositions, once dispensed and with said volatile ingredients at least partially removed, rapidly reaching a physical state of a rigidity and strength sufficient for permitting said food compositions to be self-supporting while being built up layer by layer into a three-dimensional shape in a non-solid state; and
during said dispensing step, moving said dispensing head and said support member relative to one another in a plane defined by first and second directions and in a third direction orthogonal to said plane to form said first and second food compositions into a three-dimensional shape of said object.
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30. The method of claim 16, further including an additional step of substantially completely removing said volatile ingredient after said object is constructed.
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31. The method of claim 29, further including an additional step of substantially completely removing said volatile ingredient after said object is constructed.
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32. The method of claim 16, further including additional step of applying a heat treatment to said constructed three-dimensional shape.
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33. The method of claim 29, further including additional step of applying a heat treatment to said constructed three-dimensional shape.
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34. The method as set forth in claim 26 wherein said interior space is deposited with a spatially controlled food composition comprising two or more distinct types of body-building food materials.
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35. The method as set forth in claim 26 wherein said interior space is deposited with a food composition in continuously varying concentrations of distinct materials in three-dimensional object space to form a spatially controlled food composition object.
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36. The method as set forth in claim 34 wherein said distinct types of materials are deposited at discrete locations in three-dimensional part space to form a spatially controlled food material composition object.
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37. The method as set forth in claim 16, further comprising
periodically measuring dimensions of the object being built by means of dimension sensor means; determining the thickness and outline of individual layers of said food composition deposited in accordance with a computer aided design representation of said object;
said computer being operated to calculate a first set of logical layers with specific thickness and outline for each layer and then periodically re-calculate another set of logical layers after comparing the dimension data acquired by said sensor means with said computer aided design representation in an adaptive manner.
Specification