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3D Printing Food via Frugal Engineering

Purdue Professor Ajay Malshe challenged his students to design a 3D food printer to deposit almond butter — with stipulations: It needed to be just six to seven parts and completely mechanical. “This teaches frugal engineering, which uses simple principles to achieve the highest goals,” he said.

“It needed to be just six to seven parts, and completely mechanical, with no need for electricity,” said Ajay Malshe  , the R. Eugene and Susie E. Goodson Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering. “This teaches frugal engineering, which uses simple principles to achieve the highest goals.”

Topics:
3D Printing & Additive Manufacturing Manufacturing & Prototyping

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    Transcript

    00:00:04 So this is a class for Introduction to  Additive Manufacturing. The challenge was given   that engineer a 3D food printer, only with  six to seven parts, completely mechanical.   The "ink," quote unquote ink, was given to print  was almond butter but used as an ink. And the   third part was to print "P", and printing "P" was  an important part to create an experience, because   food is very holistic for human life. Each design  was different. The first design created a design   which was a dot matrix-like printer. The second  printer had a piston that can print the ink,   just like an icing, and then they dispose  the plastic bag, but the rest of the parts   are not in contact with food. The third design  had multi-axis, so one hinge nozzle that can be   traced on a "P" letter shape, so if you just move  that nozzle, you can print the "P". It is a good   example of frugal engineering, and how you can  do with frugality, and achieve the highest goals.  

    00:01:07 This challenge was actually at the convergence  of multiple subjects. First, I wanted students   to be aware about their fellow students about  food insecurity. Because food insecurity on the   college campuses, starting at Purdue, is almost  of the order of more than 25 percent. And I wanted   students to know about their fellow students,  where the realities are. The second thing,   I also wanted them to learn how some of the  highest technology can be used for achieving   equity. Because if they can make a food printer  which is simple enough, frugal enough, that can   have really an existence at a food pantry, on the  college campus' lounges. So anybody can access   that food. How you can build the simple things,  with ingenuity, but for an impactful purpose.