3D Printed Pizza

Love homemade pizza, but hate the preparing everything? Meet Foodini. This 3D food printer is designed to automates some of the tedious cooking preparation process. For example, it can print individual ravioli instead of the cook having to make the dough and fill and assemble each individual piece themselves. Sure, it’s not fully-automated, but it definitely speed things up to say the least. Continue reading for more.

5. Epson EcoTank

Epson has unveiled a line of cartridge-free printers that use a refillable ink tank. The company claims it will cost a fraction of the price to fill it with ink. One caveat: consumers will have to pay a bit more for the printer ($400 starting), but Epson says it will still work out cheaper in the longer term, as ink savings alone could total $150 a year.

4. Erasable Printer

Toshiba is working on a revolutionary device that can erase printed text from regular paper, thanks to a special erasable toner. When the printed page is passed through the color erasing device, the ink disappears and the paper can be reused. A representative says, “This is a special kind of toner that loses its color when heated, so this technology makes it look as if the printing has disappeared. With this system, one sheet of photocopy paper can be used at least five times, so this product combines economy with ecology.”

3. Unborn Baby Model Printer

Fasotec and Hiroo Ladies clinic have teamed up to create 3D models of unborn babies during pregnancy. The model is generated using a special BioTexture technology, and it’s then fabricated by a 3D printer, which sprays two resins simultaneously – transparent for the mother’s body and white for the baby.

2. ChefJet Food Printer

First unveiled at CES 2014, 3D Systems’ ChefJet can print sugar, chocolate or candy in pretty much any design imaginable. To create these delectable treats, the printer needs water and dry powder ingredients. Now here is how it works: A rolling pin-like mechanism first spreads a fine layer of powder on the printing surface, an inkjet print head then sprays a narrow stream of water, drawing on the layer of sugar in whatever pattern the owner has pre-programmed, and lastly, when the water hits the powder, it recrystallizes, so that whatever the water touches hardens. This process is repeated layer-by-layer, building the treat from the bottom up, printing at the rate of a vertical inch each hour.

1. 3D Printing Pen

The 3Doodler is a 3D printing pen developed by Peter Dilworth and Maxwell Bogue of WobbleWorks LLC. This gadget uses plastic thread made of either acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (“ABS”) or polylactic acid (“PLA”) that is melted and then cooled through a patented process while moving through the pen, which can then be used to make 3D objects by hand. It’s been described as a glue gun for 3D printing because of how the plastic is extruded from the tip, with one foot of the plastic thread equaling “about 11 feet of moldable material”.

Author

A technology, gadget and video game enthusiast that loves covering the latest industry news. Favorite trade show? Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.