K3D
Assembly Line
The (silent) killer application of 3D printing is packaging your food
Despite numerous efforts and great expectations in futuristic segments such as alternative meat, chocolate and pasta, food 3D printing has not fully delivered on its initial promises. However, the food industry is also one of the biggest (and quietest) implementation areas for 3D printing. Many 3D printer manufacturers have tried to yell it out to the world that 3D printing can revolutionize the food and beverage industries, but many case studies went unnoticed. Unlike direct 3D printing of food products, the additive manufacturing of food and beverage packaging machinery parts is not as appetizing to the wider public as 3D printed chocolate or a pasta dish but it may be one of the killer applications that drive AM adoption.
The benefits of using 3D printing to make food & beverage industry machinery work better are self-evident. For one, food processing machines are highly complex mechanical assemblies that can have well over 2,000 components, many of which have to be stored in inventory and, as a result, cannot be modified easily once they are in production. Many of these parts are complex. Or complexity can be added to a part in order to simplify the machine’s work. This can be done with both metal and polymers, using various different processes and even a wide range of differently priced machines, from professional-level Formlabs and Ultimakers to industrial-level metal PBF and metal binder jetting systems.