3D Printer Ice Cream

Ice cream comes in many forms. There are ice cream cones. Ice cream in a dish. Ice cream sundaes. Ice cream cakes and ice cream pies. Ice cream in milkshakes and ice cream in root beer floats.

But printed ice cream?

Yup. Kind of.

It’s 3D printed ice cream. Three students at MIT have created a 3D printing machine…for ice cream. Apparently the three hacked a 3D printer and hooked it up to an ice cream maker to create a device that can deliver soft-serve ice cream in 3D shapes. The three students say they designed the 3D ice cream printer to get kids excited about technology. They insist this was a way to get kids to ask questions about science and technology. It’s likely to get kids just as excited about ice cream that comes in a variety of shapes. This experiment also seems like it was a fun way to make some ice cream.

3D printing is the process of making three-dimensional objects from a digital file. It starts by making a virtual design of the desired object. It’s made in a computer file using a 3D modeling program.

Imaging trying to do this with ice cream. The MIT students had to “print” the ice cream in a cooled environment so that the ice cream would hold its shape once it was printed. They used a small freezer that was large enough to hold the printer and the finished 3D ice cream shape.

The students also used liquid nitrogen to hold the ice cream in place once it shot out of the 3D printer nozzle and into the desired. A lot of work for some cool-looking ice cream.

If you like your ice cream served up in more traditional fashion, stop by Praline’s. Summer is a great time to reintroduce yourself to great flavors like Beez Neez and Cookie Kaboom. No science lessons required.